GOODBYE, FINANCE HELLO, CHANGE

The CFO role has changed significantly over the last couple of years, and business is expecting a much more strategic partner to navigate the new normal. With ESG, technology and wellbeing becoming a non-negotiable for companies worldwide, finance leaders are trading their number crunching skills for new ones!

We caught up with three CFOs who have bid their finance roles goodbye and welcomed new opportunities to drive impactful change.

Punki, who most recently served as Absa’s interim FD while Jason Quinn temporarily took up the CEO role, became the bank’s chief strategy and sustainability officer in July 2022.

“The combination of strategy and sustainability in one role presents significant opportunities to bring about positive change in the economic, societal and environmental space. As a bank, we are aware of the role we play in contributing to sustainable development. One of the five key themes in our strategy is to be an active force for good in everything we do,” Punki said. “I’m excited about the potential that there is within our business to take bolder steps in making an even more meaningful contribution.”

She added that financial inclusion is among the areas where she sees significant scope for change that can have a positive impact at scale.

“It is important to assess where we are as Absa in the context of sustainability and to gain a deeper understanding of the external environment. We relook our strategy from time to time to ensure that it remains relevant and appropriate, or that it is adjusted where required, as our operating environment evolves and changes,” Punki explained. “ESG was elevated as a priority during a review of the strategy 2021, and a large part of my role will be to entrench and inculcate our commitment to sustainability more deeply within the organisation.”

She added that Absa had already made significant progress in several areas, including being the largest funder of renewable energy in South Africa.

Punki has also established a sustainability function within the group. “The new strategy and sustainability role brings added impetus in our drive to promote sustainability within our business so as to ultimately improve Absa’s performance and standing in this space. Our aim is not only to meet basic, or even benchmark requirements, but to outperform,” she said.

She explained that her approach will be to focus on the ‘E’ as much as the ‘S’ in ESG. “While our planet and its people undeniably face an existential question, we are conscious of the hierarchy of basic human needs in our communities in Africa, which generates a fraction of global greenhouse gases. In this context, we will be socially responsible as much as we are environmentally responsible.”

Punki added that, “As we consider the broad range of issues within the strategy and sustainability portfolio, another important focus for me is to help lift the perception of Absa as an attractive employer among talent across profiles.”

As she starts to mobilise the new function, Punki hopes to bring insights to the respective business units to enable them to respond more strongly to strategy and sustainability challenges.

For the last three years, Buhle has been the CFO of automotive company BAIC SA. After meeting with the BDO team to discuss a possible career opportunity, she knew it was time to see what else is out there.

“I met up with the team running the business restructuring division,” Buhle explained. “I had worked with them before while I was working at the IDC, when they were our business rescue practitioners. After our conversation, I was hooked.”

While it might be daunting to take on a new role, in a new industry, Buhle is looking forward to being the COO at BDO Business Restructuring. “It gives me the opportunity to be on the other side of the business. I’ve always been the funder, now I’ll be driving operations, restructuring and turning around businesses.”

She added: “I hope I’ll learn a lot about how different businesses work, and how entrepreneurship can be improved in South Africa.”

The new role, however, isn’t completely different from her role as CFO. “The majority of the work will be analysing the financial status of these companies,” Buhle explained. “Every business is started to make a profit. The minute it makes a loss is when you have to worry. My job will be to think about how we can turn those losses around and how to improve the revenue line to ensure the business is sustainable.”

Because of this, Buhle will be bringing a lot of her learnings from her previous role. “I’ll use what I’ve learnt to analyse whether the financially distressed businesses are worth saving and then turn them around.”

Buhle began her career in accounting at a competitor firm in 2005, spending four years there until she moved on to Nedbank as a credit manager. She then took up the senior credit evaluation manager role at Standard Bank before becoming the senior business rescue specialist and team leader at the Industrial Development Corporation. In 2020, Buhle was appointed as the CFO at BAIC SA.

As a nod to her leadership skills, she serves as the non-executive director for multiple organisations including Transaction Capital, OUTsurance Holdings and its subsidiaries, Safcol, and while previously filling the role for Shishangeni Private Lodge, Windtown SA and BioDX Biological Chemical Technologies. Additionally, Buhle is the board chair of Summit Africa Private Equity and an Investment committee member of Mahlako Fund Financial Services.

Buhle holds memberships at The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa (IoDSA), and South African Restructuring and Insolvency Practitioners (SARIPA).

2022 CFO Awards nominee and CFO Boitumelo became the first African woman CEO of the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) in April. “I am humbled to be stepping into this office to serve my country and my continent,” she said.

Boitumelo is passionate about people and looks forward to ensuring that employees are armed with all the tools, capacity and support they need to excel. “Equally important are the people who benefit from the work we do – actively paying attention to their needs to ensure that we are fit for purpose in the infrastructure we deliver,” she added.

“In this role, I hope to bring that passion into every room I walk into and, together with the DBSA team, continue to ignite transformative change towards better livelihoods in our country and across the continent,” Boitumelo explained.

Boitumelo took up the new role on 1 April following a “seamless” handover process that kicked off in February. She joined the DBSA in 2013, but briefly left the bank in 2016 to serve as CFO at the South African Bureau of Standards, then returned to the DBSA as CFO in 2018.

“I look forward to continuing to work closely with our shareholders, the Minister of Finance and the National Treasury, as well as our partners, which includes government departments, commercial banks, other DFIs, policy makers and influencers, service providers, and our clients,” she said.

Boitumelo has experience working in the finance departments for companies like Citigroup, Life Healthcare, Triumph Venture Capital and EY. She holds a BCom Accounting Degree, a post graduate diploma in accounting, and a higher diploma in auditing from the University of Cape Town. She is a qualified CA(SA) and also holds an advanced management certification from the Harvard Business School. l