In a first for FirstRand, the banking institution has announced that Mary Vilakazi will become the lender’s first woman CEO.
Vilakazi will replace Alan Pullinger, who has been with company for 26 years and at its helm for the last five years.
So who is Vilakazi?
She was born and raised in Alexandra in Johannesburg. Speaking to CFO South Africa in 2016, she said that growing up she was by no means the smartest kid, but took advantage of the opportunities she was given.
“There were children that were a lot smarter than me. They never benefited from tertiary education, while I got lucky and got exposure to some education programmes,” Vilakazi said.
She was part of a Gifted Child Programme and later received a bursary from PwC to study for a Bachelor of Commerce degree. She graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1999 and was a qualified chartered accountant by 2002.
In 2005 she became one of the youngest partners at PWC, at only 27-years-old. After leaving PwC in 2008, it should be noted that she took the position of CFO of the Mineral Services Group.
In 2009 she served as a non-executive on the board of Metropolitan. And in 2014 she had become an executive at Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Limited (MMI).
Vilakazi served on the boards of several companies that include Kagiso Media Limited, MS Group subsidiaries, Holdsport Limited and the Development Bank of South Africa.
At MMI she was the CEO of Balance sheet management and became Group Chief Financial officer in 2015. In 2017 she became deputy CEO of the group.
In 2018 she was named as the Chief Operating Officer of the FirstRand group.
At the group, she has been behind the bank’s diversification strategies in the insurance and investment management divisions.
According to BNN Bloomberg, she has also been in charge of creating oversight for regulatory and enterprise risk management activities across FirstRand.
Now she will be the the first women at the helm of FirstRand. On her appointment, Vilakazi said that was “delighted to be entrusted to lead one of the largest and most profitable financial institutions in Africa”.
WORK ETHIC AND HER MOM
In her interview with CFO South Africa, Vilakazi spoke of her mom as her main form of support and constant source of inspiration.
“When I grew up, she was a bookkeeper and was always very supportive. She worked as a creditors and debtors clerk and was completely self-taught. She did a lot of courses to stay up-to-date. She is very entrepreneurial and very hard working to this day.
“Instead of pocket money, my mother gave me lollipops and amaskopas (coloured popcorn popular in townships), to sell on the street during my holidays. The profit was my pocket money, but I soon realised I could buy more packets from my income and sell those too. At the time I thought it was unfair that other kids got pocket money and I didn’t, but I liked selling and it was exciting to turn R100 into R300.”
ROLE MODEL
It is hard not to look at Vilakazi as a role model or someone to emulate in a corporate environment.
On the subject, she said that being a role model was something that was very close to her heart.
“I want to use my influence and make a difference in people’s lives, especially young black women. I am part of various networks, have individual relations with people and am also involved in some trusts in the fields of education and entrepreneurship.”
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