Speaker Bio
An accomplished pan-African business executive with over two decades of experience across diverse industries. She currently serves as the Vice President for the Southern & East Africa region of the MTN Group, one of Africa's largest telecommunications companies, where she leads strategic growth and transformation initiatives across multiple African countries. Her diverse professional background, which encompasses the telecommunications, financial services, and diversified services and investment sectors, has equipped her with a unique skill set and a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in these industries. Her transformational leadership style is characterised by a strong focus on innovation, driving growth, customer-centricity, and operational excellence.
Yolanda was one of the youngest CEOs of a JSE-listed company at the age of 29 years and has been recognised as CEO/Business Personality of the Year by multiple platforms over her 20-year working experience and Businesswomen of The Year by SAICA. She was also selected by the World Economic Forum as one of the Young Global Leaders and named one of the Choiseul 100 Africa by Institut Choiseul (France).
She has served as a non-executive director on the boards of numerous JSE-listed companies, including Absa Group, where she was the longest-serving member for 12 years until her resignation in 2019. She currently holds board positions with MTN Rwanda, MTN Zambia, MTN South Sudan, MTN Uganda, DECI Investments, Mascom Wireless, Chenosis, and VW Group Africa
Yolanda is a Chartered Accountant (CA/SA) and holds BCom Statistics (University of Cape Town), BCom Accounting Honours (University of KZN) and MCom (University of Pretoria) degrees and she is an alumnus of programs at INSTEAD, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School.
She is passionate about unlocking the potential of people and organizations and is committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, collaboration and continuous improvement. Yolanda served on the Advisory Board of Stellenbosch University Business School, is the founder of the Cuba-Mtyi Foundation, served on the Nelson Mandela Foundation Investment Committee since 2006 and in 2022 has been appointed as a Trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
She is also the founder of The Mentorship Boardroom, a platform for mentorship where trailblazers mentor the next leaders in Africa. The Mentorship Boardroom aims to impact 1,000,000 lives in Africa, of which 70% should be women and children.