Emma Durkin joins UBDS

Matthew Randall, recently promoted to head of HR for South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa at Haleon, has a soft spot for creating peace and seeing people grow into their potential. It is a passion he carries from the workplace to the football field, where he volunteers as a youth coach in Durban.

Jannes van Aswegen, HR executive at Innovation Group South Africa, believes that not every lightbulb moment happens under fluorescent boardroom lights because he has learnt that the quieter moments can be the most productive ones.

Sandi Richardson’s 13 years at RCS have taught her that organisational heritage should have a handover plan. For the chief people officer, that means sharing hard-earned knowledge, creating opportunities to grow and knowing what is worth carrying forward.

Jonathan Muthige, chief human capital and transformation officer and CEO for the Growth Markets division at Alexander Forbes, had spent much of his career looking after people. Then a stage-three prostate cancer diagnosis forced him to confront what happens when the person who has spent most of his career responsible for caring for others suddenly finds himself needing care too.

Architecture was Bianca Anthon’s first attempt at building better communities. More than two decades into HR, the HR director at Illovo Sugar South Africa is still driven by that same idea, only now she’s building organisations rather than buildings.

Helen Bredenkamp has always known a thing or two about performance because, long before becoming group head of people and culture at The Unlimited, she was immersed in performing arts.