Julia Modise is the new HR director at BMW Group South Africa

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.

The 2026 Executive Day did not waste time getting executives comfortable. On 3 September, CHROs, CFOs and CIOs were thrown straight into conversations with people they may never otherwise have met, networking in true Executive Community style before diving into the bigger questions shaping leadership, technology and the future of work.

You don't have to love basketball to understand what excites Nyameka Semenya, senior HR director at NBA Africa. For her it’s all about what happens when thousands of strangers rally behind one team, young people discovering a new sport, and communities finding connection by a shared love of the game.

Jabu Mahange, group HR executive at Famous Brands, sees policies as only valuable when they help a business perform, not when they are treated as immovable rules, filed neatly in ring binders and dusted off when something goes wrong.