Lotus Bakeries appoints Elke Mackridge as head of HR

Sphumelele Khumalo 09 July 2026

After more than three years leading the people function at Pragma Global, Elke Mackridge has been appointed head of HR South Africa at Lotus Bakeries.

Elke joins the global bakery company after serving as CHRO at Pragma Global.

Before joining Pragma, she spent nearly seven years at MANE, progressing through HR leadership roles as HR development manager and registered industrial psychologist from 2016 before being promoted to HR project manager and registered industrial psychologist in 2021.

Earlier in her career, Elke built a strong foundation at Shoprite, where she completed her industrial psychology internship and took on personnel officer and regional personnel manager roles.

Academically, she holds a master of commerce in industrial and organisational psychology, a BCom honours in industrial psychology and a BCom in industrial psychology and entrepreneurship from Stellenbosch University.

Sphumelele Khumalo

Sphumelele Khumalo is the senior writer for CHRO South Africa. With a background in health journalism, she brings a passion for storytelling and an interest in exploring the human side of every story, one word at a time. When she’s not meeting deadlines, you might find her experimenting in the kitchen, or chasing sunsets.

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