It remains to be seen whether the group plans to appoint a new CHRO.
Muriel Sokkie currently occupies the top HR role at Alexander Forbes as the Head of Human Resources, Empowerment and Transformation. Appointed in October 2018, Muriel is a seasoned HR professional with over 20 years of Human Capital experience in roles of increasing complexity. Her career spans various industries, including infrastructure, property management, financial services and mining. Prior to her current role, Muriel spent two years as the divisional HR Director of Liberty Group and about four years at Marsh, where she was the HR executive director for Africa. She also held senior HR leadership roles at General Electric and Nielsen.
It is currently unclear whether there has been a restructuring of the HR function or if the company plans to appoint a new Chief HR Officer to take over the role vacated by Christian Schaub resigned towards the end of 2018.
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Muriel has joined Alexander Forbes at a tumultuous time for the South African insurance-services provider, with a total of seven executive managers reported to have left the organisation since the ousting of former CEO Andrew Darfoor in September.
The list of those that have left the organisation since then includes; Group CFO Naidene Ford-Hoon, the aforementioned Christian Schaub, Alexander Forbes Investments CEO Leon Greyling, group chief risk officer Vishnu Naicker, former chief information officer John Mather, and more recently Tony Powis, the CEO of Alexander Forbes’s corporate and employee benefits division and Sugendhree Reddy, who was the head of retail financial services,
The spate of executive exits occurred while Alexander Forbes was halfway through the implementation of a turnaround program known as Ambition 2022, but it is clear that the company is now undergoing a change in direction regarding the strategy going forward.
