NTT Data MEA appoints Vanessa Goonahsylin as people & culture lead

Sphumelele Khumalo 21 April 2026

Vanessa Goonahsylin has stepped into a new role as executive head of people & culture for South Africa at NTT Data MEA.

Her appointment follows a 13-year tenure at Accenture, where she most recently served as HR director. Prior to that, she held the role of Africa talent lead and talent futurist.

Earlier in her career, Vanessa spent over eight years at Gijima, where she held roles including capability and capacity planning consultant and human capital manager for staffing services. During this time, she focused on resource optimisation, workforce planning, and the development of staffing frameworks to support business needs.

Vanessa holds a postgraduate qualification in management practice from Henley Business School and a bachelor’s in industrial psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

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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