Deloitte Africa announced on Monday, November 15, the appointment of Ruwayda Redfearn as the new CEO of the group. She will take office on June 1, 2022 and will succeed Lwazi Bam, who will step down on May 31, 2022, after ten years in the position. He was appointed in June 2012. The Deloitte Africa board will also be led by a woman, Delia Ndlovu, current managing director of Deloitte Africa, tax and legal.
“Redfearn is Deloitte Africa’s first female CEO and its fourth consecutive black CEO. The appointment of two women to the positions of CEO and chairman is a historic moment for Deloitte Africa,” the british group says.
Deloitte Africa, part of the multinational auditing firm Deloitte, has just under 7,000 professionals in Africa. Deloitte Africa has offices in 12 African countries, with a current presence in 17 countries and the capacity to serve 52 nations on the continent.
Ruwayda Redfearn is the current chairman of the board of Deloitte Africa. She is also a member of Deloitte’s global board of directors (Deloitte Global). She began her career as an intern in Deloitte’s Durban office in 1997. After a secondment to New York, she returned to Durban as a manager and was appointed partner in 2004. In 2010, she was promoted to head the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) regional audit practice, serving some of the region’s most prestigious clients. During this time, Deloitte says, Redfearn also chaired the Global Young Partner Advisory Council, which reported to Deloitte’s global CEO.
Ruwayda Redfearn was appointed to the Deloitte Southern Africa board and compensation committee in 2011. In 2012, she joined Grindrod, a global commodity trading company, where she served as CFO at for three years, gaining invaluable experience, serving on the board of several group companies.
She returned to Deloitte in 2015 as the office managing partner for the KZN region and managed the East Coast risk advisory practice.
Ruwayda Redfearn was appointed to the Deloitte Africa board in 2016 and chaired the firm’s compensation committee, as well as serving as a member of the performance, rewards, succession and nomination committee.
Having spent time both in the profession and in business and industry, Ruwayda Redfearn ,it is explained, brought an outside perspective to the position. She is also known for her ability to build and maintain strong relationships and networks, for her strength in a crisis and for her ability to make tough and bold decisions.
Ruwayda Redfearn is a graduate of the University of Natal and is a Chartered Accountant in South Africa (SA).
In accepting the position, Ruwayda Redfearn said: “I am honored to be appointed to this position and am delighted to be part of another first in the history of Deloitte Africa. I am excited to be able to be at the forefront of change in our profession, the services we provide, and the clients we serve. I look forward to working with our people and clients to address the increasingly complex challenges facing society, including social inequality, climate change, and economic inequality.”
Managing director of Deloitte Africa’s tax and legal practice
For her part, since June 2018, Delia Ndlovu has been the managing director of Deloitte Africa’s tax and legal practice. A senior executive member of Deloitte Africa, she is responsible for driving growth and digitally transforming Deloitte’s tax and legal practice in Southern, East and West Africa. She has a staff of 613 and 49 partners reporting to her across Africa.
Delia Ndlovu is responsible for growing the tax and legal practice in Africa. She works with major African multinationals, including in the oil and gas, TMT and financial services sectors.
Previously, Ndlovu served as Head of Global Employer Services, providing the full range of mobility and tax services to large multinationals. This involved providing the full range of mobility services, including helping clients formulate or streamline their mobility strategies, employment taxes and executive compensation. It also involved implementing the global suite of technology tools to help clients manage governance and risk related to employment taxes, expatriates and business travelers.
Prior to that, from September 2010 to January 2013, Delia Ndlovu was Tax Manager, Africa Desk at Deloitte Africa, based in Johannesburg. In this role, she led Deloitte’s Africa Tax Desk from January 2013 to May 2014. This role involved coordinating the efforts of the Deloitte network in Africa to assist clients in setting up shop on the African continent.
Long before that, Delia Ndlovu was Tax Manager: Africa Lead at Deloitte UK, where she was responsible for the Africa initiative for the Global Employer Services team to provide tax advice, maintain compliance and improve tax planning in various UK multinationals with business interests in Africa. She was also responsible for coordinating the efforts of colleagues from Deloitte member firms in Africa to ensure that clients receive the best and most seamless tax service across Africa.
Delia Ndlovu was also responsible for planning and coordinating events to showcase the firm’s capabilities in Africa to clients. This primarily involved presenting at customer seminars in the UK and Europe, building relationships with key customer service partners and formulating strategies to add value to customers. She also managed external relations with the High Commissioners of African Embassies and handled proposal preparations for major tenders. These various activities enabled her to win major clients, creating an annuity income for the company, and to establish client relationships in the African market.
Delia Ndlovu started her career at Deloitte Africa in 1997 as a Manager, before being appointed successively as Tax Manager, Senior Tax Manager, Tax Director and Tax Director: Head of Global Employer Services, before holding the senior positions described above.
Delia Ndlovu holds an MBA (Master of Business Administration), Financial and Business Management, from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, the largest and most prestigious university in South Africa.
Delia Ndlovu said: “I am honored by this appointment. The growing importance of governance in business, coupled with our critical role as a public interest professional services firm, requires that we lead by example in governance. I look forward to continuing to strengthen our corporate governance framework and leading the Deloitte Africa board as it responds to a variety of challenges, including environmental, social and governance (ESG).”
