Janis Rosenberg FCG, LLB, LLM, EO

Janis is an admitted attorney. For a period of 12 years, she worked for Exxaro Resources Ltd, six of those in the office of the corporate secretariat, as assistant group company secretary. Janis’ professional skills also include contract negotiation, contract life-cycle management, procurement management, supply chain risk and vendor management having served in the supply chain function for six years. Prior to this, she was a legal researcher at the Community Law Centre (now the Dullah Omer Institute for Constitutional Law) in the local government project. She also lectured commercial procedures law part-time at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Her published works include topics of gender diversity at local government level and co-operative local government. As a certified ethics officer with The Ethics Institute, matters of ethics governance and the effective management thereof, is her particular area of practice.

Leigh Roos FCG

Leigh is the local company secretarial representative and deputy information officer for Bid Corporation Ltd (Bidcorp), an international broadline foodservice group, where she supports and facilitates the functioning of the Bidcorp board and its subsidiaries. Leigh has over 20 years’ experience in the company secretarial field, having served as regional company secretary at Bidvest prior to Bidcorp’s unbundling from the Bidvest group, assistant company secretary at Netcare and prior to that, was a member of the JSE’s company secretarial team. Leigh has considerable company secretarial and corporate governance experience and wider exposure to accounting, regulatory compliance, risk management, assurance processes and sustainability.

Simon Akala FCG, MBA

Simon serves as the chair of the CGISA professional practice group (PPG) committee. He is a value driven professional in finance, risk management, governance, and financial controls. Simon is currently a director at Miteyo Investment Consulting and Projects. Prior to this his professional career spanned over 35 years in Sub-Saharan Africa out of which he spent 31 years at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank. He has a strong record in implementation of consistent and robust financial management and administrative processes enabling effective and efficient delivery of programs and projects activities in Sub-Saharan Africa. He also has deep knowledge of implementation and management of trust funds and grants including compliance with donor administrative agreements and institutional policies and procedures.

Deolinda is vice president of CGISA. She is a skilled professional with a strong background in travel, finance, and corporate governance. Starting her career at Nedbank, Deolinda gained valuable experience in finance before transitioning to the travel industry with Holiday Holdings. She quickly rose through the ranks and became an executive director of Holiday Holdings and Holiday Aviation. Later, she joined Comair Ltd and in due course became the general manager of their travel businesses.  After the sale of Comair's travel businesses, Deolinda took on the role of general manager at the Holiday Travel Group, where she oversees various business units including the tour operator, corporate and leisure travel agent, as well as the loyalty and rewards business.

Sonia Giuricich FCG (Acc)

Sonia is past president of CGISA and the chair of the finance and risk committee. Sonia is also a PPG member. For the last 20 years she has managed an accounting, tax, and company secretarial practice, which has some large clients. She worked at Anglo American for six years and at Total SA for three years in accounting and internal auditing.

Cathie Lewis FCG, Admitted attorney and conveyancer, LLM (Law of Contract), LLM (Corporate Law), MSt in Sustainability Leadership

Cathie served on the CGISA technical committee until June 2023. She is the Head of ESG at GCX, a data analytics and sustainability solutions company, specialising in ESG, carbon and waste.  She has over 28 years’ experience in governance, legal and sustainability, of which 11 has been as a group company secretary in the listed environment. She started her career lecturing in law and communication, and thereafter practised as an attorney and conveyancer for own account and advised as inhouse legal counsel.

Her fields of experience include general legal and commercial work, governance, legal compliance, company secretariat, integrated reporting, ethics, ESG, sustainability and climate change. She is a member of the Working Group of the Integrated Reporting Committee of SA, and convener for the ESG Reporting Working Group of the ESG Exchange.

Fiona Maskell FCG, BSc (Hons), BSc

Fiona serves on the CGISA social and ethics committee. Since 2007, Fiona has served as company secretary of Munich Reinsurance Company of Africa, a wholly owned subsidiary of the German global reinsurance group, Munich Re, where she meets the needs of the board of directors and shareholder, and the company’s statutory requirements. Previous to being a company secretary professional, Fiona worked as an analyst computer programmer in software development.

Sandile Mbhamali FCG, RA(SD) (Eswatini)

Sandile is president of CGISA and chair of the social and ethics committee. Sandile is currently chief financial officer at Likhwane Beneficiary Fund. Sandile was the company secretary and management accountant at Robinson Bertram Attorneys, where he advised on tax and finance issues, performed all company secretarial functions, and supervised the accounts department. Sandile founded the first beneficiary fund in Eswatini, Likhwane Beneficiary fund. He previously occupied positions at Swaziland Electricity Company as senior credit controller. Sandile’s professional skills include lecturing in corporate governance, risk management experience and an in-depth knowledge of King IV.

Lindelwa Mngomezulu FCG, LLM, LLB

Lindelwa serves on the CGISA technical committee. Lindelwa is the company secretary of MTN Group Fintech. Prior to this, she served in similar roles for Rand Mutual Assurance, ATNS SOC Ltd, Woolworths (Pty) Ltd and Sasol South Africa. Lindelwa has spent over 15 years in the legal environment as a director, attorney and legal manager. She has worked for multinational companies and state entities and has significant legal experience acquired while she practised as an attorney, servicing clients in the public sector and private sector such as banks, regulators, state entities, multinational companies and companies listed on the JSE. Her exposure includes providing legal and governance advice on corporate transactions, drafting commercial agreements, construction agreements, participating in arbitration proceedings, litigation in the high court and the supreme court.

Stephen Sadie MBA, M. Ed, BA (Hons), HDip in Education PG

Stephen is CEO of CGISA. Stephen serves on the King committee, the global council of CGI and the global council of CSIA. He played an instrumental role in helping to reform the governance of CGI and also served on the CGI steering committee, which developed a new curriculum. Prior to joining CGISA, Stephen held a number of senior positions in the education sector. He was Director: Strategic Support at the South African Qualifications Authority. He was also Director: Research and School Improvement at the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance, which was responsible for training 2000 school governing bodies in Gauteng. Prior to that, Stephen was Chief Education Specialist: Curriculum Delivery and Support of the Johannesburg East District of the GDE, which was responsible for 120 schools. Stephen regularly presents at various corporate governance conferences and also writes prolifically on corporate governance matters.