ALI Fellow Konehali Gugushe (Class X: XSeed) has been appointed as CEO of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Trust. Her tenure started on the 4th of March 2020. She joins the Fund in the year of its 25th anniversary. Konehali’s responsibilities will include strengthening Madiba’s vision for his legacy organisations for children (the Fund, the Trust and NMCH) by promoting synergies, collaboration, sustainability and alignment. “We are confident that Ms Gugushe’s wealth of experience and reputable leadership qualities will guide the Fund’s strategic focus at this critical milestone whilst building on the vision of our Founder,” said the Fund.
Konehali has a passion for African development and youth empowerment. Much of her career thus far has been dedicated to developing corporate governance and social responsibility for the benefit of children and communities across the region. Kone believes in a people-centred approach to leadership. Her tenacity has paved her journey, cultivating meaningful relationships throughout her professional career whilst taking on diverse roles.
Kone is a development chartered accountant by profession, with more than 20 years’ working experience, spanning over the financial services sector and development finance. After graduating from Rhodes University and the University of Natal, she commenced her career with serving articles at the audit firm Moores Rowland in Cape Town, following this with a secondment at their New York office, gaining valuable international exposure to the US auditing environment. On completion of articles, she worked at various banks including Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank (now Standard Bank CIB), JP Morgan and Nedbank, gaining experience in credit risk management and investment analysis. She also gained exposure to private equity management through her time at Safika Holdings.
With a passion for development, Kone spent five years heading up the Nedbank Foundation, the primary CSI arm of the Nedbank Group. During this time, she had the opportunity to drive the CSI strategy of the bank, which mainly aimed to make the group a catalyst for upliftment in our communities, with a major emphasis being placed on sustainability. Following her time at Nedbank, Kone expanded her development finance experience when she joined the Land Bank as the Chief Risk Officer in 2015. While her primary responsibilities related to the identification, mitigation and management of all risks for the bank, Kone also emerged as quite a dynamic leader for the bank, capable of being deployed to various other areas including acting company secretary, acting chief financial officer and acting chief executive officer.
Through her career, Kone has developed a broad range of technical expertise and strong leadership qualities. Not only does she have a holistic understanding of the risk and governance issues impacting organisations, but she is also committed to good governance, active stakeholder management and leading with integrity. Kone’s vision is to be an active participant in shaping a better future for generations to come, particularly contributing towards better social cohesion and community development.
ALI would like to wish Kone all the best in her new role.
