IoDSA Governance Specialist

Former Managing Executive: Company Secretary – Vodacom Group Limited. Sandi joined Vodacom in December 2008 against the backdrop of a corporate action driven by Telkom and Vodafone which would culminate in the listing of Vodacom on the JSE. Sandi assisted with the listing – preparation of the pre-listing statement and prepared the senior leadership team for listing (training & education as what it means to be listed) as well as worked with Vodafone, the controlling shareholder, in the set-up of the governance structures: size & skills required on the board, committees, selection of independent board members, board charter and terms of reference for the committees.  As the managing executive in charge of the secretarial function, Sandi was also the group company secretary, managed a team, and was responsible for board meeting management, statutory administration, shareholder management, director support, listings requirements, executive share scheme and corporate governance. She provided guidance in an advisory role to Vodacom’s international business (which operations are situated in 5 different markets in Africa) and was a member of the Vodafone International Working Forum in respect of the corporate secretariat stream. Sandi had responsibility for the Ethics portfolio where she was responsible for ethics awareness and training at Vodacom as well as dealing with conflicts of interest and providing guidance to the Vodacom team around doing what’s right. More latterly Sandi also drove the ESG programme at Vodacom. 

Prior to joining Vodacom, Sandi spent just over a year at Telkom SA Limited where she was tasked with setting up a more structured company secretarial department, training and development of the secretarial team as well as tidy up of the governance structures where she refined the board charter, introduced terms of reference for the various board committees, educated the Telkom team on closed periods and other listings requirements and governance practices that had not yet been formally introduced. 

Sandi developed her early career in Durban as a company secretary with the Frame Group under the guidance of Mervyn King who was chairman of Frame at the time.  After spending some four years at Frame, Sandi relocated to Johannesburg and joined Bill Venter’s Altron Group. As group secretary of Altron, Sandi had overall responsibility for some 7 listed companies. Sandi spent some 12.5 years with Altron where she was exposed to a variety of disciplines, in particular corporate finance documentation, investor relations, human resources and employee benefits. Sandi is also the former group company secretary of Murray & Roberts where she was responsible for the statutory administration and secretarial affairs of some 500 companies locally and maintained a monitoring brief in respect of the offshore structure where companies were situated in the United Kingdom, Canada, Middle East and Australia. 

BOARD EXPERIENCE
34 Years Company Secretarial experience of which 32 years were at senior executive level.
3 Years as a Director of the Chartered Governance Institute of Southern Africa

DESIGNATIONS & QUALIFICATIONS
FCIS
PMD (Cape Town)
Dip HR Management

 

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Board management
• Corporate governance
• Stock exchange requirements
• Statutory administration
• Ethics awareness and training
• ESG awareness
• Corporate finance documentation

PREVIOUS GOVERNING BODY AND PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS HELD

• Former director of the Chartered Governance Institute of Southern Africa
• Former chairman of the Technical Committee of the Chartered Governance Institute of Southern Africa