Dynamic businesswomen in line for awards
WITH the final judging process of the 16 Businesswomen’s Association of Port Elizabeth (BWA) Investec Regional Business Achiever Awards (RBAA) completed, the tough job of choosing the category winners now takes place.
The 16 finalists are nominated in six categories and the winners will be announced at a celebratory gala dinner on Tuesday.
The judging panel, consisting of past RBAA winners and influential business leaders in Nelson Mandela Bay, is independent and the judging process is audited.
The awards are made up of six categories – Emerging Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, Social Entrepreneur, Corporate, Professional and Government.
Today, we focus on the finalists in the first two categories:
EMERGING ENTREPRENEUR
Zanele Diniso is the owner of Periwinkle Home Executives, a corporate and domestic cleaning company founded in December 2012.
Diniso was born and raised in New Brighton and considers herself to be a “self-starter, hard worker and persistent”.
Periwinkle Home Executives has received national media coverage on television and radio. Sandisiwe Kiti is passionate about education, as well as people development through empowerment, self-actualisation and self-leadership.
Her underdeveloped career in the corporate world led to the birth of her business, Mayihlome Human Capital Solutions.
Kiti specialises in human capital development and is an education training and development practitioner.
She is also establishing a career for herself as a career development coach.
Last year, Kelly Ferreira launched the Khula Kids Education Brand, as she saw the need to focus on appropriately preparing children for life in our highly competitive, fast-paced society. Ferreira began her journey by constructing the learn-through-play programme that she offers at Khula Kids Playschool.
Khula means “grow” in Xhosa, and Ferreira is working symbiotically with schools, organisations and parents towards promoting holistic, wholesome and happy growing and learning experiences for pupils.
ENTREPRENEUR
Sarah Will was born and educated in the UK and moved to South Africa in 2010.
Being a single mother and owning a successful business is hard work and has many challenges but Will believes it is also incredibly rewarding.
Through her salon, Bliss Hair Design, she has met some amazing people and has been able to achieve many milestones at the business while making some wonderful memories.
Riana Ferreira is the director of Collect a Debt (Pty) Ltd, a company that provides debt recovery and tracing solutions locally, nationally and internationally on a “no collection – no fee” basis.
She created an entire new business model that she has found to be most appealing and attractive to her clients.
She was the first woman appointed by the minister of justice to serve on the national regulatory body, the Council for Debt Collectors, a position she held successfully for 13 years.
Helen Mentzel is the founder of Profiles Health Club and over the past 22 years she has grown it to become the largest privately owned health club in the Eastern Cape.
It has changed considerably in the past 10 years from being a fitness club to a health club of international standards, employing 45 people and with a membership base of 6 000.
Behind Profiles’ success are her passion, energy and drive to inspire and motivate people.