Women in Leadership: What South African CEO learned from taking the reins during COVID

To mark Women's History Month and International Women's Day, we're bringing you a special series of the ESG Insider podcast focused on women in leadership, featuring interviews with women CEOs and executives from across industries and around the globe.

In this episode, we're speaking to Jackie van Niekerk, CEO of South African real estate investment trust Attacq, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Attacq has a majority of women employees from executive leadership right through the business and tries to create an environment for women to succeed, Jackie tells us.

"It's not a perfect science, but we really try to encourage that you can be a mom, you can be a wife, you can be a partner, and you can still have a beautiful career," she says.

Jackie took on the CEO role during COVID-19, and she talks about the lessons she learned from leading through the pandemic.

"I really started listening to my people, to my clients, understanding what are you actually going through, learning how to pause and then implement," she says. "And that's the greatest thing I got out of COVID, and it's really, really helped me become a leader that's for the people and not just for the numbers."

Diversity in leadership has received increasing attention in recent years from stakeholders in the sustainability world. Investors have pushed for diversity on company boards and management teams, and in some parts of the world, that push has extended to laws and regulations. But the number of women in top roles remains low. Read recent research from S&P Global on women in leadership here: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/insights/featured/special-editorial/women-ceos-leadership-for-a-diverse-future

And here: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/insights/featured/special-editorial/the-path-to-gender-parityy

You can listen to previous episodes in our Women in Leadership series here: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/insights/featured/special-editorial/women-in-leadership

Photo source: Attacq

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