Judy Dlamini
Judy started out as a medical doctor before changing into business. She is an entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist. After practicing as a medical family practitioner for many years, she specialised in Occupational Health and consulted for different companies. Her MBA from Wits University enabled her to change careers. She worked for HSBC Investment Bank, at the Johannesburg office in the Corporate Finance division. She obtained Doctorate in Business Leadership from UNISA in 2014, a Stanford Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate in 2018 and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) from Wits in 2022 . Her doctoral thesis investigated the impact of the intersection of race, gender and social class in women leaders’ career progression and strategies for gender transformation, using grounded theory and life stories. She converted her thesis to a book, titled ‘Equal but Different’.
Judy is Founder and Executive Chairman for Mbekani Group that has been in business for 26 years. She is a non-executive director of SA SME Fund, an initiative between government and the private sector to create jobs and grow an inclusive economy, she chairs the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre and the GBVF Response Fund She is the former Chairman of Aspen Pharmacare Limited (Aspen) a JSE-listed South African pharmaceutical manufacturer and distributor. Other previous board appointments include Anglo American plc, Discovery Holdings, and Woolworths Holdings. She is a published author of ‘’Equal but Different”; “The Other Story” and “Grow to be Great”.
The latter has been translated to IsiZulu and TshiVenda. She is the recipient of the African Economy Builder Lifetime Achiever Award for 2016 amongst several other awards, the most recent being the UNISA Leadership In Practice Award 2018, 2019 BBQ Platinum award, 2019 Gender Mainstreaming Role Model –Beacon of Africa award and the 2019 EY World Entrepreneur, Lifetime Achiever award recipient and the Charlotte Mannya Maxeke Chairman’s award for Women of Firsts in 2021 . She received honorary Doctorates in Business from the Nelson Mandela University in 2018 and University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in Economics in 2019. She’s the co-founder and trustee of Mkhiwa Trust, a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) that the family uses for social investment. She recently founded Female Academic Leaders Fellowship, a public benefit organisation that seeks to develop a pipeline of black female academic leaders. She’s Chancellor of Wits University, a wife, mother and grandmother.
