Mercer appoints Tamara Parker as its new CEO for South Africa

Human resources consultancy Mercer has appointed Tamara Parker as its Chief Executive Office in South Africa. Parker is tasked with expanding the firm’s presence in South Africa and neighboring regions, in addition to fostering the newly developed partnership with Alexander Forbes. 

Parker’s appointment continues a growing trend of female chief executives in Mercer’s global operations and in the consulting industry as a whole. Mercer, among other consulting firms, has been particularly vocal in advocating gender balance in the workplace across the globe, and appears to be leading by example.

Martine Ferland took over as the firm’s global CEO in March this year, and Parker now takes over the South Africa practice – effective from August 1st – as women’s month kicks off in the country. Parker holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town, and has more than a decade of experience in the consulting space.

She began her professional career as an Organisation Design Consultant at Resolve Workforce Solutions, following which she joined global management consultancy Accenture. She remained at Accenture for more than eight years, having begun as a Senior Manager, and made her way up to the position of Global Organisation Design Lead.

In her global role, Parker offered support on a number of organisational design projects across the world, in addition to helping with capacity development and methodology creation. She left Accenture in 2016 to join the Consolidated Infrastructure Group as a Human Capital Strategy Executive.

Her experience in the human capital domain brought her to Mercer in June this year, where she will now take the top spot. Mercer has recently entered a partnership with South African financial advisory firm Alexander Forbes, to help administer financial solutions to various regions across Africa. Parker will help develop this partnership, in addition to developing the firm’s overall profile in South Africa.

Commenting on her appointment, Mercer’s Market Business Leader for India, Middle East, Turkey and Africa Peter Botha said, “Tamara brings a wealth of consulting experience and has established herself as a Human Capital Strategist. We are excited to welcome her to our team, and I’m very confident that she will not only be able to provide insight and strategic direction which Mercer needs to grow, but also be a great resource at a time when technological disruption is rapidly changing the future of work in Africa.”

Parker herself added, “I am very pleased to be joining Mercer at an exciting time in the company’s development. This is a great opportunity to help our clients navigate a dynamically changing environment. Our strategy will be to build on our existing asset base by providing health, wealth and career solutions to our clients across the continent, primarily in South Africa.”