EY announces selections for SA Entrepreneurial Winning Women Programme

Global professional services firm EY has announced the candidates who have been selected for the South Africa leg of its international Entrepreneurial Winning Women Programme. The firm has selected 15 women who have established strong business-models in a wide range of industries.

Dealing with one of the most pertinent issues in the global business environment today, EY's Entrepreneurial Winning Women programme seeks to help women with promising entrepreneurial ideas overcome the extra challenges that they face when setting up, through the provision of continual support along the way.

The firm identifies women who have managed to establish profitable businesses, but face challenges when it comes to the next step, i.e. scaling up and expanding their operations. Once selected, the female entrepreneurs are offered support in the form of financial resources, networking opportunities, and knowledge offerings.

Since its establishment, the programme has grown to operate in over 65 countries across the globe, and has had over 400 hundred participants so far. The programme is of particular importance in South Africa, given the fact that the country’s business environment is facing precisely the problem that the programme seeks to fix.

Reports emerged last year that while the amount of female representation in South Africa’s business environment is increasing, women face challenges when it comes to upward mobility, struggling to make it into senior executive roles. It is conceivable that similar barriers exists between running a successful firm and making it into an expansive operation.

EY has selected 15 women to take part in the Entrepreneurial Winning Women Programme this year. The executives hail from a range of industries, including investments, law, private equity, communications, IT, business advisory, as well as manufacturing and consumer goods.

The programme extends over a year, and will include a range of activities that are centred on state-of-the-art global business strategies. The programme also helps the executives identify portal partners, in addition to being an excellent opportunity to network with some of the most illustrious female leaders of industry in the country.

Commenting on the selections, EY’s Growth Market’s Leader Azim Omar said, “The response has once again indicated the great businesswomen we have in South Africa. We are proud to work alongside these women in expanding and strengthening their enterprises,”

He added on the programme in general, “Our investment in the Entrepreneurial Winning Women programme is a source of great pride for EY, and seeing them grow as founders and business leaders is an inspiration. The programme has seen over 70 women grow and develop their businesses since its inception in South Africa in 2013. We are looking forward to seeing the strides the class of 2018 will make.”