Full Name: Elizabeth Maria Louise Strydom

Position: Chamber of Mines senior executive: employment relations

Main Activity of the Chamber: Advocacy and lobbying on behalf of Chamber of Mines members on all employment relations issues, including labour legislation. The chamber also conducts wage negotiations on behalf of the coal and the gold chamber members

Date and Place of Birth: February 12 (sharing a birthday with Charles Darwin – a great feat, in my view), 1958, Johannesburg

Education: BA (Law) and LLB, University of Pretoria; LLM and LLD, University of South Africa, with the title of the thesis being ‘Employer Prerogative from a Labour Law Perspective’

First Job: Articled clerk at a firm of attorneys (today they are called candidate attorneys)

Size of First Pay Packet: R450 a month, in 1981

Number of People under Your Leadership: Chamber employees, 7; number of employees affected by gold wage negotiations, 93 000

Management Style: I lead by example.

Personal Best Achievement: Surviving wage negotiations

Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Life: From my paternal grandmother, I learned that education is the key to a life worth living – education cannot be taken from you and it enables you to realise your dreams

Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Career: Dr Frans Barker, COO of the Chamber of Mines at the time of his passing on August 31, 2012

Person You Would Most Like to Meet: I would prefer to meet someone who has thought about life, its value and purpose

Philosophy of Life: Live your life on the basis that everything you do and say and even think has consequences

Biggest Ever Opportunity: To be offered a position at the Chamber of Mines

Biggest Ever Disappointment: Nothing comes to mind

Hope for the Future: Depends on when I am asked the question. Merely engaging with fellow South Africans in everyday life, I have a lot of hope because people are generally kind, generous and sympathetic

Favourite Reading: Novels by authors such as Ian McEwan (The Children Act) and Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient and Divisadero); autobiographies, such as Agatha Christie’s Come, tell me how you live and Deneys Reitz’s Commando; and scientific books, such as Dava Sobel’s The Planets and Longitude. I also love detective novels – Deon Meyer’s books are good, fast-paced reads

Favourite TV Programme: The Good Wife – there is not much to choose from

Favourite Food/Drink: Very Belgian (my mom is Belgian) – fillet, chips with mayonnaise, and salad, together with a beer or a glass of Chardonnay, followed, of course, by chocolate mousse and real coffee

Favourite Music: Classical (specifically cello pieces); jazz (Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Stacey Kent) and blues (Taj Mahal, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt)

Favourite Sport: Hiking and walking, preferably in the bush or the mountains

Hobbies: Reading, photography (of nature and animals, not people), walking, watching animals in their natural habitat and travelling

Car: BMW 2008 model

Pets: None

Miscellaneous Dislikes: The fact that, without money, one cannot access high-quality quality education and healthcare

Married: Unmarried

Children: I have no children of my own but I have a nephew, Marco, and a niece, Lisa

Clubs: I hate gyms, particularly their strange smells