Full Name: Raksha Naidoo
Position and Company Name: Managing Director at AMIS Group and Deputy Chairperson of Women in Mining South Africa
Main priority at the Company: My main priority at the AMIS Group are my people. My focus is to continuously motivate, encourage, develop and empower my teams, so that they can become the best versions of themselves. That then allows the businesses to continue to grow and become more successful, delivering the best products and services to our customers, creating a sustainable global brand, that delivers higher profits to shareholders.
Date and Place of Birth: February 21, Proudly South African every day.
Education: I’m a chemist by profession, and with the various experiences in different roles, I believe it’s helped strengthen my overall Scientist skills.
Management Style: Very collaborative and transformational.
Personal Best Achievement: I have had many proud moments, but my personal best was probably when I stepped into the big leadership shoes to take on the MD role at AMIS.
I was literally given a pair of flippers and told swim. And I swam. I had no experience at this level of leadership, very little support around me, and sadly too many eyes watching and waiting for failure. But I learnt quick, completely changed my mindset and vision, and today, AMIS stands as a global leader in our industry.
Person You Would Most Like to Meet: Gita Gopinath. I am such a fan of her! She’s trailblazing her way through her work on a global scale, and making massive impact with her efforts. And whilst doing all this, remains completely humble and what appears to be just herself. I have a long list of questions for when I do meet her one day.
Philosophy of life: Just be you, and always choose happiness. Seems simple enough, but probably two of the harder choices most of us face daily.
Message for other women leaders in the South African business community: I think the greatest superpower than female leaders have is that they are female. Use that, it only makes us better. I do not believe we need to become a man to play in these male dominated industries, rather we should stay authentically ourselves, as that is what inspires others to be themselves, and be better. Be those role models to other women that we all searched so desperately for growing up, and together we can break biases and make significant impacts in our societies.