Nomzamo Radebe, Acting Managing Director at Pareto Limited is this year’s winner of the Women’s Property Network (WPN) Five Star Woman Award and Nozipho Maila, Operations Manager of the Property Investment Division of the PIC is the inaugural winner of WPN’s Rising Star Award. 

Both awards are sponsored by Nedbank Corporate Property Finance, and the winners were announced at the WPN People of Property breakfast, held at the Radisson Blue Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg this morning. 

The other finalists for the Five Star Woman Award were Patricia Emmett, founding director of Emmett Architects; Sanett Uys, Director of Group Corporate Affairs for Colliers International; and Christa Bonnet, PPP (Public Private Partnership) Business Manager for Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments (OMIGPI). 

The other finalists for the Rising Star Award were Sakina Nosarka, Asset Manager on the Triangle Real Estate Development Fund at Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments (OMIGPI); Nonkululeko Ntshona, Managing Director of Nonku Nthsona & Associates; and Saloshini Gounder, Property & Development Manager at Massdiscounters. 

Amelia Beattie, WPN Awards committee chairperson says, “2009 has seen the most nominations for the competition, which is exceptionally encouraging.  Judging was difficult and there was healthy debate as the candidates were of an exceptional quality, but in the end Nomzamo and Nozipho came out tops. Despite the difficulty of the final decision, as the women were all very closely scored, it is encouraging to note the calibre of women in  the property industry and that there are so many up and coming women.  We hope this bodes well from a transfer of skills perspective.” 

Brian Roberts, Gauteng regional executive for Nedbank Corporate Property Finance says, “This is the sixth year that Nedbank Corporate Property Finance has sponsored the Five Star Woman Awards, and now the Rising Star Awards.  The bank continues to believe that it has a key role to play as it strives to become a truly empowered South African bank, and its sponsorship of these awards is part of the investment it is making in the property industry.” 

Nomzamo has recently been appointed as Pareto Limited’s acting managing director, after having served as the company’s financial director since May 2006.  She is a qualified Chartered Accountant with an extensive appreciation of the property industry. Amongst her numerous responsibilities, she is responsible for the “financial health” and reporting of the company, enterprise wide risk management, stakeholder management and treasury risk management. A critical aspect of her role entails ensuring that the company is financially prepared as it grows its asset base. 

She is a non executive director of Munich Reinsurance Company of Africa Limited and the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors. 

Nozipho is an operations manager of the Property Investment Division of the PIC, having joined the company in 2005 as a financial manager. She completed her articles at KPMG and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2003. After her articles, she remained with KPMG as an audit manager and gained exposure in the financial services sector, both locally and abroad. 

In her current role Nozipho oversees the financial, operational and investment affairs of a R24billion portfolio of properties, held directly and through equity stakes in listed and unlisted property investment companies. 

She serves on the Board of Pareto Limited and its Audit & Risk, Procurement and Risk sub-committees. She also serves on the Board of African Capital and chairs its Audit & Risk Committee. 

She previously served on the Board of CBS Property Group, the Audit Committees of Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).