Full Name: Sandra du Toit

Position: Africa leader for corporate finance at EY

Main Activity of the Company: Financial services

Date and Place of Birth: February 27, 1975, Cape Town

Education: BCom, LLB (cum laude), LLM (cum laude)

First Job: Academic assistant in commercial law at the University of the Free State

Career History Prior to Current Position: I started my career as an academic in the Free State, lecturing in commercial law and tax law, while completing my studies. I then did my articles and qualified as an attorney at Brink Cohen le Roux & Roodt Inc, before leaving to set up a law firm, Roodt Inc, together with one of the senior partners there. After leaving the practice, I joined Standard Bank, where I was responsible for mining and metals, firstly in Corporate Finance and then in a broader investment banking role. I joined EY in June of 2020, in the middle of South Africa’s Covid-19-induced first lockdown

Size of First Pay Packet: R1 500 a month

First Job with Present Group: Africa leader for Corporate Finance

Value of Assets under Your Control: None

Number of People under Your Leadership: About 20 people throughout EY’s broader Africa practice

Management Style: I hope that I am close to achieving a mentoring leadership approach with my team

Personal Best Achievement: Completing the Washie 100-mile race in the Eastern Cape within a reasonable time

Professional Best Achievement: Working with my current team to help our clients achieve their goals

Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Life: Always my mother

Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Career: Professor Johan Henning, at the University of the Free State, who is no longer with us. He opened my eyes to the wonders of mergers and acquisitions (M&A)

Person You Would Most Like to Meet: Kamala Harris

Businessperson Who Has Impressed You Most: Every single one of the clients that I have worked with – each for a different, good reason

Philosophy of Life: Only what you do, from moment to moment, will shape your life, and only how you think about it will shape how you experience it

Biggest Ever Opportunity: Joining EY, and having the chance to build an M&A team within a dynamic and evolving Strategy and Transactions business

Biggest Ever Disappointment: Not being elected Student Representative Council president at the University of the Free State in the mid-1990s. I really wanted to bring about positive change in the student body (which was starting to integrate young people of different races and religions for the first time, after the fall of apartheid) so that we could know one another as equals, become friends and colleagues, engage and be a constructive part of our young society

Hope for the Future: That each of us becomes our best selves, more days than not

Favourite Reading: Books on running adventures and experiences

Favourite TV Programme: House

Favourite Food/Drink: A cold Methode Cape Classique

Favourite Music: Anything from the 70s

Favourite Sport: Running

Favourite Website: Architectural Digest

Hobbies: Gardening and collecting art

Car: Land Rover

Pets: Two cats, Luna and Ashe

Miscellaneous Dislikes: Anyone who hurts anything or somebody on purpose

Favourite Other South African Company: All South African artists, as a collective

Favourite Foreign Company: Cadbury – for its products and the contribution it makes to my happiness

Married: Alas, never . . .

Children: None

Clubs: Wanderers Athletics Club