Businesswoman of the Year Awards announces finalists

Liepollo Lebohang Pheko, president of BWASA says, "More and more women are receiving recognition for their path making in changing the business landscape which has historically been male dominated. The quality of the business credentials submitted for consideration for this year's awards yet again confirms that women are major contributors to shaping our economy, demonstrating excellent business and leadership acumen. Arriving at the eight names nominated for the awards was a huge challenge for our judges."

Drawn from two primary categories that the awards focus on, namely the corporate and the government categories.

The 2014 eight finalists

• Carol Hall: Vodacom Managing Executive
• Dr Amber Cristal Anderson: HR Executive at Coca-Cola Fortune.
• Antoinette Irvine: Vice President Human Resources at Unilever South and Southern Africa
• Roswitha Becker: General Manager of Global Load Control.

From the government category

• Nombulelo Bea Hackula: Head of Eastern Cape Department of Social Development.
• Julie-May Ellington: Town & Regional Planner and former Durban International Convention Centre Chief Executive Officer.
• Ayanda Noah: Group Executive for Distribution at Eskom.
• Jacqueline Molisane: Deputy Director-General for Strategic partnerships at the Department of Public Enterprise (DPE)

"The nominees align very well with the BWA's ethos. Each woman has shown such amazing achievement in their careers and arriving at just one winner for each category is always such a difficult task. After 35 years our organisation is still able to attract and align with the best of business leadership in this country", concludes Pheko.