To mark the evolution of Africa.com’s Definitive List of Women CEOs, sponsored by Standard Bank Group, Africa.com hosted a webinar with free registration. In addition to revealing the names of the women who were on Africa.com’s 2023 Definitive List of Women CEOs, Africa.com presented, for the first time, performance data showing how the share value in women-led companies compared to various indices. (Spoiler alert: Women-led companies outperformed.) Attendees signed up for the webinar to discover to what degree women-led big businesses performed better.
The 60-minute virtual event was hosted by Teresa Clarke, Chair and Executive Editor of Africa.com. She conducted rapid-fire interviews with four experts on the “African female-factor” and how a growing body of evidence shows that more diverse management produces better results:
- Patricia Lizarraga, Managing Partner at Hypatia Capital and founder of the Hypatia Women CEO Index and Hypatia Women CEO Electronic Traded Fund (ETF), talked about what she calls the Female Factor.
- Vera Songwe, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, shared her perspective on why women outperform in the investment arena.
- Lindeka Dzedze, Chairperson of the African Women’s Investment Fund (AWIF) Executive Committee and Head of Strategic Partnerships within Global Markets at the Standard Bank Group, discussed how AWIF has a multiplier effect on investments in women-led companies.
- Owen Omogiafo, President and Group CEO at Transnational Corporation, ranked as one of the top performers on the Africa.com Definitive List of Women CEOs, shared her experience on how and why women achieve outsized share price performance.
Teresa Clarke, Chair of Africa.com, stated, “This work represents one of the first analyses of the performance of publicly listed companies in Africa conducted through a gender lens. We look forward to advancing this work in the years to come. We were excited to share this research with the world on April 19 during our virtual reveal of the star performers on our 2023 Definitive List of Women CEOs.”
Methodology
Africa.com analyzed 2,020 companies listed on the 24 African stock exchanges. Of the 2,020 companies, Africa.com screened for those with revenue of $100 million or more, or a market cap of $150 million or more, which yielded a list of 787 companies. This data was provided by Bloomberg.
Africa.com then reviewed the public websites of the 787 companies to identify female C-suite executives. The team of Africa.com researchers examined the list of these women to determine those who held the title of chief executive officer, managing director, or president, and conducted a review to confirm that these executives had bottom-line, profit and loss responsibility for their companies. Two additional groups of women were selected through this process, identifying division heads of African corporates and regional heads of global corporations. This resulted in the final Definitive List of Women CEOs revealed on April 19th.
Was very impactful