The eleventh annual South Africa’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government (MiW) Awards, presented by CEO Communications, took place at a dazzling gala event on 26 July 2012 at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand. The awards once again recognised the inspirational women achievers in business and government who are working for the benefit of South Africa and its future generations.
No fewer than 81 finalists in 28 industry sectors, ranging from Aerospace and Defence, to Welfare and Related Community Services, were selected from hundreds of nominees and judged by an independent judging panel consisting of various high-profile industry leaders to ensure a fair and unbiased selection of winners. In addition to the sector awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award was made to an inspirational woman who, in the judges’ opinion, has not only served her respective industry well over the span of her remarkable career, but has left, and indeed is still leaving, a legacy of purposeful achievement. “Once again, the calibre of the candidates, across all the sectors and in the Lifetime Achievement category, was exceptional, and we are confident that the winners are a true reflection of the talent pool of influential women in South Africa,” says Yvonne Finch, Life Coach and founder of Yvonne Finch Consulting, who headed the MiW judging panel. Judging process “The process began by filtering out those nominations that had not been completed correctly to begin with,” she explains. “All the successful candidates who passed this initial validation process were then reviewed by the five judges on the first judging panel, reducing their number to a list of semi-finalists.”Worth noting is that each judge received five lever-arch files containing 240 nominee curriculum vitaes, with the brief of selecting five nominations in each category as semi-finalists. They also had to ensure that each nominee was represented in the correct category to afford them the best opportunity in the competition. Following the first round of judging this list of nominees was then whittled down to just over 100 finalist nominations, which were then sent through to the five judges on the second judging panel, who then made their recommendations of finalists, numbering 81 in total. These finalists participated in a filmed question-and-answer session with Finch, as the facilitator of the judging panels. “Each finalist was asked the same set of questions to ensure that the process was fair. The unedited interview footage then accompanied all the finalists’ written nominations to the five judges on the third and final judging panel, who processed the material over a two-day period and chose their winners,” she explains. Renowned woman in the hazardous waste industry and regular contributor to ReSource magazine, Elizabeth Anderson of the Responsible Packaging Management Association of Southern Africa, scooped a finalist position in the Containers, Packaging and Manufacturing category.
