Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa

Last year, Mahanyele-Dabengwa became the first Black African to run Naspers, the century-old South African media company, in its home market. Her appointment was highly symbolic. Naspers, with a market cap of $80 billion, is now best known for its global tech investments—mainly, the very smart bet it made on Tencent back in 2001—but the company spent decades supporting South Africa’s apartheid regime through its newspapers. (The company formally apologized for its role in 2015.) Mahanyele-Dabengwa is charged with growing Naspers’s $4 billion business in South Africa; beyond the day-to-day, she is focused on making smart and impactful tech investments locally, through the company’s new $100 million Foundry fund. Mahanyele-Dabengwa arrived with plenty of investing experience having previously founded her own firm, Sigma Capital. Before that, she led the Shanduka Group, an investment holding company founded by current South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Subscribe to The Broadsheet, our newsletter on the world’s most powerful women.