Prof Shirley Zinn is the former Group Head of Human Resources at Woolworths Holdings Limited. Prior to this, she was the Head of Human Resources of Standard Bank South Africa and Deputy Global Head of Human Resources for the Standard Bank Group. She also registered her own company: Shirley Zinn Consulting that provides consulting and advisory services in HR, Transformation, Leadership and Education.

Prior to this she was the Group Executive HR at Nedbank. Before this, she was the General Manager for Human Resources at the South African Revenue Service (SARS). She is also an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria’s Department of Human Resource Management, and recently been appointed as Adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town. She is the Past President of the Institute for People Management South Africa and registered as Master HR Professional with South Africa Board for People Practice.She hails from the Cape Flats in Cape Town, and started her career as a secondary school teacher of English, then moved to the University of the Western Cape where she lectured in Teacher Education. After this, she served at Southern Life as Training Manager and then moved to the Department of Public Service and Administration’s: South African Management Development Institute, in Pretoria as Director. She held the position of Executive Employment Equity at Computer Configurations Holdings. Before her appointment at SARS, she filled the role of Regional Human Resources Director for Middle East and Africa for Reckitt Benckiser, a global company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

She is the former Chairman of DHL: Global Forwarding SA, and currently a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of JSE listed AdvTech (Lead Independent and Chair of Remco) and Sygnia Asset Management (Lead Independent, and Chair of Remco and Social and Ethics Committee). She has also recently been appointed onto the Boards of MTN SA, LRMG Performance Architects, and NPI.She also serves as a director on the Boards of Tuesday Consulting, Empowerment Capital, Knowledge Resources, Business Engage, Community Chest, and the Boston Consulting Group SA. In addition, she is the HR Advisor to the Board of Silvertree Internet Holdings. She also serves on the Take-Over Regulation Panel Board and on the Council of the University of Cape Town. She is a Trustee on the Nedbank Eyethu Community Trust, Ambassador for the Orbis Africa Charity, and the former Chairman of Starfish Greathearts Foundation. She also serves on the Advisory Boards of Monash South Africa, and the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. She is the past President for the Harvard Alumni Association South Africa and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors SA. She also previously served as the Chair of the Institute of Bankers. She was recently appointed as the Patron for South Africa Council of Business Women.