Dr Ntombi Mhangwani is the Executive Head of Marketing at Vodacom Business and the Chairperson for the Women’s Network Forum for Vodacom in South Africa. Prior to Vodacom Business, she worked at Accenture as the Marketing and Communications Director and Women’s Forum lead. She joined Vodacom in 2022 tasked to build strategic value and deliver personalised, unique marketing as well as communications experiences.
In her past role at Accenture, she helped clients to deliver exponential and exceptional digital experiences for their customers. Additionally, she was tasked to drive initiatives to attain Accenture’s vision to achieve a 50/50 gender balanced workforce by 2025.
In September 2019, Ntombi won the Gender Mainstreaming Awards’ Positive Role Model for C-Suite award. In September 2020, she was recognised as the Gender Mainstreaming Awards’ third finalist in the inclusive leader category for Gauteng. In July 2021, Accenture awarded her the Equality Champion award at Accenture and in May, Ntombi was named the Break the Ceiling, Touch The sky 2022 and 2023 List of Africa’s Most Inspirational Women in Leadership.
Her work as the Women’s Forum Lead motivated, inspired and developed both men and women to understand as well as embrace the challenge to achieve gender mainstreaming and equality. Ntombi is also a founding member of the Voices of Change Movement. Voices of Change (VOC) is a movement that seeks to encourage both men and women to be at the forefront of gender equality and play a leading role in making equality the norm in the workplace. It also aims to demonstrate how global organisations can come together to work towards common goals irrespective of their business purpose.
In 2018 the VOC founding conference took place in person with 200 people attending.
In 2022, the event took place online with 11 000 people attending.
The 2022 VOC partners include: Accenture, Nedbank, Business Engage, AECI, AngloGold Ashanti, Astron Energy, EOH, Kearny, Life Healthcare, Pfizer, Aspen Pharmacare, SAP, Hollard and Refinitiv are part of this active and growing movement.
Ntombi also performed various assignments within Accenture and externally as the Exco Member, Board Member, Pension Fund Trustee, Inclusion and Diversity Champion, Rotary International Rotarian, Team Leader, Toast Masters winner, TEDx speaker and Rotary Exchange Student to Germany. She describes herself as a methodical, consistent, hands-on, and assured professional. She is a firm believer in change and continuous learning.
She has a passion for developing, coaching and mentoring young girls and boys, women and high-performing teams. Her top ten themes within the Clifton Strengths Finder include: achiever, arranger, activator, maximiser, positivity, relator, context, learner, intellection and input. She is a self-motivated, empathetic and emotionally intelligent leader who manages multiple client accounts and supports C-level executives in a fast-paced, high-pressure environments.
Prior to joining Vodacom Business, Ntombi held senior marketing and communications roles in various multinational companies such as Accenture, Schneider Electric South Africa, Dimension Data and MTN – to mention a few, with a scope that covered the rest of Africa and the Middle East.
Ntombi’s journalistic, marketing and communications experience spans a period of more than 24 years. She has a huge hunger for continued learning, and an ability to master and implement the new knowledge she gains.
She holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Management of Technology and Innovation with thesis titled: A leadership framework for implementing fundamental change during the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). She also holds Master of Business Administration from Henley Business School, as well as an Honours Degree in Journalism and Media Studies from Rhodes University.