Kunyalala Maphisa
South Africa
Occupational Information
Job Title: Principal Partner, Brighton Wealth Subsaharan; President of BWASA
Professional History
Kunyalala Maphisa is co-founder and Principal Partner for Brighton Wealth Subsaharan, a South African based investment and advisory firm with a diversified investment portfolio. She is also the President of BWASA, the Business Women's Association of South Africa, the largest association of professionals and businesswomen in South Africa.
Kunyalala is an entrepreneur, a social activist, and has served on a number of boards of companies and NGOs. Her day-to-day work at Brighton Wealth Subsaharan involves corporate finance advisory and management of the company’s investment portfolio. She has done work in a number of African countries outside South Africa, including Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Cote D’Ivoire, Kenya, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. She was previously Managing Director of Subsaharan Concessions, a South African large-scale project development company operating on the African continent.
She has previously served in various senior executive positions, including Ernst & Young South Africa as Head of Emerging Markets in the firm’s Accounts and Markets Unit and later Corporate Finance Unit where she was Head of Emerging Markets, including the Africa sub-area. She has also served on the Board of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), the apex business representative organization in South Africa representing business associations and business chambers locally and internationally, and as a member of the African Businesswomen’s Network Think Tank.
She continues to occasionally represent South African business at various national and international meetings and forums, including the United Nations, SADC meetings, and at regional African Union (AU) meetings in various African countries. Further, she occasionally writes and comments on business transformation and has presented papers at various national and international forums. In June 2020, she was appointed by the Minister of Education, Blade Nzimande, to serve a four-year term on the University of Cape Town's governing body, it's Council.
As part of her corporate social responsibility work, she works with various non-profit organizations, building capacity and assisting with resource mobilization and strategy development. Kunyalala is a member of various bodies globally, including the Crans Montana Forum as a Young Global Leader.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and Industrial Relations from the University of Cape Town
Bachelor of Laws from the University of Cape Town
Master of Laws from the University of Cape Town
Programme
2006 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow
