Opportunity, once given to you, must be passed on. This is one of the beliefs that Tryphosa Ramano CA(SA) lives by.
It’s a philosophy that was forged through her own experiences, and which has guided nearly every step of her career, from taking on the role of CFO of South African Airways during its crisis years to establishing her mentoring organisation, A Seat At The Table.
Tryphosa explains that her resolve to ‘lift as you rise’ was born around the same time as her first child, when she was just 17 years old. ‘That child gave me a purpose I hadn’t had before,’ she says. ‘I had grown up very poor, in the township of Mamelodi, and I was determined my child would not go through what I went through. That focus on excelling − first for my child, and later for the generations of young people I now mentor − has never left me.’ Nor has the instinct to make sure the road is easier for others, Tryphosa says; all that has changed is that it has become broader, to include more people.
The instinct grew as Tryphosa came to understand how important it is to have someone who believes in you. This was especially true during her time at SAA: she admits that, since she had no prior experience as a CFO and had not envisaged taking on such a responsibility, she didn’t fully understand why she had been invited to take up the position. ‘Aviation was an entirely new industry to me. I had to learn fast, lead a team of people from every kind of professional background, and make hard, high-stakes decisions with the whole country watching,’ she recalls. Small wonder she feels that the period tested her leadership thesis. ‘It wasn’t about the version of leadership I believed in on paper, but whether it held up under real pressure. I’m deeply grateful to the people who believed I could do it before I believed it myself; Maria Ramos, Phakamani Hadebe, and Lesetja Kganyago among them. Their confidence in me became the foundation I built on.’
She reveals that she has looked up to these women at various points in her career, considering them – and Gloria Serobe – to be her mentors. ‘Maria lifted me when I was at my lowest point, giving me opportunities and believing in and supporting me when I most needed it. Phakamani was a colleague first, but peer mentorship turned out to be just as vital as senior mentorship – she taught me how to be a good professional and how to hold work and life in balance. Lesetja Kganyago has coached me consistently to be the best version of myself and instilled in me the discipline of always speaking truth to power and belief in families. And Gloria remains an active mentor to this day. She protects me, challenges me, and continues to open doors.’
There’s a common thread uniting these women, Tryphosa continues: none of them made it easy, but they all made it possible. These people, her champions, didn’t just open a door. ‘They stood behind me once I walked through it, and they told me the truth even when it was uncomfortable.’
MENTORSHIP AS A MANDATE
Because of the input of these women, Tryphosa has never viewed her career as a solo journey. ’ ‘It still isn’t. I continue learning to this day,’ she says.
She takes enormous joy in passing on that learning. In the early 1990s, while at RMB Asset Management, she established the Institute of Investment Excellence; a development programme to bring young people into the investment industry. ‘I wanted to create opportunities, because opportunities were created for me,’ she says simply.
Her other ventures speak to this aim, too, including the African Women Chartered Accountants, ABSIP, Young Leaders Connect and, most recently, A Seat At The Table (SATT). Tryphosa says that founding SATT, her vehicle for putting young Africans (and women, especially) on a pathway to board leadership, felt less like something new, and more like a continuation of the efforts that got underway 30 years ago. Her goal, through SATT, is to build a structured, scalable pathway so that the next generation of young leaders doesn’t have to rely on luck to find their mentors – the way she so often did. ‘I started the initiative because opportunity that stays with one person is opportunity wasted. I wanted to pass the baton and make sure that the circle is bigger than the one I was let into.’
This work is materially important to her, Tryphosa says, because she knows what it feels like to be lifted by someone who didn’t have to lift you. It’s because of this that she believes her work is not about her: she is entirely committed to developing and building the next generation of leadership and considers this her superpower. ‘Mentorship isn’t a side activity to a career. It’s been a mandate since the 1990s, when I built that first development programme at RMB Asset Management. It runs through every leadership role I’ve taken in organisations built around advancing others.’
JUST SAY YES
So, what advice would Tryphosa give the young women
she mentors? ‘Say yes to the room that scares you a little. And once you’re in it, remember that speaking truth to power, even when it’s hard, is part of what earns you the right to stay there.’
She has taken her own counsel on occasion − for example, when she joined SAA − and so she understands the discomfort of being one of few women in the room. Her own situation was made more complicated by the fact that, regardless of the industry where she was working at the
time – whether aviation, development finance or mining –
few people shared a similar background. This is how Tryphosa learned that it is not the absence of doubt that makes it possible to forge forward; rather, it is having people remind you that you do, indeed, belong.
This is why she exhorts any woman navigating a similar situation to remember that the discomfort of not feeling fully ‘qualified’ on paper is not the same as not being capable. ‘Let the people who believe in you carry you through the moments you can’t yet believe in yourself – and then pay that forward once you’re steady again.’
LOOKING AT THE HORIZON
Tryphosa says that she’s excited about where the accounting profession is headed – and her role in it. ‘It’s wonderful to watch the profession become a genuine engine for governance and accountability across the institutions that matter most for the country: development finance, energy, infrastructure. Chartered accountants are increasingly the people trusted to hold that process to account, and that feels like meaningful work for this moment in South Africa,’ she says.
As for her own future: Tryphosa is looking forward to steering SATT toward its goal of reaching one million young Africans by 2030. ‘Above all, I want to continue to build the kind of pipeline that means the next young person who is handed a role they don’t feel “ready” for − the way I was handed the CFO role at SAA − will have more support around them than I did,’ she concludes.
AUTHOR
Lisa Witepski
