African Business profiles the women leaders that have been making waves in business and governance over the last year.
This African Business Women in Leadership 2026 special profiles 20 women leaders - among them founders, CEOs, innovators, entrepreneurs and change-makers - who have risen to senior roles business and governance.
In doing so, they have reshaped the narrative around women's leadership across the continent and the wider African diaspora. Make sure to read our series introductio , and Parts One, Two, and Three.
Priscilla GathunguCEO, Java House Africa
When Priscilla Gathungu was appointed CEO of coffee house chain Java House in 2022, she not only became the first Kenyan CEO of the company, but also its first female head. She stepped into the role at a time when the company was facing increased competition, both from established rivals and from multinational franchises entering the market.
Despite the crowded competitive landscape, she has managed to sustain Java's dominant position in the market. Today Java is Kenya's largest coffee chain by any measure, with around 100 stores in total, including branches in neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda. Java also owns brands including Planet Yogurt, 360 Degrees Pizza and chicken chain Kukito.
Gathungu's path to leadership was not a straight line. She cut her teeth in human resources, and spent the early years of her career working in HR roles in several firms in Minneapolis, US. She relocated to Kenya in 2011 to take on a HR role with a local company before joining Java as HR director in 2014.
At Java, she discovered that she was not only good with people but also with numbers. This led to a major career pivot that saw her taking on the role of Java's commercial director in 2017. Her success growing the company's sales and driving its commercial strategy ultimately led the board to select her as chief executive when the opportunity to lead the organisation opened up.
Alexandra ChappatteChief Executive, African Originals
Founded in 2017, African Originals has built a drinks portfolio that spans ciders, spirits, tonics and ready-to-drink iced teas under labels such as Kenyan Originals, African Originals and 5.8 Spirits. In a sector long dominated by multinational brands that fiercely guard their market share, Chappatte has defied the odds and steered African Originals through a period of rapid growth.
Sales rose from $3m in 2022 to $7m in 2023 and $10m in 2024. For 2025, she expects to report sales of over $12m. The company also shipped its first order to Uganda last year, marking the start of regional expansion. Since inception, the company has raised $10m, including a $2m round in 2024 led by Mauritius-based brewer Phoenix Beverages.
Chappatte tells African Business that as a female founder in a male-dominated space, her passion is to nurture female talent. "We now have our first female engineer, who actually originally joined us as someone in marketing on the sampling side, but with an engineering degree. She struggled to get a classic engineering role, partly because of her gender. She's now among our top performing engineers."
"Giving people the opportunity is really key, and I think we're lucky that we have a lot of female managers who will open that door," Chappatte adds.
Beyond her company, she advocates for women entrepreneurs through She Originals, a platform that convenes female Kenyan business owners for monthly panels and networking.
Unlike mature markets where brands can license their name and outsource production and distribution, Chappatte had to build the entire supply chain herself in Kenya. "You have to raise quite a lot of capital, which is tricky in Kenya."
She says that the business environment posed hurdles: "It is a space that has a lot of red tape and bureaucracy. But I would say that if you can get over that hump, then there's a lot of opportunity to do stuff differently."
Mpumi MadisaCEO, Bidvest Group
Mpumi Madisa was appointed group CEO of one of South Africa's biggest conglomerates, the Bidvest Group, in October 2020. The giant industrial group, formed in the 1980s and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, operates a highly diversified portfolio in two major business segments - business services and trading and distribution.
There are more than 250 businesses under the Bidvest umbrella, covering diverse sectors such as logistics, aviation, catering, cleaning, and consumer products and services.
It has operations in South Africa, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Australia and Singapore.
For the year ended 30 June 2025 Bidvest Group reported trading profit of 12bn rand ($748m at the February 2026 exchange rate), up 1% on the previous year, on revenue of 127bn rand ($7.9bn), up 5%.
Madisa was appointed CEO after 15 years of holding executive positions within the group. Under her leadership, Bidvest has delivered solid growth, with revenue rising and several divisions delivering double‑digit profit increases despite economic headwinds.
She is driving consolidation as well as expansion in the group as it seeks a more strategic focus and further international expansion, including into the US market.
Madisa has brought a "people-centric" ethos to the company, championing gender and cultural diversity in leadership and across the workforce.
Mary VilakaziCEO, FirstRand Group, South Africa
Chartered accountant Mary Vilakazi made history in South Africa after being appointed the first woman CEO of FirstRand, one of the top two most valuable financial services groups in Africa by market capitalisation. The group has a portfolio of financial services businesses, including Rand Merchant Bank. It has a strong footprint in Africa as well as the UK and India.
FirstRand has delivered robust earnings growth under Vilakazi's leadership. In the year to June 2025, both headline earnings and profit after tax increased by about 10% on gains across the group's major divisions - retail, commercial and investment banking. She has also continued to drive the group's digital and innovation strategy, its funding of energy transition financing and its pan-African growth strategy.
Vilakazi is known for disciplined and analytical skills with a keen focus on strategy and good governance. She is deeply involved in group-wide integration and is a strong proponent of workplace transformation and inclusivity.
She joined the company in 2018 as chief operating officer responsible for strategy. Her previous experience includes a role as deputy CEO at MMI Holdings, another large financial services group, and at consultants PwC where she was one of the company's youngest partners.
Michelle PhillipsGroup CEO, Transnet, South Africa
Michelle Phillips was appointed Group CEO of South Africa's state-owned logistics company, Transnet, in March 2024, placing her at the helm of the entity's most ambitious restructuring in its history.
She assumed leadership of a heavily indebted organisation at a time when its poor performance had triggered a crisis in South Africa's critical logistics sector.
Phillips brought more than two decades of experience within Transnet to the role, having served in both legal and operational capacities before moving into executive leadership. She built a reputation for driving turnaround strategies across various divisions, which ultimately led to her appointment to stabilise the group.
At the time, Transnet had been grappling for years with declining freight volumes, governance weaknesses, operational inefficiencies and infrastructure constraints.
Under her leadership, Transnet has begun shifting from a closed, state-only operating model to one that enables structured private-sector participation, particularly in rail and ports. While the structural reforms were contained in the government's Freight Logistics Roadmap, approved prior to her appointment, they are being actively operationalised under her tenure.
Business welcomed her appointment and openness to private sector partnerships. Phillips has adopted an open, collaborative approach, prioritising constructive engagement with industry stakeholders. This renewed partnership model is beginning to yield results.
Profiles by Emily Allen, Lennox Yieke, Dianna Games and David Thomas.