Woman of the Month

Name: Ms Lisa Nokulunga Bhembe

Designation: Business Development Director

Company: Zeal Point (Pty) Ltd

What do you do every day?
Business development. Basically getting clients for the business and maintaining relations with our current clients. I also motivate my staff to aspire to be more and do more.

How did you get into the tech space?
I have always been a very inquisitive and a goal-driven person I was always reading and seeing posts about women in male-dominated sectors and I thought to myself, wow. I could relate to that as I grew up with 2 elder brothers. I always had to fight to put my own ideas through, being told that I cannot do certain things because they were known to be done by men. What a life, right! I was inspired by reading the posts of these women who were making a change in different sectors. I decided to start my own company in the ICT Industry that will design, plan, develop and maintain fibre infrastructure.

What was the best advice anyone ever gave you?
Be bold, Be kind but above all, be…

What advice would you given someone wanting to get into the tech sector?
My advice to women who are passionate about tech would be, do it! They might hate you for it, it won’t be easy but its all worth it. Take that course, Start that company, Be the Legacy!!

What motivates you to get out of bed everyday?
My mother, who has always been there for me. Who understood and believed in me before everyone else did plus working towards closing a deal each and everyday gets me excited.

Who do you want to be when you grow up?
I want to be the woman that young girls can look up to and say, if she did it I surely can.

Twitter handle: @LisaBhembe
LinkedIn: Lisa Nokulunga Bhembe

Name: Maureen Grosvenor
Designation: Director – Head of Custom Applications
Company: APPSolve (Pty) Ltd

What do you do every day? Problem solving and business development. I look for opportunities in industries where I can use tech to help solve their problems and stream line the business.

How did you get into the tech space? The entrepreneurial and technology bug bit me at an early age. In 1986, when I was 16, my father bought one of the first home personal computers on the market and I took the opportunity to learn the software languages available at the time. I loved the idea getting to know and understand new innovations and being ahead of the pack. Plus I have always suffered from FOMO (fear of missing out). While still attending school, I started developing custom applications for friends and family and the rest is history. Programming came easy to me and my life since then has emulated the same problem-solving logic that computers run on.

What was the best advice anyone ever gave you? You teach people how to treat you

What advice would you given someone wanting to get into the tech sector? It is no longer a prerequisite to have a computer science degree to get into the ICT sector. The industry is so dynamic that the relevant diploma with the right attitude and appetite will get you into this job sector. We need more innovative new ideas and skills in South Africa. There is a plethora of jobs that did not exist 10 years ago, and we can just contemplate the endless possibilities of how the world will change over the next 10 years. While fields such as cyber security, social media and mobile development continue to grow, untapped industries such as Blockchain and AI are emerging and expanding. The future is limitless. Make your destiny part of that expansion.

What motivates you to get out of bed everyday? Farmers Markets, Innovation, the next great idea and inspiring young South Africans to reach for the stars
Who do you want to be when you grow up? A chef in Italy. ICT is lucrative and mentally challenging, food, however, is where my heart is

FaceBook : https://www.facebook.com/1264556650
LinkedIn : linkedin.com/in/maureen-grosvenor-3a207915
Twitter : @maureengrosven2