Prism boss's leadership journey seeks to make a change, help overcome bias

Achieving gender diversity and equality in male-dominated industries is not just a need, but a pathway to success, says Sindi Mbulawa. The CEO of Prism Investment Holdings explains that her journey to leadership in the mining, energy, infrastructure and investment banking sectors has shown her the importance of having women at the forefront. 

Mbulawa started her career as a metallurgical engineer at one of the biggest gold producers in SA, and quickly moved into management. She spent more than 10 years working for a multinational project engineering design firm, developing projects from concept to implementation across various commodities. She then cofounded Prism in 2020, focusing the investment banking firm’s work on independent mergers and acquisitions advice as well as capital-raising and structuring across Sub-Saharan Africa.

She is now leading the company in its focus on helping clients achieve the tricky balance between decarbonisation commitments and energy security. “The current geopolitical events have led, unfortunately, to very volatile and unstable energy markets and that has necessitated the acceleration of commercialisation of cleaner and newer energy solutions.”

Prism’s work is crucial, especially after various big corporate financial scandals over the past years, such as those relating to Steinhoff, and even the SA Revenue Service (Sars), where work had been signed off on by external advisers.

Mbulawa explains that “the lack of independence from the advisers, since their corporates had been pursuing different revenue streams from those clients, meant that the advisers bent the rules somewhat. Being independent means that our income only comes from our expertise and trusted advice. Trust is our trading card. Our advice is also viewed from a sustainability and inclusion lens.”

Apart from her work leading the company, Mbulawa’s passion is centred on mentoring and encouraging younger women to take their places in the industry and overcome adversity.

“First of all, being a CEO comes with enormous responsibilities and secondly, being an African woman of colour within the natural resources and financial services sectors has its own challenges,” she says. “There are more critics than there are supporters, and you are expected to fit into a certain mold of how leaders in these sectors have traditionally behaved, both professionally and personally.”

Mbulawa speaks from personal experience, saying that early in her career, she struggled with the male-dominated environment, particularly unfair comments that were made as a joke but put her contribution and competence in question.

“No person should ever be made to feel that way, even when comments are made in jest,” she says. The work environment was also not set up for the inclusion of women, with a lack of female ablution facilities and change rooms on site.

Yet her grit and hard work paid off as she rose through the ranks, creating not only her own career, but showing the need for diversity and the way inclusion contributed to a company’s success. She sees this issue as her own personal challenge, and as a contribution to a meritocratic society where performance, rather than demographics, is rewarded. 

“I find that the life lessons from earlier on in my career are valuable both at a personal and professional level as, for example, they give me a better perspective around managing and being successful at different life demands — leader, mother, daughter, board member, wife and so on — a better rounded person overall. I think that system biases will reduce as more competent people who look like me get into leadership roles.”

Mbulawa believes there is change on the horizon, particularly for women of colour, and honours the other women in her field who have walked a similar path. “At present, I feel like this fight is steadily being won and the importance of being part of the ‘old boys club’ in one’s career is becoming less prominent,” she says. “People are becoming more aware of their biases and others are pro-actively working on minimising them.”

For Mbulawa, a lot of this work starts at home, in her own company. She explains she will seek to contribute to recognition of women as Prism grows, not only professionally, during selected periods like Women’s Month, but “365 and a quarter days every year”.

She is looking forward to how the company will be able to grow in a celebration of diversity. 

This article was paid for by Prism Investment Holdings.