Fatima Vawda

“We’re inspirational.”

Profile

Fatima Vawda is not intimidated by numbers, or she wouldn’t be boasting a 12-year career in the design of financial products and services.

Having graduated from Wits University in 1994 – distinction in tow – it wasn’t long afterwards that she was teaching others how it’s done. Vawda lectured in applied mathematics at her alma mater for two years before joining Standard Corporate & Merchant Bank as an interest rate derivatives trader.

In 2003, she founded Legae Capital, the first black-owned and woman-managed fund of hedge funds in South Africa; it became one of the leading groups in the industry. The Financial Mail recognised Vawda as one of South Africa’s top 20 black fund manager executives.

Three years later, she founded another first – 27four Investment Managers – the first multi-manager of its kind to be black-owned and women-run. The company was named after a turning point in South Africa’s history – 27 April 1994 the date of South Africa’s first democratic election.

Recognition for Vawda’s work has come in different forms: entrepreneur of the year and top emerging company, 2009 Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals Awards; semi-finalist in the Most Influential Women in Business and Government Awards; Outstanding Achievement Award, Africa Fund Manager Performance Awards, to name a few.

In June 2011, she was a panellist at the Africa Investment Summit in Sandton, in a discussion on multi-managers’ perspective for mega returns in Africa.