In keeping with Access Bank’s focus on celebrating and supporting women, we turned our sights inward to learn more about some of the incredible women working at Access Bank South Africa. Follow this series to get to know more of our team.
STRATEGY & SUSTAINABILITY
Carolien Samson, Head: Strategy and Sustainability at Access Bank South Africa believes that different people across the continent allows for much greater collaboration on the issues of sustainability and the implementation of a sustainable programme with achievable outcomes for Access Bank SA and the Group.
Carolien’s career highlights include being part of the team that developed the Principles for Responsible Banking which allowed for international collaboration and exposure.
Carolien says: “I have also had to establish functions in smaller banks from scratch which created opportunities, but also required significant effort to develop processes and reporting.”
She adds: “I have worked in finance across the agricultural value chain including commodity trading and insurance which is unusual for a female banker, and I am proud to have achieved so much in this sector.”
Looking back at her career she says the biggest learning is to act with integrity, in the long run it builds trust.
WOMEN’S MONTH
Carolien notes that the female leaders she really admires is Advocate Thuli Madonsela who displayed personal integrity in the face of political pressure and continues to promote good governance and ethics and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who was the first female president in Africa who had to rebuild a country after civil war and remains an advocate for peace and justice.
In the next year, Carolien would like to embed the sustainability function at Access Bank SA and create awareness of the impact of climate change on banking activities. Fun Fact!
Carolien was a cricket scorer at provincial and international level!
