Joan Joffe has been actively involved in the IT and Telecoms industry for many years. After completing studies in Mathematics and Computer Science at Wits and Stanford Universities, she worked for various companies in the US and South Africa, including IBM, Hewlett Packard, Wells Fargo Bank and Standard Oil of California.

In 1977 she launched her own company, Joffe Associates, which was the first organisation in South Africa to import, sell and service the IBM PC. She took the company national, and sold it 10 years later.

She then spent 10 years at Vodacom where she filled the roles of GM Marketing, Group Executive Corporate Affairs and Communications, and Chairman of the Vodacom Foundation. She retired from Vodacom at the end of 2003.

She is a founding member of broad – based women’s empowerment group, Nozala Investments. She served on the board of IT company, Datacentrix Ltd, the CSIR, Joffe Associates, Datacentrix Ltd and several other listed companies. She was a board member of several non-profit organizations including the Freeplay Foundation, Women and Men Against Child Abuse; the Readucate Foundation and the International Women’s Forum.

She is a former Businesswoman of the Year and a recipient of the Wits University Lifetime Award for Entrepreneurship. She is a Fellow of the Computer Society of South Africa and a winner of the organisation’s Fellowship Award for 2004.

She currently consults to companies in the ICT sector and acts as a mentor to a few people.