Margaret Nienaber is Standard Bank Group’s Chief Operating Officer, responsible for the Information Technology, Brand & Marketing, Communications & Reputation Management, Operations, Real Estate and future ready capabilities. She assumed the role of COO in July 2022, after serving as Chief Executive for the Group’s Client Solutions since January 2021. She is also closely involved in setting strategy and managing the Investor Narrative.
Prior to this, Margaret was the Chief Executive of Standard Bank’s Wealth division, a business that has been recognised as Africa’s Best Bank for Wealth Management by Euromoney and boasts the largest Bancassurance arrangement on the African continent. It was also named Top Stockbroker in South Africa by Intellidex and recognised in Nigeria as the country’s largest pension fund administrator and asset manager. Margaret has been with the Group for 14 years.
Prior to joining Standard Bank, Margaret served on the Santam Executive team and managed People and Brand, as well as the Group’s South-East Asia expansion. She started her career at PWC where she completed her articles in 1997, and then joined the Hannover Reinsurance Group as CFO and CEO: Compass Insurance.
In 2013, she was recognised as the Most Influential Woman in South African Business and Government (Financial Sector), and during her years in the insurance industry, was a board member of the South African Insurance Association and President of the Insurance Institute of South Africa.
Margaret is a member of the World50 community, an invitation-only forum for senior executives of globally respected organisations. She is also the vice president of the International Women’s Forum of South Africa (Chapter of the global IWF), whose objective is to nurture and develop a pipeline of the next generation of women leaders. Moreover, she was part of the UNICEF Influential Women’s Circle and currently sits on the Mastercard Regional Advisory Board. She has contributed thought leadership to two books on Leadership (‘The Future of Leadership’ and ‘Lead with Heart’). Previous training includes time at the Disney Leadership Institute and Future Ready strategies at MIT (2018).
Margaret holds a BCompt degree (University of the Free State, 1995), BCompt Hons degree (UFS, 1996), Certificate in the Theory of Accounting (Unisa, 1996) and qualified as a Chartered Accountant (SA) in 1997. Margaret is a grateful daughter, proud wife and mother. She is also three times class mom.