CAPE TOWN - Barclays Africa said that its chief executive Maria Ramos had accepted an invitation to become a member of the highly influential institution Group of Thirty (G30).
Other members of the group include Ben Bernanke, the former chairperson of the board of governors of the US Federal Reserve System; Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England; Mervyn King, a member of the House of Lords as well as a former governor of the Bank of England; and William Dudley, President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The G30, which aims to deepen understanding of international economic and financial issues, was founded in 1978 and is a private, non-profit, international body composed of senior participants from the private and public sectors, and academia.
Membership of the G30 is by invitation only.
Jacob Frenkel, the chairperson of the 30 Board of Trustees, said that Ramos would add a diversity of perspective, and a strong and influential South African voice, to the group’s deliberations.
“She has a breadth of private and public sector experience that will benefit our work and discussions, from her current positions as chief executive of Barclays Africa, as chairperson of the Banking Association of South Africa and her prior role as director-general of South Africa’s National Treasury,” Frenkel said.
Last month’s report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers reported that in South Africa JSE-listed companies had a long way to go in achieving the target for female chief executives.
There was only one female chief executive in the Top40 JSE-listed companies, according to the report, referring to Ramos.
Ramos said that she looked forward to participating meaningfully in the group’s work.
“It is a pleasure to join the G30, which does such key work on international economics and governance. I look forward to working together on projects of common concern and to supporting the group’s mission,” Ramos said.
Ramos will be joined by Agustí* Carstens, the governor of the Bank of Mexico as new members of the G30.
Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the chairperson of the G30, said that the work of the G30 in international financial and economic thought leadership relies on its dynamic, engaged membership, drawn from across the globe and across public and private sectors.
Ramos and Carstens would contribute greatly to the work of the organisation, he said. “Agustí* and Maria are outstanding leaders. They each bring a wealth of understanding of the financial and economic challenges of the times, which the G30 seeks to address through our deliberations and ongoing work programme of studies,” Shanmugaratnam said.