How Women Are Influencing The Future Of Specialist Insurance
As conversations around women’s participation in business continue to evolve, the focus is increasingly shifting beyond representation alone towards the different ways women contribute to decision-making, growth and long-term strategy.
At Clarendon Transport Underwriting Managers (CTU), those contributions can be seen across multiple parts of the business, from ownership and investment to customer strategy and commercial leadership. Together, they offer a view into how different perspectives can influence a company operating within one of South Africa’s most traditionally male-dominated sectors: commuter transport. Three women, in particular, bring distinct experiences and areas of expertise to the business.
Babalwa Ngonyama, CEO of Sinayo Securities, represents CTU’s largest shareholder, a majority black female-owned JSE member firm. Her perspective is rooted in business leadership, investment and long-term value creation.
Her career has been shaped by a focus on resilience, discipline and strategic decision-making, qualities that are particularly relevant in businesses where sustainable growth depends on careful planning and sound governance.
Ownership plays an important role in shaping how businesses evolve, and perspectives from shareholders can influence the direction of strategy, investment and future opportunities.
Within CTU, Fahmida Omar serves as Chief Customer Officer, overseeing sales, marketing and underwriting. Her role extends beyond customer engagement to include responsibility for customer strategy, distribution and business growth. With experience gained through senior positions at Hollard Insurance Group, including work across account management and major banking partnerships, she brings a commercial perspective grounded in customer understanding.
For a specialist insurer serving South Africa’s commuter bus and taxi industry, this means understanding not only vehicles and risk, but also the businesses and operators behind them. Customer insight, market understanding and commercial strategy come together to shape how CTU responds to a changing transport environment.
Valerie Hayter, Managing Director of Lireas Holdings and Hannover Re Africa’s strategic investment arm, brings another perspective to the business through investment and specialist insurance expertise.
With 26 years of experience in identifying, investing in and growing insurance businesses, her work focuses on helping entrepreneurial companies build resilience, unlock growth opportunities and create long-term value.
Through Lireas, a founding shareholder of CTU, she has worked closely with management teams across the insurance sector, while also advocating for greater access to insurance products in markets that have historically been underserved.
Different Perspectives Around The Table
Although their roles differ, Babalwa Ngonyama, Fahmida Omar and Valerie Hayter each contribute to CTU in different ways, through ownership, executive leadership and investment.
Their involvement also reflects a broader reality within business: leadership is not shaped by a single perspective. Businesses often benefit when decision-making draws on different experiences, expertise and ways of understanding customers, markets and opportunities.
For specialist sectors such as commuter transport insurance, where businesses operate within complex and changing environments, a range of perspectives can help strengthen strategy, improve customer understanding and support long-term growth.
As discussions around women’s participation in business continue, stories such as these offer an example of how leadership can take different forms, and how ownership, investment and operational expertise can work together in shaping a business’s future.
