Maria Ramos

Maria Ramos at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, 2010

Maria Ramos (born Maria da Conceição das Neves Calha Ramos on 22 February 1959 in Lisbon, Portugal),^[1] is a Portuguese-South African businesswoman and one time public administrator.

Early life

Ramos was born in Lisbon. She went on to study economics and taught the subject at the University of South Africa (UNISA) and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). She holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Master of Science in Economics from the University of London. She is also a recipient of honorary doctorates from the Stellenbosch University (SU) and University of the Free State (UFS).

Political life

She was a member of the ANC team that worked on the fiscal aspects of South Africa's 1993 Interim Constitution, rising to prominence in 1996 as director general of South Africa's National Treasury.^[2] This coincided with the appointment of Trevor Manuel as Minister of Finance. During her tenure at the National Treasury (formerly the Department of Finance), she played a key role in transforming the Treasury into one of the most effective and efficient state departments in the post-apartheid administration.

Business life

She would later become chief executive of that country's state-owned transportation company Transnet, and in 2009 was appointed Group CEO of the Barclays PLC subsidiary Absa, one of South Africa's largest financial services companies. In 2011 she was also appointed Chief Executive of Africa, Barclays. She is a member of the Executive Committee of Barclays.

She has in the past served as a non-executive and independent director on the boards of Sanlam Ltd, Remgro Ltd and SABMiller PLC, and currently serves on the executive committee of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council. In April 2011, further to her Absa responsibilities, Ms. Ramos was given the task of executing Barclays Africa strategy. The strategy seeks to leverage the growth prospects in the continent. In this role, she is in charge of the Group’s 13 African operations which serve some 15 million customers across the continent through more than 11,000 outlets.

Accolades

She was named CNBC Africa Woman Leader of the Year (2011). She was also awarded the Wits Business School’s Management Excellence Award (2010); successive rankings in the global Fortune annual ranking survey of the 50 most powerful women in business (most recently the only African in the list, ranked 11th); Sunday Times Business Times Business Leader of the Year (2005), as well as being named Businesswoman of the Year by the SA Businesswomen’s Association in 2001..^[3] In October 2010, Ramos was honored with the Manex award at the Wits Business School’s Management Excellence Awards Ceremony.^[4]

Private life

Ramos married the South African politician Trevor Manuel in 2008.

References