Rochelle Murugan, 33

Rochelle Murugan began her career at Mazars in Durban in 2010 before moving to Gauteng in 2014. Her decade-long experience at Mazars has seen her seconded to William Buck NSW in Sydney, Australia, and being promoted to equity partner in 2019 at the young age of 32.

Rochelle’s belief in meaningful transformation and her desire to positively shape others’ future made her the perfect candidate to head up Mazars’ Graduate Recruitment Programme in Gauteng. Having been able to connect with young female graduates during her involvement in recruitment, she recognised the need for empowering young women.

She is a founding member of Mazars’ Women Empowerment Programme, which started in Gauteng. The programme is open to all 179 women across Mazars’ service lines and focuses on identifying, appreciating, growing and retaining women within the organisation. The programme is focused on equipping young professional women with critical skills to get them ready not just to occupy leadership positions but to be able to lead regardless of job title. This is being achieved through leadership branding and public speaking workshops, book club events and fitness classes, all of which come together to facilitate each woman’s personal growth. In addition, the programme is dedicated to the SHE (Shape Her Essence) project which collects sanitary pads for delivery to young school-going girls, as well as a project to gather basic necessities for underprivileged children in the El-Shammah Home for Abandoned Babies.

The impact has been so phenomenal that this programme is planned to be launched nationally across Mazars’ 11 offices throughout South Africa within the next year.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic Rochelle has ensured that the programme’s objectives continue to be fulfilled through virtual platforms.

Key traits that have contributed to Rochelle’s success are confidence, coupled with humility, empathy and the desire to make an impact.

She fervently believes that an organisation’s people are its most valued asset and that leaders are distinguished by the impact they have on individuals that surround them, especially when they empower others to function in their absence. Importantly, Rochelle is aware that she takes up a valuable amount of space in her capacity as a leader and is passionate about creating more space for other impactful leaders.

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