Leila Fourie

Leila Fourie - Group CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

Leila Fourie is a business leader with more than 25 years of local and international experience in banking and finance. Leila Fourie has previously served as managing director, CEO, board chair, executive and non-executive director on boards and companies in South Africa, Australia and the United States. Deeply passionate about women empowerment and sustainable development, Fourie is the inaugural co-chair of the United Nations Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD), a board member of the UN Global Network Compact South Africa and she also serves on the board of the not-for-profit, Youth Unemployment Services (YES).

Highly sought after as an emerging market commentator and advocate for sustainable investment, she is a regular participant in global panels, such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, UN, G-20, B-20, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and the World Federation of Exchanges.

Early life and education

Born in 1968, Fourie was educated in Johannesburg, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from the then Rand Afrikaans University (today the University of Johannesburg) in 1989. This was followed by a BA Honours from the University of South Africa, paving the way for an award-winning master’s degree – the best economics thesis in the country - and then a doctorate, both from the University of Johannesburg.

After an initial career as a management consultant with Andersen Consulting, Fourie joined Standard Bank as Global Director of credit analytics, capital and portfolio management, where she was responsible for South Africa, UK, Hong Kong, Russia, Brazil and Argentina, ultimately becoming managing director of Standard Bank’s Card Division. During this time, she was also the South African chair of Diners Club International and sat on Diners Club’s Chicago-based global advisory board.

Fourie left Standard Bank at the end of 2011 to join the JSE in 2012 as executive director of Post-Trade Services. She left the JSE four years later, to head up the Sydney-based Australian Payments Network as CEO. When she was in Australia, she also served as the New South Wales vice president of the Economic Society of Australia as well as on the audit committee of the board of Lifeline Australia. Fourie was executive general manager of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Lending businesses before returning to South Africa in 2019 to succeed Nicky Newton-King as group CEO of the JSE (Johannesburg Stock Exchange).

Notable Achievements

During the COVID 19 lockdown, Fourie was instrumental in leading the South African business community’s participation and support for government’s Solidarity Fund to raise money to equitably address the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. She pledged a portion of her salary towards the fund and launched the JSE’s Trade4Solidarity initiative which committed JSE and industry trading fees for two days to the Solidarity Fund. Under her leadership, the JSE was recognised as Business of the Year in 2020, in the annual Standard Bank awards.

A keen advocate for gender equality in the workplace, women’s rights and the protection of vulnerable groups in society, she was named Businesswoman of the year in 2021 in Standard Bank’s Top Women of the Year awards, as well as being recognised as one of the Global Women Leaders of the year by the World Federation of Exchanges for her outstanding leadership.

That year, she was also honoured by her alma mater, receiving the Dignitas award as one of the University of Johannesburg’s exceptional alumna and ranked among the continent’s top 100 CEOs. Fourie is a keen cyclist, rock climber and mountaineer. She has participated in numerous cycling races and tours including the Change a Life Cycle Tour, a South African charity serving under privileged youth. She has scaled rock faces in Australia, Tasmania, Europe, New Zealand and South Africa, including summiting Mount Vinson in Antarctica in -37degree celsius conditions as well as Kilimanjaro in Africa and Mount Elbrus in Europe - the highest peaks in each continent.

Awards and recognition

• Recognized by the World Federation of Exchange's (WFE) Women Leaders 2021 for outstanding leadership
• Alumni Dignitas Award 2021 – University of Johannesburg
• Founders’ Medal by the Economic Society of South Africa for the best Economics thesis in South Africa

Publications

• The Open Banking Era – Surfing the Australian Data Wave. Chapter in Academic Book – Transformation
• Dynamics in Fintech: An Open Innovation Ecosystem Outlook’. Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia; RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. World Scientific Publishing (2019)
• European Journal of Finance 12(4):361–377 ‘Which factors determine sovereign credit ratings’ (May 2016)
• Academic Presentation – 2015 Development Finance Conference: 29–30 October 2015: Sovereign rating contagion in the commodity belt of countries (2015)
• Procedia Economics and Finance, International Conference on Applied Economics ICOAE: Sovereign credit rating contagion in the EU (2015)
• Journal of Business Management, Credit Extension in South Africa: A business cycle perspective for the period 1985 to 2009 (2011)