I’ve had a lot of great guests on The DK Show. This group still stands out.
Five women, five completely different industries, one thread running through all of it: they lead with courage, they create meaningful change, and somewhere along the way, they inspire everyone watching to do the same. A receptionist who made it to the boardroom. A product architect who’s spent twenty years figuring out what actually makes teams work. A founder who came up with the tool she couldn’t find anywhere else and just… built it. These are the female leaders in business making their mark in 2026.
Jacky Rossouw: From Reception Desk to Boardroom
Jacky Rossouw is the Sales Director and Board Member at Lecico South Africa, and her journey from receptionist to the boardroom is a masterclass in resilience and reinvention.
We talked about what it actually takes to build meaningful relationships across African markets. We dove into the mindset shifts that carried her from an entry-level role to board level. We got into why continuous learning was never optional for her.
Jacky’s story is proof that career trajectory isn’t fixed at the starting point – it’s built one relationship, one decision, at a time.
Watch her video interview here:
Rizanne Oosthuisen: Building Trust Through Technology
Rizanne Oosthuisen is the Founder and CEO of ProfileMe, South Africa’s leading digital client engagement tool, and she’s built her business on a simple but underused idea: trust has to be engineered, not assumed.
Our conversation covered how ProfileMe helps professionals strengthen their brands and deepen client relationships. We discussed what it took to build a category-defining tool in a crowded digital space, and her advice for founders building trust-first products. Rizanne’s insight on the mechanics of genuine client connection is the kind of thinking every business leader should hear.
Watch her video interview here:
Liz Skosana: Investing in the Next Generation
Liz Skosana is a Programme and Innovation Architect who has spent her career founding social enterprises and leading youth development programmes that do far more than tick a CSR box.
She’s empowered hundreds of young people through learning experiences designed to build confidence, identity and long-term career success.
We talked about what innovative youth development actually looks like in practice.
The gap between good intentions and lasting impact.
Why she believes career readiness starts with identity, not just skills. If you care about the future of talent in this country, this one is for you.
Watch her video interview here:
Kathryn Strachan: Turning Adversity Into Opportunity
Kathryn Strachan built and successfully exited a global B2B technology marketing agency, and she’s refreshingly honest about the fact that it wasn’t a straight line.
Today, as a Fractional CMO, she helps ambitious SaaS and AI companies build go-to-market strategies designed for sustainable growth, not just quick wins. We spoke about what she learned from exiting her own agency, the go-to-market mistakes she sees SaaS founders repeat, and how she thinks about scalable growth in fast-moving tech categories. Kathryn’s perspective sits right at the intersection of founder experience and strategic marketing, and it shows.
Watch her video interview here:
Lucille Greeff: The Architect of Organisational Trust
Lucille Greeff has spent more than two decades helping leaders and organisations navigate complexity, and as Chief Product Officer at Aephoria, she’s now shaping how businesses build trust and resilience from the inside out.
Her pioneering work in organisational development challenges the idea that stronger teams are built through process alone. In our conversation, Lucille unpacked what it actually takes to build organisational resilience, why trust is the foundation most businesses skip, and how leaders can navigate complexity without losing their people along the way. Two decades of pattern recognition is hard to compress into one episode, but she gave it her best shot.
Watch her video interview here:
Five women, five industries, and honestly, five conversations I’d happily have all over again.
Watch more of the DK Show here.
