El Kope has built a career around leadership, transformation, and creating meaningful opportunities for people and businesses. Her professional journey has given her the privilege of working with innovative brands across Africa in industries including marketing, logistics, and telecommunications. Across these experiences, she has developed a leadership approach shaped by purpose, accountability, and a strong belief in the potential of people.
CIO Global is pleased to spotlight El Kope in this edition, celebrating a notable contribution to leadership, innovation, and industry progress.
What continues to inspire El Kope is the opportunity to help others see what they are capable of achieving and to make a meaningful difference through her work. For her, leadership is not simply about holding a senior position or making important decisions. It is about creating an environment where people can grow, contribute, and become their best selves.
The best leadership starts with self-leadership.
El Kope currently serves as CFO of Cell C, a challenger in the South African telecommunications sector. The company places customers at the centre of its approach and has developed a differentiated, capital-light operating model that allows it to compete in a changing telecommunications market. Cell C also plays an important role in enabling Mobile Virtual Network Operators in South Africa, supporting several recognised MVNO brands. In November 2025, the company reached an important milestone by successfully listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. For El Kope, being part of this transformation has been one of the most meaningful achievements of her career.
Over the last three years, her leadership of the finance function has involved improving governance, strengthening reporting, delivering results, and contributing to the company’s listing. She sees this period as an opportunity to work with an exceptional team while helping the organisation move through an important stage of change. Her contribution reflects her belief that a strong finance function should do more than manage numbers. It should provide insight, discipline, and support for important business decisions.
One of the biggest challenges in her leadership journey was finding an authentic leadership style. Earlier in her career, El Kope believed that leadership needed to look a certain way to be taken seriously, especially as a woman progressing into senior finance positions. Over time, she learned that authenticity is not a weakness or a soft concept. Instead, it gives a leader the credibility to make difficult decisions, maintain high standards, and bring people along on the journey. She developed her approach by seeking honest feedback, reflecting on the leader she wanted to become, and giving herself the freedom to lead in a way that felt genuine.
Integrity, accountability, and humility form the foundation of her leadership. Integrity is particularly important in finance, where financial reporting, market disclosures, and professional opinions require a high level of trust. Accountability means taking ownership of outcomes, acknowledging when something has not worked, and being willing to make changes. Humility allows her to remain open to learning, listen to different perspectives, and remember that leadership is ultimately about serving the team and organisation.
Her approach to innovation is equally people-focused. El Kope encourages her teams to take risks, learn from failure, and move forward. She believes people need space to experiment without being afraid of making mistakes. This creates an environment where new ideas can emerge and where failure becomes part of learning rather than a reason to stop trying.
Strong leaders create space for people to grow.
She also sees significant opportunities ahead for African businesses and leaders. Growing capital markets, improving regional integration, evolving regulatory frameworks, and the expansion of digital technologies are creating new possibilities. In telecommunications, the move from traditional connectivity toward digital services, fintech, cloud, data, and AI-enabled customer experiences is opening new areas for growth. El Kope believes leaders will need to combine financial discipline with a genuine willingness to embrace technology and innovation.
Building strong teams, in her view, begins with clarity. People need to understand what they are doing, why their work matters, and how it connects to the wider purpose of the organisation. Trust is equally important. El Kope gives people ownership, creates space for open conversations, and encourages team members to challenge her when necessary. She believes execution and employee engagement must work together.
Technology and innovation are central to Cell C’s strategy. The company’s asset-light model depends on using technology effectively, while data and AI support better decision-making and evolving customer experiences. For El Kope, this transformation also changes the role of finance by influencing costs, improving decision-making, and shaping the quality of earnings.
Looking ahead, El Kope wants Cell C to continue establishing itself as a differentiated player in South African telecommunications, trusted by customers, respected by the market, and capable of delivering sustainable value. She sees the next chapter as one focused on financial discipline, strengthening the asset-light.
Leadership begins with the courage to be authentic.