Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita


Nonkululeko Merina Cheryl Nyembezi-Heita, also Nku, is a South African business executive who has been active in steel, telecommunications and finance. Since March 2014, she has been CEO of the Dutch mining group, IchorCoal N.V.

Biography

Nyembezi-Heita was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, where her father was an attorney. She has an older brother and a younger sister. Brought up in a Methodist family, she attended a Bantu primary school in Clermont, KwaZulu-Natal, before embarking on her secondary school education at Inanda Seminary School near Durban. She obtained exceptionally good results in science and maths, becoming the top student in South Africa in her Junior Certificate year. After receiving her Senior Certificate, she was awarded an Awarded Anglo American Corporation Open Scholarship. She went on to graduate in electrical engineering at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and earned a Master of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology. She also has an MBA from the Open University Business School.
After first working in various positions with IBM in the United States and South Africa, she moved to Alliance Capital Management where she headed financial services. In 2008, she was appointed executive director of ArcelorMittal South Africa where she remained for six years. In March 2014, she joined IchorCoal as CEO. Nyembezi-Heita has also served on the boards of several other companies.
In 2012, Nyembezi-Heita was listed 97th in Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women.