The ‘Most Influential Women in Business and Government’ Awards took place at the Gallagher Estate Conference Centre in Johannesburg on the 31st of July, and Starlite Aviation is extremely proud to announce the achievements of our illustrious ladies.

Kate Odendaal, Director of Training, won the prestigious General Services category, with Starlite’s Laura Ilunga also nabbing the runner-up spot! Our management and staff would like to take this opportunity to express our congratulations to Kate and Laura, who deserve this outstanding recognition. Getting to the final stage of the awards is no mean feat, with an extensive judging process that takes no prisoners. After a call for nominations was sent out, more than 1,000 were received for the South African leg. These were then filtered to remove incorrect forms, and three judges each reviewed 201 CVs.

The panel of judges then selected up to five semi-finalists in each sector, and of the 98 submitted, 60 finalists were chosen. Each finalist was invited to a face-to-face video conference with Chairperson Yvonne Finch (with all being asked the same set of questions) and the final judging panel reviewed the footage from each one – every judging panel consisted of leaders from different industries in order to ensure fairness. Winners were then picked based on their nomination forms and interviews. Finalists from sectors as diverse as Health Care, Agriculture, Sport, Finance, Arts and Culture, Education and Government were featured, and highly esteemed women spoke at the awards ceremony.

Annelize Wepner, the Chief Executive of CEO Holdings, emphasised an important milestone in the history of the programme – the inclusion of nominees from all over Africa. Dr. Nkosazana Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission and ex-Minister of Health, was a keynote speaker, as was Tsietsi Mokhele, CEO of the SA Maritime Safety Authority. Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Derek Watts, well known to all South Africans for his 25 years of journalism. Major partners in the event were SAMSA, Mercedes Benz, SAA, Michel Herbelin, Air Mauritius, UNISA’s Graduate School of Business, SBL, and another 18 partners in excellence.

All at Starlite Aviation offer their congratulations to Kate and Laura on their tremendous success and look forward to hearing of many more such achievements in the future.

Klara Fouché, Sales Director of Starlite Aero Sales, Karl Kebert, Starlite’s Executive Director and Kate Odendaal, Starlite’s Director of Training and Chief Flying Instructor – winner of the MIWB General Services award.