She left Johnnic to take up the role of CFO at South Africa’s most important petrochemical firm, Sasol. This was a period of massive expansion and diversification for a company that was transforming itself to fit the new economic and political life of the country.
At AngloGold, meanwhile, she finds herself in a mining sector that has been battered by volatile commodity prices, the unstable value of the rand and divisive labor issues as firms struggle to modernize amid rising costs and harder-to-reach resources. As if that wasn’t enough, Ramon is also a Non Executive Director at telecommunications giant MTN, which itself has been through a tough period of labor unrest, management changes and a US$1.7b fine from the Nigerian Government.
It’s perhaps an indication of her character that, when asked about her uncanny ability to pick industries in turmoil, she simply says with a smile: “I guess I’m the type of person who enjoys a challenge.”
How to talk to shareholders
To demonstrate how she rises to those challenges, Ramon describes how she took over as CFO at AngloAshanti at a tough time for the company.
“When I joined, one of our challenges was having a very highly leveraged balance sheet,” she says. “The shareholders didn’t want to put equity in the company, so we had to focus on self-help measures, and that entailed focusing on cost reduction to drive operational efficiencies in the business. It was a particularly low gold price environment, so our focus was to keep the long-term growth optionality in the business, even while looking at keeping the costs down.”
Just two years on, Ramon’s tight financial management has left the group looking decidedly healthier. Net debt is down by 32% and free cash flow has more than quadrupled to US$161m. The company is even considering a return to dividend payments in early 2017 – something that hasn’t happened since 2013. “Cutting debt by a third was a significant achievement,” says Ramon. “It was quite tough deciding which assets to dispose of, but it was the right thing to do; the important thing was communicating and getting buy-in from the operators as regards the decisions we had to make. The benefit of reduced debt then resulted in improved free cash flow generation in the group. The credit ratings agencies have moved us to a positive outlook and our share price has more
than doubled.”
Ramon has, of course, had plenty of experience talking to shareholders, and she’s been tasked with delivering both good and bad news in the past.
“It’s very important for a CFO to be honest and transparent in communication with shareholders, as well as with other stakeholders,” she says. “Shareholders are interested in hearing about the challenges the business faces, whether it is related to the commodity price, regulatory developments or other challenges. They’re interested in hearing how management is dealing with these issues, and articulating transparently how you’re doing so does inspire more confidence in management.”
Being clear about future plans is also vital to gaining that confidence, she adds. “It was very important for us to undertake the cost-cutting initiatives without prejudicing the longer-term growth objectives,” she says. “That’s important for shareholders, because they do look at the longer-term value proposition of the company.”
Driving new standards
Ramon is as passionate about the wider world of financial reporting as she is about her day job. She is a past member of the Standards Advisory Council of the International Accounting Standards Board, and today she is Deputy Chair of the Financial Reporting Standards Council (FRSC) in South Africa and Chair of the national CFO Listed Companies Forum.
The FRSC is a particularly interesting place to work, as South Africa’s unique history means that corporate reporting is stringent: the Johannesburg Stock Exchange insists on integrated reporting, and rules around good governance and corporate social responsibility are arguably better defined than anywhere else in the world as the country continues on its long journey toward economic equality for all.
Ramon says that adopting the integrated reporting principles laid out by the International Integrated Reporting Council and the King Code of Governance hasn’t just kept AngloGold compliant, it’s also been an influence on company culture at all levels. “Having to produce an integrated report allows for more integrated thinking,” she explains. “It allows for functions and the business to come together as one and focus on the key messages that we need to deliver to shareholders.
“The integrated report has been a key report that allows us to capture succinct messages to shareholders, to employees, to broader stakeholders. It’s allowed us to pull together all the key objectives of the company, and the key deliverables as well.”
Beyond the office
Gaining experience beyond her day job has been a hallmark of Ramon’s career. In 2007, she was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which opened up a global network of connections and influences.
“It created an opportunity for me to attend the WEF in Davos,” she recalls, “and also to participate in a number of different forums across the world whereby we, as a global community, could get a more in-depth understanding of some of the sustainability issues we face. And I experienced some of the solutions that worked effectively in certain environments, and that I could then take back to my own environment.”
As for that environment, Ramon doesn’t shy away from the sad truth that, as a woman of color, she’s still an unusual presence in the boardroom of a global company (although 27% of AngloGold Ashanti’s board of directors are female). That’s something she wants to change, and she has worked hard to direct the companies she’s worked for toward policies such as gender equity in pay and developing a culture that encourages and supports women as they are building careers in traditionally male industries such as mining and petrochemicals.
“Women who are leaders have got a key role to play,” she insists. “It’s important to be an executive in order to be able to drive these changes, and to refine recruitment processes to attract and fast track women with high potential to senior leadership positions.”
Significantly, Ramon can talk directly to the experiences of women living in the remote and poor areas where AngloGold typically operates and recruits. “I recently took part in a program on SABC [the South African national broadcaster],” she says. “I wanted to say, ‘Look, I’m a woman, I grew up in the Transkei and this is what I’ve done, and you can do the same. These are the challenges I’ve faced and this is how you deal with it.’”
Of all the subjects she talks about, this, she says, is the one that is the most important for her to get her point across. “In South Africa, only 25% of management positions are filled by women,” she says. “At the top, just 2.4% of CEOs are women, so we need to make a lot of inroads.”
To change that situation, you could hardly wish for a better role model than Ramon.
