Secretariat
CEO – Ms. Zahra Cassim
Chief Executive Officer
Learning and Development Specialist, Zahra Cassim who is based in Pretoria, South Africa started her new role on 24 February 2017.
In her role as CEO of CSIA, Zahra is responsible for coordinating the execution of the strategic goals and plans of the CSIA and driving both growth and strategy across the globe. Her role is instrumental in ensuring that the unique skills set of practitioners in governance across the world are showcased and that these practitioners are represented as globally recognized governance professionals
Zahra brings a wealth of knowledge in strategy and business management and an understanding of the role of the professional body in developing people and promoting the recognition of specialist skills. She is driving the growth in the membership, recognition of the role of the corporate secretary and the recognition of CSIA as the global voice of corporate secretaries and governance professionals amongst the stakeholders
Prior to joining CSIA, Zahra has been employed in the professional body sector since November 1999, when she joined the Institute for Public Finance and Auditing (IPFA) as the Professional Development Director. At IPFA she spearheaded the growth of the Institute’s qualifications with stakeholders in the South African government as well as international stakeholders such as the World Bank. In 2005 she was appointed as Chief Executive Officer and Group Chief Executive of the Institute and its subsidiary, Public Finance IQ (PFiQ) on 1 April 2008.
Zahra joined CIMA on 2 July 2012 as the Head of South Africa, and during her tenure at CIMA the student numbers and market share grew substantially as well as the recognition of management accounting amongst the stakeholders in the corporate, government and tertiary sectors in the South African market. In addition to driving the long term country strategy for South Africa, Zahra was also responsible for overseeing growth in Botswana and Namibia and aligning the country growth targets at both regional and international level.
