Bloomberg New Voices Initiative Launches in Johannesburg

At a virtual event held on Tuesday, March 30th, Bloomberg announced the expansion of its New Voices media training initiative to South Africa, with the launch of its first cohort in Johannesburg.

Bloomberg News launched the New Voices initiative in 2018, providing media training to female executives in business and finance across the globe to get the executives TV-ready for interviews on Bloomberg Television and other outlets. Last year, in the United States, the program expanded with a Black executives cohort, and later this year the initiative will further expand to include a Latinx executives cohort, across all gender identities, in finance and business. With the start of the New Voices training program in Johannesburg, the program will have been active in 11 global cities, including: New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Dubai, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Sydney, Washington D.C. and Singapore.

Speaking at the event, Laura Zelenko, Bloomberg News Senior Executive Editor for Diversity, Talent, Standards and Training said, “We are doing this work because it matters to our coverage — diverse sourcing helps ensure we are fair and balanced, it helps us limit our blind spots and our biases, it helps us not miss important stories on our beats or important perspectives in our storytelling. And our challenge is even more significant given our focus on the financial industry, itself struggling to diversify its upper ranks.” Zelenko continued, noting, “In South Africa, we want to amplify the voices of Black female executives in finance and other key industries in the economy across our airwaves and in our stories.”

The event included a keynote by the South African Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Fundi Tshazibana, followed by a discussion about the challenges for female representation on boards, management and policy-making, and the implications for economic performance. Speakers included Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa,CEO, Naspers SA and Shameela Soobramoney, Chief Sustainability Officer, Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

South African Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Fundi Tshazibana shared with attendees, “I am a New Voice myself, in the central banking space, even though I have more than 17 years of experience in doing policy work.” The deputy governor continued, “We are blessed in being the New Voices at this point in history. So much is changing around us. The conversations are changing, the industries we are in are facing new challenges related to climate change, related to digitization. Even the central banking world is changing.” Deputy Governor Tshazibana concluded, “This is going to give us an equal opportunity to learn, to express ourselves, to bring our views forward.”

Speaking to the role of local journalism in the South African rollout, Amogelang Mbatha, South Africa Bureau Chief, Bloomberg News said, “There’s no doubt that there is an extraordinary amount of female executives to bring on board. There really is no better time to attract more women onto the various platforms that we have at Bloomberg News because the world is excited to hear from Africa.”

Since the program’s inception in 2018, more than 260 executives have received media training. Many participants have appeared on Bloomberg Television and have been booked on and quoted in other media outlets, as well.

To apply or nominate someone for the New Voices media training program, please click here. Find out more about how Bloomberg is advancing women at the company, in the workplace, in the news and in the world.