Standard Bank’s former information technology senior lead, Mary Mahuma, has been appointed as the new Head of Information Technology at Philip Morris South Africa (PMSA), a leading international tobacco company.
Mahuma joins the company in South Africa to lead the technology and operations as PMSA transforms its core operating model beyond tobacco, underpinned by the organisation’s bold ambition to deliver a smoke-free future.
PMSA Managing Director Branislav Bibic says that “A smoke-free future is attainable, and the benefits it can bring to the adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke and global public health, are enormous.”
“Mary is charged with embedding information technology within every aspect of our business to fulfil our mission of achieving a smoke-free future.
“For a global company like PMI harnessing local talent to drive our ambition in South Africa with a firm understanding of the local market is imperative,” he says. “Her role includes delivering a digital transformation strategy, reshaping the IT organisation and making the business more consumer-centric.”
“With Philip Morris now being a multi-category and multi-product business, IT needs to understand the entire lifecycle of product development, and the role technology can play at each stage,” Bibic explains.” Effectively, the fusion between IT and product development in real-life.”
Mahuma was previously head of information technology: brand and marketing at Standard Bank, where she oversaw leading and managing the business portfolio, particularly around digital transformation initiatives. She also held the role of head of infrastructure and operations at the Financial Services Board (FSB), in charge of infrastructure engineering, architecture, service desk, vendor and supplier management, and prior to that IT service level management at Telkom. She has also held IT positions at Liberty Group and the South African Reserve Bank.
She is a Pupil (Advocate) candidate with an LLB, Public Administration degree and a BCom honours degree, all from UNISA. She also holds an MBA essential from Stellenbosch Business School, with 19 years’ experience working in these industries.
Mahuma has led the execution of transformative initiatives, including leading different ITO domains (IT Operation, Infrastructure, Cloud, IT Service management, business analysis as well as automation. Furthermore, leading the technology enablement of Salesforce Marketing Cloud within the platform business group strategies.
“PMSA’s profound selfless strategy in letting go of its core business driver to transform a century old industry for the betterment of society is what attracted me to the organisation,” says Mahuma.
“Technology is an important enabler for this transformation, transitioning from the legacy IT to a future infrastructure and platform-based ecosystem while maintaining minimal disruption is a challenge I look forward to.”
Mahuma adds that she is most excited about the micro-economic and macro-economic opportunities and challenges that come with her new role.
“My focus will be on driving innovation, identifying emerging technologies and managing while optimising the IT operations to meet the businesses strategic priorities in order to accelerate the fulfilment of the company’s transformation,” she says.
Most notably she adds that digital business transformation is all about how we change our business and use the technology to enable it – business process, model, and culture transformation.
“Importantly it is not only about bringing in technology in the organisation but how we are structured as a business,” she explains. “Essentially putting our customers in the centre of every decision we make by using technology to become more adaptable and collaborative.”
“We are after all transforming to create products to make a positive impact on the lives of smokers and a better experience for our customers and consumers, not just for technology,” Mahuma says. “It’s a bold ambition to move 50 percent of the company’s global revenues to smoke-free products by 2025 which is why it is so important for us to investigate how digital and data capabilities can help improve performance, efficiency, customer experience and profitability.”
“IT and operations are imperative to deliver on this business transformation,” she says. “In its most basic form, if we simplify our legacy business processes and adjust and change the way we have been doing business we will bring about overall efficiency.”
