UNISA appoints new Executive Dean and CEO at its Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL)

Newly appointed Executive Dean and CEO of Unisa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership, Prof Pumela Msweli

It gives the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL) pleasure to announce that at its recent meeting, the Unisa Council approved the appointment of Prof Pumela Msweli as the Executive Dean and CEO of the business school. The appointment is effective from 1 December 2020.

Part of Prof Msweli’s mandate would be to ensure the SBL lives up to its newly crafted vision statement to be the leading business school in Africa; that creates leaders of distinction with fresh solutions for society and business. According to Msweli the unprecedented coronavirus crisis in the 2020 academic year has presented significant new challenges to the way we teach, research and engage with our communities. “The Lockdown Regulations ushered in, a new way of working and accountability. Creating connections and developing trust amongst staff that sit behind a computer screen has been a challenge that we have all embraced. That is why it is important for all of us at the SBL to embrace our mission to go beyond known boundaries with disruptive thinking in creating business solutions with impact”, says Prof Msweli.

The newly appointed Executive Dean is excited that with the transformational shift to a fully online environment, the SBL will be the first College in Unisa to integrate innovative 4th and 5th IR technologies to build digital teaching and learning capabilities. That is why in 2021 she will provide leadership to ensure that the business school build its success on strong and vibrant partnerships with our students, alumni and all our stakeholders with a clear focus on financial sustainability and affluence.

As Professor of Corporate Governance, she introduced technology-based real-time assessment techniques to improve the throughput of postgraduate students. I have introduced several horizontal diversification programmes to generate third- and fourth income streams in a few universities that I worked for. The scholarly outputs of some of her postgraduate students together with her own published works have been cited by scholars all over the world.

Prof Msweli was entrusted with the leadership role of the SBL in an acting capacity since the 1 May 2020. Prior to this she has worked in senior leadership positions at various South African universities including in the role of Executive Dean. She is an illustrious leader, with more than 23 years’ experience as an academic and researcher who has published a number of journal articles, a book, and book chapters. She also has extensive teaching experience at various universities locally continentally as well as in Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada. Prof Msweli holds a PhD, MBA and MPhil, to list but a few of her qualifications.

Msweli is a Council member of the University of Botswana and has recently been appointed so serve in the NSFAS board.