Irene Charnley (born 6 May 1960) is a former

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

ist and businesswoman from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Career

Charnley first made her mark on the African business community as a negotiator for South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers where she spent 13 years coordinating various divisions of union operations.''Irene Charnley''
career info at Forbes.comBiography of ''Irene Charnley''
at AfricanSuccess.org. She went on to become an executive director for the

MTN Group MTN Group Limited, formerly M-Cell, is a South African multinational mobile telecommunications company, operating in many African and Asian countries. Its head office is in Johannesburg. , MTN recorded 280 million subscribers, making it the ...

, which is Africa's largest

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

company. Under her leadership several African and Middle Eastern countries (including Nigeria and Iran) were connected into the MTN network. Charnley was the behind the founding of the National Empowerment Consortium made up of 50% black business owners and 50% black African laborers. They eventually owned 35% of Johnnic Holdings (now called Johnnic Communications). Charnley left MTN under controversial conditions but she was worth US$150 million when she left. In August 2000 she was awarded the title of ''Businesswoman of the Year'' for her outstanding contribution to taking Johnnic from an industrial conglomerate to a modern telecommunications media group. During her time at Johnnic (from 1996 to the late-2000s) 32,000 disadvantaged South Africans bought shares in the company. Financial returns over a three-year time span has made these 32,000 African residents 400% wealthier than they were before buying the shares. A more recent award made Charnley one of the top 50 businesswomen outside of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Charnley is currently the CEO of Smile Telecoms Holdings Ltd, a Mauritius-based Pan-African telecommunications group with operations in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

listed her among "Africa's 50 Most Powerful Women" in 2020.

References

External links

Smile Key Management
1960 births South African businesspeople Living people {{SouthAfrica-bio-stub