Leanne Maiden can cast any notions of her being an ‘ordinary woman’ out the porthole because she has successfully completed the World’s Toughest Row and become the first South African woman to finish the 3000 mile journey, ever!

An achievement that’s made history, Leanne took something of a midlife crisis spurred by lockdown and turned it into an incredible adventure where she sailed the waves of resilience, isolation, bravery, pressure and dreams across the Atlantic on her boat, Rieka.

Leanne boasted her South African flag on Saturday 17 February when she celebrated the end of the nearly 5000 kilometre odyssey she hoped would help charities in need, and inspire minds in need of inspiration.

Yolanda is a Compliance Practitioner SA / CPrac (SA) with 17 years of experience in Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC). She havssupported Provincial Departments, Municipalities and Financial Institutions (Banking, Long Term Insurance, with exposure in LISP, Pension Fund Administration, Wealth, Asset Management, and Stock Exchange) with a niche in Compliance Risk Management Advisory Services under a digitization strategy. She also holds a FAIS RE 1 license for Key Individuals and Compliance Officers and serves as a Pension Fund Trustee and sit on the Risk and Audit Board Subcommittees, respectively.

Rianné is a Chartered Accountant (SA) and Compliance Professional (SA). During her 27-year career in banking she filled various senior management roles in business, finance, risk management, internal audit and compliance.

She ran her own compliance consulting firm for 8 years before being appointed as the CEO of the Compliance Institute Southern Africa in July 2018. She is also the Chair of the International Federation of Compliance Associations (IFCA).

She is passionate about compliance and ensuring that the compliance profession is positioned as a strategic business partner, an independent assurance provider and what it means to be the ‘C’ in GRC.

She became a Chartered Accountant at the age of 41 and lives by her personal motto ‘It is never too late to have a happy childhood (or a new career).’