JOB PROFILE: Group Chief Executive

Position Summary:

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. seeks to appoint a new Group Chief Executive following the resignation of Mr. Andre de Ruyter in December 2022.

The incoming Group Chief Executive will report to the Chairman of the Board, serve as a member of the Group Executive Committee and act as Executive Director of Eskom. He/ she will be responsible for strategic leadership and financial sustainability of the organisation, with particular emphasis on pro-actively shaping the future of Eskom. The incumbent will also be responsible for building an ethos of excellence and continuous improvement in the provision of the highest levels of customer service within a dynamic market environment.

Key to this role will be effectively partnering with the Chairman, Board, Executive Committee and relevant stakeholders to ensure that Eskom’s strategies are financially prudent and operationally focused, to ensure efficient and sustainable delivery of electricity supply.

The Group Chief Executive will also play a key role in promoting a collaborative and well-governed compliance culture. The ideal candidate should possess a track record of working in a complex environment, leading a business turnaround, ideally within emerging markets.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Reports to: 

The Chairman and the Board of Directors, Eskom SOC Holdings Ltd.

Direct Reports: 

Group Chief Finance Officer
Chief Officer: Generation
Chief Officer: Distribution
Chief Officer: Transmission
Group Executive: Human Resources Officer
Chief Information Officer
Chief Procurement Officer
Group Executive Government and Regulatory Affairs
Group Executive: Transformation Management Office
Group Executive: Legal and Compliance

Internal Stakeholders:

Eskom Board
Eskom Executive Committee
Business Unit Heads
Eskom Employees
The Unions

External Stakeholders:

Department of Public Enterprises
Parliamentary Portfolio Committees
National Government
Provincial Governments
National Treasury
National Electricity Regulator of South Africa (NERSA)
The Unions
South African business community
Municipalities
The Media
Funding Institutions
International Rating Agencies
The South African citizens
International Utility Bodies
Customers

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Create a high-performing organisation with a culture that maintains the highest ethical and governance standards in line with shareholder, business, communities and citizen’s expectations to provide excellent customer service;
• Develop, implement, monitor and evaluate commercial and operational strategies and processes to achieve sustainable organisational outcomes;
• Explore all strategic and commercial avenues that will translate into consistent and profitable business growth;
• Lead and build an Executive team which will stabilise an organisation in crisis whilst managing diverse and sometimes conflicting stakeholder expectations; and
• Ensuring that the organisation manages risk and regulatory compliance requirements whilst achieving fiscal discipline and reducing high debt levels.

IDEAL EXPERIENCE

• A post graduate degree in Engineering, Business Administration/ Economics, or suitable qualification on NQF level 8 with 480 credits
• An undergraduate degree, with an MBA or other relevant post­ graduate degree, will be an advantage;
• Strong commercial acumen with a successful track record in managing the strategic turnaround of a commercial entity operating within a complex environment with over 20 000+ employees and an annual turnover in excess of R50 billion;
• At least 15 – 20 years’ senior management experience at executive committee level, ideally within emerging markets;
• A solid track record in mitigating systemic risks and pro-actively managing crises;
• A leader with unquestionable integrity and ethics;
• A solid understanding of global trends within the energy sector and their applicability to local market conditions;
• A demonstrable and sustainable track record of turning around commercially and operationally challenged organisations;
• Extensive experience in raising capital (funding) and managing large capital projects;
• Experience in managing a dynamic and robust stakeholder environment
• Experience in the energy and I or industrial sectors would be advantageous; and
• Comply with Government policies and the unbundling process currently underway

COMPETENCIES

Commercial Acumen 

Eskom’s mandate to supply stable electricity in an efficient and sustainable manner has been severely impacted by its weak financial performance, which threatens its financial sustainability. Challenges highlighted include insufficient returns on assets, lack of cost-reflective tariffs, lower sales volumes, escalating municipal debt and unsustainably high levels of debt servicing costs.

The Group Chief Executive of Eskom will lead Eskom’s strategic goals, ensuring alignment with the Group’s overall strategic and short-term growth imperatives. He/she will be tasked with a turnaround mandate and thus would be expected to identify and translate commercial opportunities that will achieve sustainable revenue targets in a multifaceted organisation. They will also ensure that the organisation debt levels are reduced.

 

They will achieve this by:

• Driving the business to meet targets set for the organisation by the shareholder, Board and Executive Committee;
• Defining a strategic framework for the operating model of Eskom, which includes the alignment of operations, organisation structure, people, processes and technology to the business strategy;
• Presenting the Eskom strategy and annual business plans to the Board and other governance structures;
• Effectively managing resources, shaping the organisation’s culture to achieve consistent and reliable business performance;
• Understanding and leveraging trends in the energy sector globally, regionally and locally and adapting these strategies timeously in a fast-changing environment;
• Identifying, mitigating and managing key business risks and ensuring compliance and adherence to regulatory and statutory provisions; and
• Ensuring implementation of financial, commercial and operational best practices.

Strategic Leadership & Governance

Eskom has suffered severe damage as a result of governance and operational misdemeanours over the past decade, mainly as a result of state capture. This has had serious developmental and transformation consequences for governance and leadership within the entity, resulting in acute skills and capacity erosion, both at the governance and technical levels. The successful incumbent will be tasked with leading the organisation to greater levels of efficiency by implementing a style of management which embodies the strategic vision, encourages innovation and an improved way of delivering service.

This can be achieved by:

• Leading the implementation of decisions taken by the Eskom Board and Executive Committee;
• Leading from the front, demonstrating stability and consistency in leading an organisation to achieve high levels of performance;
• Demonstrating ethical leadership and business integrity, modelling organisational values and behaviours;
• Creating an environment of trust by acting with fairness, being consistent, adhering to commitments made and providing a solid rationale for decisions;
• Ensuring strict adherence to corporate governance practices and implementation of internal controls;
• Empowering a high-calibre team of individuals to achieve excellence in their respective areas of focus;
• Creating an ethos of excellence, a disciplined work ethic and a desire for continual improvement;
• Leading the various Divisions in Eskom to function as collaborative whilst working in an integrated manner; and
• Creating an environment which attracts and retains the best skills in key areas of focus across a high-performing organisation.

Given record levels of unplanned outages and inadequate procurement practices have resulted in costly periods of load-shedding, placing massive strain on the financial sustainability of Eskom with severe consequences for the South African economy. As operational performance remains far from adequate, the Group Chief Executive will be tasked with attaining operational excellence across all areas of the business, which includes directing a step change in performance to secure Eskom’s current and future mandate to operate.

This can be achieved by:

• Developing and implementing an operational scorecard, understanding key dependencies and areas of prioritisation;
• Taking responsibility for codifying and sharing best practices across the organisation;
• Initiating strategies for driving – professional and customer-centric behaviours across the Group;
• Ensuring that change management strategies are crafted that continually drive Eskom to embrace and transform towards market-leading practices using new concepts and technologies that add value to the organisational effectiveness and strategic focus; and
• Resourcing operational teams across the value chain.

Stakeholder Management

As South Africa’s national electricity utility, Eskom has a significant impact on the economy and the lives of South Africans. Given its mandate to ensure stable electricity supply in an efficient manner, to contribute to lowering the cost of doing business and enabling economic growth, it serves a wide range of stakeholders, i.e. Government as the sole shareholder, investors, employees, customers, suppliers, regulators, trade unions, the media and civil society etc.

Over the last two decades, Eskom has failed to deliver consistent and reliable power to the country, which has resulted in frustration and agitation across all stakeholder groups across the country. The Chief Executive role will have a public face and will require an Executive who is astute and experienced in working across a plethora of stakeholder groupings. To this end, they will have to be an effective communicator and stakeholder manager on many public fora.

To this end, in leading the organisation, the Group Chief Executive will manage various stakeholder engagements and be accountable to the shareholder and society at large. He /she will need to understand the regulatory environment and be socially and politically astute. They should possess strong interpersonal skills, be an effective and influential communicator, bridge builder, and negotiator and establish themselves as a respected leader. This can be achieved through:

• Managing the communication of the overall Eskom strategy and direction both internally and externally to the organisation;
• Leading the implementation of decisions taken by the Eskom Board and Executive Committee;
• Representing Eskom at various strategic forums both locally and internationally;
• Developing and growing effective working relationships with internal customers and external suppliers;
• Ensuring the establishment and maintenance of sound relations and practices with trade unions and other interested parties;
• Understanding and appreciation of the culture and environment within which Eskom operates; and
• Working closely and collaborating with local community leaders to ensure that Eskom develops corporate social investment strategies that address the socio-economic challenges impacting the community.

REMUNERATION

Remuneration for this position will comprise a competitive package and incentives commensurate with the demanding requirements of the role.

OTHER PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

• Must be a disciplined and goal-oriented professional with proven leadership experience at Executive level with personal integrity;
• An intellectually curious critical thinker who can help develop the vision and strategy of Eskom;
• Must be able to take calculated risks and make tough decisions;
• An Executive who has relevant professional and social networks that can be leveraged for the benefit of the organisation;
• Have excellent communication, motivational and negotiation skills; and
• An inspiring and engaging Executive who will be seen as a strong leader of Eskom and viewed throughout the industry as an effective leader.