eRoy Munetsi’s father was a Seventh - day Adventist pastor and as a result, the family travelled quite often during his formative years. By the time he went to Anderson High School in Zimbabwe, LeRoy had lived in and visited a number of countries in North America, Europe, South-East Asia and other parts of Africa. Armed with a first degree in business administration (accounting major) from Andrews University in Michigan in the United States, he started his formal working career in June 1996 as a workshop costing clerk with Amtec Motors in Bulawayo. “I used to be the guy who checksin your car for service in the morning, making sure your jack and spanner are in the car, then spending the rest of the day tracking the progress of the job and finally calculating the charges for invoicing,” LeRoy recalled in an interview. “It was a humble start but I really enjoyed the experience... probably because I love cars” After a few months in the workshop, LeRoy was moved to the accounts department where shortly after, the Group Finance Director bought a division of the group and poached a couple of “bright sparks” including LeRoy from the department to join him at Elida Automotive. Elida was a smaller entity and LeRoy gained invaluable management accounting experience and developed a firm appreciation for both the challenges faced and opportunities available when growing your business from the ground up.
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LeRoy then joined Innscor Africa as a Regional Financial Manager for their Fast Foods division in March 1999. Here he led a team of 18 and was given the opportunity to hone his skills in a larger organisation. “It was a great job and I was exposed to the ups and downs of management as I had a bigger team reporting to me. Soon after I joined the entity, the Zimbabwean economy started to take a turn for the worse which affected the company and my prospects. Fortunately, voluntary retrenchment packages were offered and I took mine and left for South Africa in October 2000.” After a few months of job hunting and burning into his “meagre Zim-dollar savings”, he got a contract financial manager job at the advertising agency Leo Burnett before joining Brunswick, an international corporate communications outfit as an analyst. “That was in 2001 and a number of interesting corporate case studies were playing out. As an analyst, the research involved was a good learning experience for me and helped me to gain a better understanding of the local business landscape. I later moved to Cadbury’s where I was a commercial accountant supporting the marketing and sales functions.” “After a short stint in the telecommunications industry with the MTN Group, I joined the Standard Bank Group in October 2003 and started my MBA at the Wits Business School in January 2004. By the time I left Standard Bank, I was essentially
the CFO for the group corporate entities which included Group Risk, Group Finance, Corporate Human Resources and Group Marketing to name a few. One of the highlights was my involvement in the multimillion rand rebranding exercise which took the bank from the legendary ‘simpler, better, faster’ to ‘inspired, motivated and involved’.” LeRoy moved to the Absa Group in August 2006 with the goal of moving away from ‘bean counting’ to a more business oriented role. In 2008, he moved to the Absa Life business unit as executive assistant to the Managing Director. Shortly after, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the unit and helped to drive a significant change program which involved a technology platform upgrade, process reengineering and the introduction of output based remuneration in the operations environment. His mandate also included playing a central role in the infusion of a more progressive culture into the business to support the changes going on with the operating model. In October 2011, he joined Mutual & Federal Insurance Company (M&F) as Executive: Africa & New Markets with responsibility for its interests in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland and leading the expansion of the business into new territories. “Our overarching goal is to position M&F as a pan-African company with representation in more countries than we presently have and to participate in the