THE Port Elizabeth branch of the Business Women‘s Association honoured women from a range of careers as regional achievers at a banquet held at the Boardwalk last night.

Nedbank‘s Mbulelo Ngxonono and BWA chairman Betsy Ings hosted the event, at which Lindie Engelbrecht, chief executive of the Institute of Directors, was the guest speaker.

Engelbrecht is national coordinator of the Audit Committee Forum, where she provides technical input and research on the latest corporate governance trends and legislation. She also is a member of the King Committee on Corporate Governance.

A panel of judges chose the following regional achiever award winners in four categories which each contained three finalists:

Tanya Kisten won the entrepreneur category.

Kisten is the co-owner and managing member of Khanyisela Training, a 100% BEE company in Newton Park which is an accredited training provider with the Services Seta. It provides corporate training, mostly in leadership development, business administration and education, training and development.

Kisten has a teaching background and spent two years at New York University on a scholarship.

Aspen Pharmacare talent development manager Dr Amber Anderson won the corporate category.

After her start in teaching, Anderson received her doctoral degree in human resource development. Besides her work commitments at Aspen, the country‘s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, she is involved in several community projects.

The Oliver Foundation project director Gail Hawes won the social entrepreneur award.

The Oliver Foundation focuses on using education programmes as a means of inspiring young people and building communities from within. Previously disadvantaged youth are the primary focus.

Hawes also recently partnered with two other Port Elizabeth businesswomen to start Bridge the Gap, a free training and development initiative aimed at helping young people acquire academic qualifications, workplace skills and experience.

Vanessa Langford, the owner of DKZee Cleaning Services, won the emerging entrepreneur category.

DKZee does domestic and commercial cleaning as well as domestic worker training. It offers work to recent graduates of the housekeeping programme of the Ray Mhlaba Training Centre, and has partnered with Oasis Human Development to assist with cleaner training at various northern area schools.

The four achievers have won a trip to Johannesburg and a chance to compete in the national BWA achiever awards. The judging panel consisted of Bay business figures and included Dorothea Moors, Alan Barr, Gill Robinson, Ashley Weyers, George Yerolemou, Rosa Maartens, Carol Hall, Cumeshan Moodliar, Michelle Brown, Betsy Ings and Weza Moss.