Judy is a medical doctor and a Doctor of Business Leadership, an entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist. After practicing as a medical family practitioner for many years, she specialised in Occupational Health and consulted for different companies. Her MBA from Wits University enabled her to change careers. Her doctoral thesis investigated the impact of the intersection of race, gender, and social class in women leaders’ career progression and strategies for gender transformation, using grounded theory and life stories. She converted her thesis to a book titled ‘Equal but Different’ which became a bestseller. Judy is the Founder and Executive Chairman for Mbekani Group that has been in business for 27 years.

She is a non-executive director of SA SME Fund, an initiative between government and the private sector to create jobs and grow an inclusive economy, she chairs the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre and is the Chancellor of Wits University. She is the former Chairman of Aspen Pharmacare Limited (Aspen) and the GBVF Response Fund 1. She’s the Founder of Sifiso Publishers and Female Academic Leaders Fellowship NPC, co-founder of Future Nation Schools, Sifiso Learning Group and Mkhiwa Trust.

She is the recipient of the African Economy Builder Lifetime Achiever Award for 2016, amongst several other awards, the most recent being the UNISA Leadership In Practice Award 2018, the 2019 BBQ Platinum award, the 2019 Gender Mainstreaming Role Model –Beacon of Africa award and the 2019 EY World Entrepreneur, Lifetime Achiever award recipient and the Charlotte Mannya Maxeke Chairman’s award for Women of Firsts in 2021. She received an honorary Doctorate in Business from Nelson Mandela University in 2018 and from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal Economics in 2019. She’s the Chancellor of Wits University, a wife, mother, and grandmother.