Vanessa Gounden

Vanessa Gounden (born 1961) is South Africa's first female mining magnate and a successful female entrepreneur, whose business interest span healthcare services, financial services and lifestyle and leisure. She served in the ANC administration during the 1990s. Vanessa Gounden is an inspirational and driven businesswoman who has made a name for herself in notoriously difficult industries as diverse as mining to fashion.
Early life.
Gounden was born in South Africa in March 1961. She was the child of first generation Indian South Africans, as her grandparents had left India for Africa as indentured labourers. She grew up on a smallholding in a mixed racial area near Durban with her grandparents. She spent her childhood helping her family, cutting and preparing roses for sale to the florists in the district. She lived with six adults and 14 children in a house without electricity.
When she was ten years old the apartheid state of South Africa forcibly removed her family under the Group Areas Act to a dormitory township with minimal facilities. They were also cut off from their previous livelihood.
Gounden was educated at Shallcross Secondary and holds a B.Tech Honours degree in Human Resources from University of Pretoria.
Politics and early career.
As a teenager Gounden joined the ANC, with her future husband, Dr Sivi Gounden. She combined her activism with getting a university degree and becoming a primary school teacher. Nelson Mandela's ANC government come to power in 1994 after South Africa's first democratic elections. Post the elections she served in the Mandela administration and became actively involved in the trade union movement, before becoming the director of change management in the police.
Holgoun Investment Holdings.
In 2003, along with her husband Sivi, she started HolGoun Investment Holdings, a South African investment holding company. They began HolGoun with very little and built it into an extremely successful multi-divisional company.
HolGoun Investment Holdings has its primary investment in coal and uranium, but has activity in a wide range of sectors including mining and exploration, healthcare, financial services, property, music, fashion, security, and film production. Gounden currently works as the Chief Executive Officer for HolGoun. The HolGoun group also has investments in HolGoun Healthcare, HG Risk Management Solutions, HG Property and HG Lifestyle and Leisure.
Amongst her many HolGoun Group directorships she also holds a directorship in Samancor and Daly Credit Corporation.
Fashion Line: Vanessa G London.
She launched her clothing line, Vanessa G London, in March 2011 at London Fashion Week held at Banqueting House in London. The women's luxury fashion label encompasses a range of casual, cocktail, formal and haute couture “ready to wear” clothing.
Gounden is the creative and artistic director. Model Amber Le Bon, daughter of Simon and Yasmin Le Bon was the face of the Vanessa G in the spring/summer 2012 campaign. Her 2013 collection combined the themes of mining and nature, raw materials and precious metals. Vanessa's designs are inspired from her activist background and each season reflects a socio-economic issue. Her design house is vertically integrated whereby all her printing and manufacturing is done by her atelier in Cape Town.