Philip Morris South Africa gets new head of IT to transform legacy structures
Mary Mahuma, Standard Bank’s former information technology senior lead, has been appointed as the new head of information technology at Philip Morris South Africa (PMSA).
Mahuma joins the company in South Africa to lead the technology and operations as PMSA transforms its core operating model.
“We are rapidly transforming our business, and need a united team that drives purpose, creativity and collaboration,” explains PMSA managing director Branislav Bibic. “Mary is charged with embedding information technology within every aspect of our business to fulfil our mission.
“For a global company like PMI, harnessing local talent to drive our ambition in South Africa with a firm understanding of the local market is imperative. Her role includes delivering a digital transformation strategy, reshaping the IT organisation and making the business more consumer-centric.
“With Philip Morris now being a multi-category and multi-product business, IT needs to understand the entire lifecycle of product development, and the role technology can play at each stage. Effectively, the fusion between IT and product development in real-life.”
Mahuma was previously head of information technology: brand and marketing at Standard Bank, where she oversaw leading and managing the business portfolio, particularly around digital transformation initiatives. She also held the role of head of infrastructure and operations at the Financial Services Board (FSB), in charge of infrastructure engineering, architecture, service desk as well as vendor and supplier management. She has also held IT positions at Telkom, Liberty Group and the South African Reserve Bank.
She is a Pupil (Advocate) candidate with an LLB, Public Administration degree and a BCom honours degree, all from Unisa. She also holds an MBA essential from Stellenbosch Business School.
Mahuma has led the execution of transformative initiatives, including leading different ITO domains (IT operation, infrastructure, cloud, IT service management, business analysis and automation). She also led the technology enablement of Salesforce Marketing Cloud within the platform business group strategies.
“PMSA’s profound selfless strategy in letting go of its core business driver to transform a century-old industry for the betterment of society is what attracted me to the organisation,” says Mahuma. “Technology is an important enabler for this transformation. Transitioning from the legacy IT to a future infrastructure and platform-based ecosystem while maintaining minimal disruption, is a challenge I look forward to.”
Mahuma adds that she is most excited about the micro-economic and macro-economic opportunities and challenges that come with her new role. “My focus will be on driving innovation, identifying emerging technologies and managing while optimising the IT operations to meet the businesses strategic priorities in order to accelerate the fulfilment of the company’s transformation.
“Digital business transformation is all about how we change our business and use the technology to enable it - business process, model, and culture transformation.
“Importantly, it is not only about bringing in technology in the organisation, but how we are structured as a business,” she explains. “Essentially putting our customers in the centre of every decision we make by using technology to become more adaptable and collaborative.
“IT and operations are imperative to deliver on this business transformation.
“In its most basic form, if we simplify our legacy business processes and adjust and change the way we have been doing business, we will bring about overall efficiency,” concludes Mahuma.