Few women celebrate their 50th birthday with a new job and an annual salary package of about R20 million. But Maria Ramos has always been special.
Her appointment as chief executive of Absa in the year she’ll turn 50 is the pinnacle of an illustrious career few would have predicted for a Portuguese girl who arrived in SA with her immigrant parents in 1964.
Young Maria became one of the most formidable businesswomen SA has produced and one of the world’s most influential, according to Fortune magazine. But her appointment isn’t without controversy - because the woman who whipped Transnet into shape is also SA finance minister Trevor Manuel’s significant other. Surely, some critics say, it’s unethical for the finance minister to be in bed with the head of the country’s biggest bank.
Their relationship began in the late ’90s when Maria was director-general of finance. “They were and still are incredibly discreet and would never let their relationship influence their work,” a friend says. “In everything Trevor and Maria do the only thing that matters is what’s best for SA.”
When Maria’s dad, a builder, brought his family to SA he could barely understand English and at times things were tough. “We were ‘different’ and had to learn to handle prejudices like the ‘Portuguese-on-the-corner’ thing from an early age,” she has said.
She acknowledges she’s “hard and unyielding . . . I don’t tolerate shoddy work or senior people who don’t do what they should. I have no sympathy with people who make excuses for poor work.”
But she also worries about children going to sleep hungry. “It pains me to see children beg,” she says.
Colleagues say she’s firm but fair, also brave, energetic, unaffected, polite, witty and determined. Everyone addresses her by her first name and she commands respect because she treats everyone with respect.
She’s often on her way to work just after 5 am and, unlike others in top posts, she drives herself.
And she isn’t materialistic - you can spoil her with good coffee and a plate of Portuguese-style fish.
While a top job at an organisation such as the World Bank could come her way she has often said her heart belongs to SA. “There’s no other country where I want to live or work. The challenges and opportunities here are greater than any I’ve seen elsewhere. This is my home.”
