Petra Diamonds appoints Octavia Matloa as non-executive director amid Cable pressure

All FTSE 100 companies now have at least one woman board member

Laura Chesters
Tuesday 11 November 2014 17:42 GMT
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Business secretary Vince Cable can claim another small victory in his quest to raise the number of women on boards in the UK, as FTSE 250 miner Petra Diamonds finally appointed one.

South African accountant and businesswoman Octavia Matloa will join the diamond miner as an independent non-executive director and sit on its audit committee.

Petra was one of 28 FTSE 250 companies named and shamed by Cable last month for having no female board members.

He asked the 28 to meet the target set by Lord Davies’ 2011 report for boards to be 25 per cent female by next year. All FTSE 100 companies now have at least one woman board member.

Matloa’s appointment also meets another criteria that Cable has promoted recently - for more non-white directors to increase diversity.

Matloa, who previously served on the board of listed gold miner Great Basin Gold until 2013, trained as a chartered accountant at PWC and in 2009 was appointed by the High Court of South Africa as the insurance industry’s first female curator.

Adonis Pouroulis, chairman of Petra, said: “Octavia’s broad business experience and financial and audit background will further enhance the skill set of our board. She will also be a valuable addition to our audit committee, which serves a very important role at Petra and whose remit is constantly evolving in line with governance developments.”

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