From fighting apartheid to educating executives

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The inhumanity of apartheid came to life for Sharmla Chetty at the age of five, when she went Christmas shopping with her grandmother for the first time in Durban’s leading department store. They were prohibited from entering the restaurant. “She was hungry and she wanted me to eat something [and] I saw the tears roll down his face,” he says.

Chetty is now 58 years old and is the CEO of Duke Corporate Educationthe executive education arm of the US university, a leader in the FT 2023 ranking of customized executive education programs. But the memory remains raw. She takes a moment to compose herself and reaches for a tissue from her assistant. “I guess my activism reached that age,” she says.

Chetty recalls the incident to explain why inclusionary initiatives, not just around race, but also gender and age, have been a defining feature of her time at Duke CE, which began 16 years ago when she founded her South African operation. He also co-founded or nurtured startups at Duke and beyond, including #MillionYoungMinds, a livestream looking at the impact of AI on the future with 1 million young people. In addition, she is the founder of a mentoring circle that supports and trains young talents.

“We focus on Stem [science, technology, engineering and mathematics], to show young people how they can choose careers in math and science,” he says. “I wanted to open their minds to new careers, to say that you have to be curious at a young age.”

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Chetty is speaking in a London hotel where she is co-hosting Lead With Her, a one-day international conference for women in leadership. “As a woman, I know how difficult this is, so I thought, ‘How do I become a contributor?’”

Standing up to apartheid nearly cost Chetty his high school education. Her family encouraged her to succeed academically, she was a diligent student and captained the netball and track teams, but she was expelled at 16 for boycotting lessons, attending protests and organizing student marches against the compulsory use of Afrikaans in lessons , a language alien to anyone. but white South Africans.

“I was the troublemaker, I was the instigator, but it was also where I discovered my leadership skills,” she says.

His expulsion was shocking and embarrassing for his family. “I am the eldest of four siblings and they pressured me to get educated,” she says, adding that it was a difficult time in her relationship with her mother and grandmother, her role models in all of her life. life. “They said: ‘We understand this article about your fight for equality, but [if] you want to break down barriers and create a better world, you need to have an education.’”

A court eventually ordered Chetty and his classmates back to class, but they continued to protest.

“The police were beating me,” Chetty says, recalling neighbors’ demands that her parents “manage” her.

Later she realized that her parents were protecting her. “They didn’t openly say, ‘We support her cause,’ but they showed they did by allowing me to protest. But they also said, ‘Please go and complete your education.’

Chetty graduated from school and then studied for a degree in human resource development at the Rand Afrikaans University (now the University of Johannesburg). “I knew that getting an education was key,” she says. “Through education, you can become a contributor to social change.”

His parents had no money to finance his college studies, but Chetty was able to go in part because his grandmother, unknown to his family, had been saving to pay his fees, while a neighbor covered his bills.

In turn, he has created a fund that pays tuition for eight students at his old high school each year. “That’s why I now believe in returning the favor,” she says.

Chetty had only one employer between leaving university and joining Duke CE in 2007: South African financial services group Nedbank. “I had to work twice as hard to get ahead, not just because I started under apartheid, but because I was a young leader,” she says. “But I was lucky because I found a lot of mentoring and a lot of support and they saw potential in me.”

Supporters included Nedbank’s then-CEO Tom Boardman. “He was a great coach and a great mentor, even when I left the bank,” she says. It’s not that he didn’t try to persuade her to keep it when scouts approached him about the Duke CE position.

“At the time, Duke was a brand that no one in South Africa knew about, and I delayed going back to discuss it. [with the headhunters] for three months,” recalls Chetty. “When I told Tom, he said, ‘Why would you leave a lucrative job like the bank and take this job that is unfamiliar territory for you?’

“So I said, ‘I’m going out there because I believe in a bigger purpose and I believe I can make a change. I may fail. I may have to go back to you and ask for support and help and guidance, but it’s an opportunity to bring a bigger brand to our country and contribute to a bigger purpose.’”

He was particularly struck by Duke’s focus on the South African context and how to shape its executive education to fit the needs of the country’s industries such as retail and banking. “I saw that the educational component that the programs had at that stage was not only theoretical, but also practical. People could take those skills and make a change in behaviors. And I was excited when I saw this.”

Chetty is still talking to Boardman. At Duke, he found another mentor: Bill Boulding, dean of the University of North Carolina. Fuqua Business School. He was instrumental in helping her lead the Duke faculty into her fledgling operation in South Africa, helping to raise her profile and her prestige.

It’s the generosity of those people in supporting her that fuels her efforts to help other women and girls, Chetty says. She is also studying for a PhD at Middlesex University in the UK. “The work is not done yet,” she says. “I have power and influence as a female leader, so what do I do? I have to help other women to have that opportunity.”