Lesley Mawhinney is a seasoned executive search consultant who joined Signium Africa in 2026. She has close to three decades of experience advising boards and leadership teams across various sectors in South Africa.
She began her career within a specialist IT boutique before gaining valuable experience with two international executive search firms based in Johannesburg. Over the years, she has played an important role in building and positioning a proudly South African search practice, serving in leadership capacities including Consultant, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director. She has also led the growth of an executive search division within a large ICT services group and consulted to expand search capabilities across Southern Africa.
Lesley brings deep experience as a generalist, partnering with listed and multi-national organisations as well as the public sector. She has successfully delivered mandates across board, executive, senior and middle management levels, with particular depth in the ICT and Life Sciences sectors and specialist skills. Her track record includes managing complex, large-scale executive search projects and delivering B-BBEE aligned talent solutions.
She holds a BSc (Hons) in Genetics from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Lesley is passionate about wildlife and spending time in the bush. She is an international level 3 FEI eventing judge and a National dressage judge in South Africa which has given her the opportunity to judge eventing (3 phase) and dressage competitions in Southern Africa and across the globe. Lesley rode dressage and received her provincial colours on her horse Big Benjamin. She is a watercolour/pen and ink and sumi-e artist and enjoys painting wildlife and animal portraits, especially horses.
"Interacting with new people every day, learning from our clients and candidates and matching competencies to the skills and culture of an organisation is really exciting. The great leveler is the responsibility that we as “headhunters” carry from an individual perspective in moving successful candidates into new roles, and the trust that the organisation puts in us to “get it right”.
