Sygnia co-founder and CEO Magda Wierzycka.

• Ismail Rashid was appointed financial director of Sygnia from 1 September 2024, following the resignation of Niki Giles.
• When Giles joined Sygnia in May 2023, she was the asset manager’s third finance chief in five months.
• Ismail will be replaced on Sygnia’s social and ethics committee by Joanna Corelli, who is CEO Magda Wierzycka’s sister.
• For more financial news, go to News24 Business.

Sygnia, the asset manager co-founded by Magda Wierzycka, says its financial director has resigned after serving for less than two years.

The Cape Town-headquartered firm said in a statement on Thursday that Rashid Ismail resigned as financial director and as a member of its social and ethics committee, with effect from 31 March. Sygnia said the appointment of a new financial director will be announced in due course.

“The Sygnia board expresses its sincere thanks to Mr Ismail for his contribution to the company,” the company said on Thursday.

Ismail was appointed financial director of Sygnia from 1 September 2024, following the resignation of Niki Giles, who joined the asset manager in May 2023. At the time of Giles’ appointment, she was Sygnia’s third finance chief in five months.

READ | In a surprise twist, Magda Wierzycka is back in an executive position at Sygnia

That followed Murad Sirkot’s departure from Sygnia in March 2023. Former Denel CFO Carmen le Grange had been appointed to succeed Sirkot, but Sygnia announced just one day before she was supposed to start that she wouldn’t be taking up the position after all.

Ismail, who joined Sygnia as a financial manager in 2013, is a chartered accountant with a Bachelor of Business Science in accounting and finance from the University of Cape Town. He will be replaced on Sygnia’s social and ethics committee by Joanna Corelli from 1 April.

Corelli, who also serves as an executive director and global head of marketing at Sygnia, is actually the sister of CEO Magda Wierzycka. She replaced Wojtek Wierzycki, Magda Wierzycka’s brother, as an executive director at Sygnia in December 2023.

Wierzycki is the masculine spelling of the Wierzycka surname, which originates in Poland, where convention dictates that masculine surname suffixes ending in “i” are replaced with “a” to denote the feminine.

Not long after Corelli’s appointment as executive director, Magda Wierzycka told News24 the appointment was to ensure family board representation at the company in which she and members of her family hold about 60% of the shares.