Pick n Pay’s Wendy Ackerman received the Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award at the Best of Africa Awards ceremony in New York City on 6 August.
The Forbes Best of Africa Award highlights business personalities who have a record of creating and building global businesses that make a far-reaching and positive contribution to the development of Africa.
Ackerman joined her husband, Raymond, at Pick n Pay when he acquired the company in 1967, and was the first woman director of a retail chain in South Africa. She retired from the board in 2010, but remains involved in the business as honorary life president.
Ackerman was instrumental in developing the Pick n Pay brand, particularly its social responsibility ethic, helping to embed the company’s core value of “doing good is good business”.
Her work to empower and promote women has been a hallmark of her efforts at Pick n Pay. She was instrumental in getting women recognised as senior, career-oriented employees in the 1970s. She continues to fight for women’s rights today, notably through her involvement in and support for the 1000 Women Trust, which she helped form after being introduced to the concept in the United States.
In the 1970s, the Ackerman family established their first philanthropic venture, the Ackerman Family Educational Trust. In 1997, Raymond and Wendy celebrated the 30th anniversary of the founding of Pick n Pay by creating the Ackerman Pick n Pay Foundation, with substantial investment for philanthropic purposes.
