Nathan-Jones on a life of ‘learning, earning, and returning’

From helping to take Imperial Car Rental global with Europcar to today empowering South Africa’s next generation of entrepreneurs, Dawn Nathan-Jones remains driven by purpose. Winner of this year’s Investec Business Icon Award, she explains why she divides her life into three parts: “learning, earning, and returning”. 

Now in what she terms her season of returning, Nathan-Jones is focused on giving back. “The last 10 years have been very different from the corporate life I led,” she says. “They’ve been much more intentional and purposeful. It’s about giving up-and-coming entrepreneurs an opportunity to be mentored and to get assistance in terms of how to run a business and where to take their ideas.” 

One of four siblings, Nathan-Jones had an early passion for business. “I had very humble beginnings and grew up in Durban, where I was honoured to have a good education, my initial learning,” she says. “I knew from a very early age that I could sell and market, and I was always quite ambitious. I was about 15 when I started selling my first products and making money, which gave me this inspiration to do something more with my life.” 

In 1980, Nathan-Jones was given an opportunity to help pioneer a start-up, Imperial Car Rental. Just 21 at the time, she says this kickstarted her career and her “season of earning”. Her mentor and Imperial’s founder, Carol Scott, took a chance on her as she hadn’t yet studied, which she ultimately did in her late 30s. 

Her early professional education came directly from the coalface of building a new business, one that was intrinsically entrepreneurial. “By 23, I became a director, and then I moved to Johannesburg and took on many more leadership roles,” says Nathan-Jones. There were four pillars of the business, she recalls, each of which had its own chief executive who was empowered to run it as their own business. 

“For many years, I was chief executive of the car rental division, and we had many different brands and companies. I learned so much and it was an incredible way to be introduced to business at such an early age. It was remarkable for me to have that opportunity.” 

In her chief executive position, Nathan-Jones spearheaded the 2009 transition from Imperial Car Rental to Europcar, one of the world’s largest car rental networks, a process that took two years of negotiation. Having always maintained a focus on customer service, she was determined not to lose one customer through this process. 

“It was the best thing we did for the brand,” she says of the transition, “and working with all the operators throughout the world and having their input was amazing. My philosophy is not to see other businesses as your competitors but as opportunities to collaborate with other people.” 

However, in her early years in the business, she wanted to control everything, Nathan-Jones recalls. She soon realised the value of decisive leadership and in allocating tasks. “Discovering how to let go was a massive learning for me. Yet once you see the results, it becomes an obsession because you see others growing, which is far more meaningful to me than to see that in myself. By lifting others, great leaders rise themselves.” 

When she eventually stepped down in 2016, the company had grown exponentially from an initial handful of cars to 25 000 vehicles, with a turnover of just more than R3 billion. Today, Europcar in Southern Africa operates as a division of the Motus Group. 

Intending to slow down after her resignation, Nathan-Jones, a single mom, moved to Cape Town with her son. She quickly learned that rather than finding a balance, it was about harmonising her personal and professional lives. 

Soon after her move, she was thrust into the spotlight as the only female judge on entrepreneurial reality show Shark Tank South Africa. Reticent to be in the limelight, she initially refused M-Net’s offer, but later asked a rabbi for advice. “He said that opportunities only come your way once and suggested I look at this as another door opening to something that I hadn’t been exposed to.” 

Not only was the show a highly rewarding experience for Nathan-Jones, it inspired the next phase of her life. “I came out of filming feeling that I needed to give back to young entrepreneurs in South Africa who have passion and talent but lack leadership and business knowledge.” 

She partnered with businesswoman Lesley Waterkeyn, who had just started Over the Rainbow, running multiple programmes to support aspiring entrepreneurs. To complement this work, Nathan-Jones later started the Entrepreneurs’ Network organisation, connecting people in similar stages of their businesses of various sizes. 

“It’s like peer-to-peer learning where they can share ideas,” she explains. “I believe, no matter how big or small your business, the learning, mistakes, and challenges are the same.” Now operational for four years, Entrepreneurs’ Network serves a few hundred people. 

“It’s the sustainability of taking them from incubation into this lifetime-of-learning phase,” Nathan-Jones says. “We try to keep it quite small so that we can focus our attention on each individual. Seeing the level and the talent of these young entrepreneurs, who are mainly from the townships, gives me so much hope for South Africa.” 

Now also the vice-chair of the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies, Nathan-Jones is known for having initiated the Europcar Women in Leadership category at the Jewish Achiever Awards. “I felt that women needed their own platform, their own voice, and recognition for their work.” She’s consistently blown away by the calibre of the nominees. 

Nathan-Jones still has her foot in the corporate world. Among her multiple business interests is her role as chair of Totalstay, a hotel and serviced apartment management company. “I enjoy the corporate world, but I’m passionate about working with the youth and with young start-ups,” she says. “The impact is incredible.” 

While she says she feels uncomfortable receiving accolades, Nathan-Jones is dedicating the Investec Business Icon Award to those who’ve helped her along the way. “This award goes to the thousands of people that I’ve worked with through the years because without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.” Reflecting on her legacy, Nathan-Jones says she’d like to be remembered as “somebody who inspired others to reach greatness”. It seems she’s well on track.