Natasha Camhee: Leading with Governance, Powered by Values
On a Mission to Strengthen Businesses Through Ethical Leadership!
In corporate life, rules and ethics often look like paperwork until something goes wrong, and then they become the only thing standing between stability and chaos. Governance exists to protect people, reputations, and businesses from avoidable damage, which is why leaders in this space have to think clearly, act early, and stay consistent even when pressure pushes for shortcuts. Natasha Camhee has spent more than 25 years doing exactly that, building her career in a way that centres integrity, accountability, and long-term thinking.
A big part of Natasha’s strength comes from the mentorship she received from women in leadership, business, and entrepreneurship. She speaks about that support with genuine respect, because it helped her develop the guardrails that matter in business. It taught her how to spot pitfalls early, how to take pit stops when needed, and how to face blind spots before they become setbacks. That kind of guidance shapes decision-making in real time, especially when leadership feels heavy and the stakes feel personal.
Alongside her professional experience, Natasha carries a steady inner foundation. Her faith in God remains her anchor, guiding her choices and keeping her focused on purpose, wisdom, and integrity as she continues to build Arenkwe’s path with intention.
Natasha’s leadership is also backed by serious learning, because she believes strong leaders stay teachable. Her qualifications include a postgraduate qualification in Corporate Governance and Company Secretarial, a Higher Diploma in Corporate Law, and a Certified Ethics Officer credential from the University of Stellenbosch. She later expanded her leadership capability through the Strategic Woman in Leadership Programme at GIBS, reinforcing her commitment to continuous development.
Natasha Camhee’s journey proves that real leadership is rarely loud. It is built through principle, preparation, and the courage to stay ethical when it would be easier to bend.
The Foundation
Every leadership journey has a starting point, and Natasha’s began in a space most people underestimate: governance, risk, and compliance. What set her apart early on was how she treated this work, not as background support, but as the backbone of performance and sustainability.
Early in her career, Natasha worked at the intersection of governance, risk, compliance, board and executive advisory experiences that sharpened her belief that governance is not a “back-office” function, but a strategic enabler of sustainable performance.
That conviction ultimately led her to establish Arenkwe Holdings, with a clear purpose: to redefine how organisations approach governance and ensure it remains commercially grounded, decision-centred, and fit for an increasingly complex world.
A defining milestone in her rise to Group CEO was intentionally positioning Arenkwe at the convergence of governance, technology and accountability, particularly as emerging risks such as AI governance, cyber risk and data ethics began reshaping the responsibilities of boards and executive teams.
Over more than 15 years, leading the firm through evolving regulatory landscapes, economic cycles, and rising organisational complexity has been a masterclass in disciplined decision-making and principled execution supported by a resilient team that shares the same standard of integrity and excellence.
Arenkwe’s North Star: Trust in Complexity
A serious long-term vision is not built on ambition alone. It is built on clarity, alignment, and knowing exactly what the organisation stands for, even when the market keeps shifting. Natasha’s direction for Arenkwe is rooted in trust, relevance, and governance that holds up in complexity.
Her long-term vision for Arenkwe Holdings is to be the most trusted governance partner for organisations operating in complexity where regulation, reputation, technology and ethics intersect. She wants Arenkwe to continue redefining governance as a strategic enabler of sustainable performance, not a reactive “tick-box” function.
Strategic alignment across leadership, operations and innovation starts with one thing: clarity of purpose. They anchor their work in governance, ethics and compliance, and ensure that every service line advisory, secretariat support, and professional development reinforces the same outcome: stronger decision-making, better oversight, and long-term institutional resilience.
Innovation at Arenkwe is intentional and responsible. Natasha remains especially focused on the evolving relationship between governance, accountability and technology, including how organisations govern AI, cyber risk, data ethics and emerging regulatory expectations. These are no longer “future” issues; they are board-level priorities now, and their role is to equip leaders with frameworks and tools that are practical, real-time and commercially grounded.
A key part of Natasha’s long-term vision is expanding Arenkwe’s footprint beyond South Africa into Europe, North Africa, the Americas, and key Asian markets such as China and Hong Kong regions, where boards are facing increasing pressure to govern complex risk, technology, and regulatory change with greater speed and precision.
Their expansion strategy is intentional: they are building a globally relevant governance advisory platform that is grounded in regulatory excellence, ethical leadership, and practical board support, while adapting to diverse jurisdictions and governance cultures.
The goal is to partner with organisations operating in highly regulated and fast-evolving environments, offering the same trusted governance, risk and compliance capability that has shaped Arenkwe’s credibility over more than 15 years.
Ultimately, Natasha’s vision is to build an organisation that endures, one that develops courageous leaders, strengthens ethical cultures, and enables responsible growth. For her, success is not only about performance; it is about stewardship, trust, and leaving institutions stronger than they found them.
Tech With Oversight, Not Chaos
Digital transformation is often reduced to tools and systems. Natasha treats it differently. For her, technology must sharpen oversight, strengthen accountability, and make decision-making faster and clearer, especially in environments where risk moves quickly.
Technology, digital transformation, and data-driven decision-making influence Natasha’s leadership by helping her move from “managing activities” to governing outcomes with clarity, speed and accountability. She views digital transformation as more than a systems upgrade; it is a strategic lever that strengthens oversight, improves execution, and enables better board and executive decisions in real time.
That is why her approach is anchored in using technology responsibly, while ensuring governance remains practical, commercially grounded, and aligned to what leaders face in fast-changing and highly regulated environments.
At Arenkwe, they integrate data and digital tools to support stronger decisions, smarter controls, and better transparency, while still protecting integrity and trust. She also believes technology should simplify access to expertise, which is why they are building toward solutions like a learning management system and a director enablement app that can guide boards at the click of a button.
Empowerment Without Losing Control
Empowerment can fail when leaders confuse freedom with a lack of standards. Natasha’s leadership style gives people room to grow, but the outcomes still matter and the accountability stays sharp.
Empowering leadership, to Natasha, means creating an environment where people feel trusted, equipped, and genuinely responsible for the outcomes they deliver, not just the tasks they complete. It is leadership that gives clarity and direction, but also leaves room for growth, initiative, and courage.
She has learned through years of working with boards, executives and high-performing teams that empowerment must be intentional: it requires strong governance, clear communication, and the confidence to delegate with purpose while holding standards consistently.
To foster accountability, innovation and ownership within her teams, Natasha focuses on four principles: curiosity, clarity, capability and culture. They set clear expectations and guardrails, ensure people have the training and tools to deliver with excellence, and build a culture where ethical leadership, inclusivity and continuous learning are non-negotiable.
Natasha encourages teams to think ahead, challenge assumptions and solve problems proactively because in governance, risk and compliance, innovation is not about disruption for its own sake; it is about creating smarter, stronger ways to protect value and enable responsible growth.
Leading Through Complex Systems and Competing Forces
In large organisations, the toughest battles are not always about systems or frameworks. More often, the challenge is human: trust, alignment, competing priorities, and decisions made under pressure. Natasha has worked in environments where complexity is constant, not occasional.
Leading teams within large and complex organisations has taught Natasha that the hardest challenges are rarely technical; they are often about alignment, trust, and decision-making under pressure. In highly regulated environments such as banking and telecommunications, and JSE Listed entities, she has had to navigate competing priorities across boards, regulators, executives and stakeholders, while ensuring that governance remained practical and effective.
In roles such as Group Company Secretary at Reunert Limited, Board Company Secretary at ABSA Group and ABSA Bank, and Executive: Ethics & Governance at Telkom, the complexity was constant from regulatory obligations and board dynamics, to ethics, ESG strategy, and organisational culture.
What helped Natasha navigate these challenges successfully was staying anchored in clarity and discipline: clarifying what the organisation stands for, what decisions must be made, and what risks must be managed without compromise. She learned to lead with calm certainty, communicate with precision, and create structures that enable accountability, not just compliance.
Ultimately, her approach has always been about building governance that supports performance and resilience, while strengthening ethical leadership and long-term institutional trust.
Executive Decisions that Must Hold Up Under Scrutiny
At an executive level, decisions rarely sit in a clean, comfortable space. They come with scrutiny, consequences, and trade-offs. Natasha’s decision-making is guided by a principle that holds, even when it costs more in the short term.
Governance, compliance, and ethical responsibility guide Natasha’s decisions at the executive level by keeping her anchored to one core principle: trust is built through consistency, transparency, and doing the right thing, especially when it’s difficult. She does not see governance as a “rulebook”; she sees it as a strategic framework that protects value, strengthens accountability, and ensures decisions stand up to scrutiny from boards, regulators, stakeholders and society.
This approach has been shaped by years of leading and advising in complex, highly regulated environments across banking, telecommunications, public sector and JSE-listed structures, where credibility is earned through disciplined oversight and ethical clarity.
In practice, that means every major decision must balance performance with responsibility, ensuring compliance is met, risk is understood, and ethics remain non-negotiable. At Arenkwe, they are intentional about promoting governance that is commercially grounded but principled, including how organisations respond to emerging areas like AI governance, cyber risk and data ethics.
Ultimately, ethical responsibility is not an add-on to strategy; it is part of the strategy because it shapes reputation, resilience, and long-term sustainability.
Culture that Holds Under Pressure
Culture becomes visible when pressure shows up. That is where discipline either collapses or gets stronger. Natasha treats culture as the foundation of execution, and she uses it to grow future leaders with real exposure, not theory.
Culture becomes most visible under pressure, and that is where discipline either breaks or gets stronger. Natasha sees culture as the foundation of execution, built on trust, inclusion, ethics, excellence, and accountability. Through the Arenkwe Academy, the company also develops future leaders by running a one-year graduate incubation programme that gives young talent real governance exposure, structured mentorship, and the confidence to lead with purpose.
“My governance journey began at the Arenkwe Academy Incubation Lab, where I gained practical governance experience, structured training, and strong mentorship. The programme helped me understand corporate governance frameworks, board and committee processes, and stakeholder engagement, while also building essential skills like communication, critical thinking, and ethical leadership. It prepared me for my first professional role and laid the foundation for my career, and I remain grateful for the guidance and opportunity,” said Natasha!
Innovation that Still Feels Safe to Scale
Innovation is easy to chase. Stability is harder to protect. Natasha balances both by treating governance as the anchor: strong guardrails, disciplined execution, and accountability that holds even when growth demands speed.
Natasha balances innovation with operational stability by treating governance as the anchor, creating clear guardrails, disciplined execution, and strong accountability, while still giving teams the space to improve, evolve and build smarter ways of working.
She believes the future of leadership will be defined by ethical, tech-enabled decision-making, where leaders can confidently govern emerging risks like AI, cyber and data ethics while still driving performance with integrity and long-term vision.
Mentorship that Strengthens the Whole System
Industry impact is not only about titles or recognition. It is also about who gets pulled up behind you. Natasha contributes to mentorship through practical development, real-world platforms, and leadership that builds capability, not dependence.
She contributes to mentoring and ecosystem development by sharing practical governance insight, investing in capability-building, and creating platforms where emerging professionals can grow with confidence and discipline.
Through her directorships and leadership in initiatives such as Arenkwe Academy, she focuses on building ethical, future-fit leaders and strengthening the broader governance ecosystem through real-world exposure, mentorship, and structured development opportunities.
Words of Wisdom
Some leaders focus only on what they achieve. Natasha’s view of legacy carries a different weight: leaving people, institutions, and systems stronger than they were and building continuity that outlives any one title.
Natasha’s advice to aspiring leaders is to lead with integrity, stay committed to continuous growth, and never underestimate the power of disciplined governance as your anchor in complexity.
The legacy she hopes to leave is one of trusted leadership and generational impact where her daughter, Tamlyn is already practising in the industry as a professional company secretary, her sons, Tristan and Travis intend to pursue law and AI innovation, and her husband, Greg remains involved in the business, making this journey not only purposeful, but deeply rooted in family and continuity.