Magda Wierzycka does not have a hobby. As one of South Africa’s most successful business leaders and chief executive of the JSE-listed blue-chip financial services giant Sygnia Limited – with staff in SA and in the UK – her attention is always fixed on her next big project. Author of her recently published biography, Magda: My Journey, the Saturday Citizen caught up with Wierzycka fresh from a flight from New York, where she attended the graduation celebration of her elder son Alexander.
“They know that they have to work hard to make it in life. They got into Ivy League universities because they work their butts off,” said Wierzycka. “Nicholas is at the University of Pennsylvania doing political philosophy and economics. After that he wants to become a stage actor,” chuckles Wierzycka.
“The IP is owned by a company that spans out of Oxford academics and funded by the Oxford Science Company. That is how AstraZeneca came to market. When she was at Pretoria High School for Girls in 1987, she remembered “when someone came shouting that the Mixed Marriages Act has been repealed”. Her grandfather Gucio and grandmother Helunia Wierzycki, Jews who survived the Holocaust, were her inspiration.
Magda_Wierzycka I salute 🫡 you!
Magda_Wierzycka Having followed your phenomenal story of hard work and determination over the years, the word that comes to mind is respect. Respect ma'am
Magda_Wierzycka Legend!
A refugee that was too much involved in SA issues during the Zuma must go campaign. What is she saying now when our country is fast becoming a failed state led by a president who was seen as an economic problem solver.