She will be graduating at the University’s Autumn Graduation with her PhD in Business Management supervised by Business Management’s Prof Elmarie Venter and co-supervisor Prof Shelley Farrington.
Jackie’s research found that financial planners’ social capital (measured as relational, network and cognitive capital), entrepreneurial and psychological capital had a positive and significant influence on value creation in financial planning businesses.
She found that the human touch created both financial and non-financial value. She is currently writing journal articles to share her findings with the industry and other academic researchers.
Jackie is the programme leader of the University’s Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Planning and BCom Financial Planning programmes, the first of their kind in Southern Africa, when she joined Mandela Uni in 2006.
She obtained her MCom in Business Management in 2014, focussing on the educational needs and skills upliftment for the financial planning industry.
As a licenced and Certified Financial Planner, Jackie has been practising in the financial planning industry for over 30 years. She has also been on the boards of the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa, the Nelson Mandela University Retirement Fund, as well as a top local independent private school. She has also co-authored an important, locally-published financial planning industry textbook.
Jackie had to balance her family life and the global pandemic during her studies. “Embarking on a PhD requires a good dose of courage to step out of your comfort zone in pursuit of new knowledge, while walking along a path which will stretch you and grow you in ways unimagined. To complete the journey takes resilience, humility, endeavour, and a good sense of self. Once achieved, the wisdom gained is your gift. Of course, all of this requires a good relationship with excellent supervisors,” she says.