Her father owned taxis. She runs a law firm.

Emily Ntuli grew up the fourth daughter in a township in Pretoria, in a household shaped by the grit, dignity and stigma of South Africa's taxi industry. There was no professional blueprint to follow, no family member who had walked into a boardroom before her. What Emily had was a work ethic inherited from her parents, a quiet and relentless drive, and an ability to read systems — in organisations, in people and in herself.

Today she is the Chief Operations Officer of HBGSchindlers Attorneys in Johannesburg, a Non-Executive Director, a Committee Chair, an IoDSA member, and one of the most compelling voices in South Africa's legal and corporate leadership space. The distance between the taxi ranks and the C-Suite is not a gap she glosses over. It is the whole story — and in this episode, she tells it with full honesty.

This is a conversation about what it takes to move from a reception desk to a corner office, how to build HR and operational systems that actually serve the people inside them, and why the most powerful thing Emily Ntuli can do now is be visible — for her daughter, for township youth, and for every first-generation professional trying to find their footing in a world that was not designed with them in mind.

On this episode:

• Growing up in a taxi-industry household and the values her parents built into her
• Moving from receptionist to HR administrator and discovering her gift for people and process
• How law chose her — long before she had the language to choose it back
• Navigating retrenchment on both sides — as someone retrenched, and as someone who had to do it to others
• Running a beauty salon as an act of entrepreneurship, survival and self-determination
• Becoming a mother and how it sharpened her sense of purpose and urgency
• Quiet leadership — why introversion is a strategic advantage in loud corporate environments
• Building systems that protect people, not just organisations
• Her vision for making South Africa's legal sector more human and more inclusive
• Legacy, visibility and the open door she is determined to hold for those coming behind her

From the taxi ranks of Pretoria to the C-Suite of a Johannesburg law firm. This is Emily Ntuli's story.

Listen now and follow Listen To Your Footsteps for new episodes every week.

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