Bernadette Moffat

Bernadette Moffat is Executive Director of the ELMA Philanthropies Services (Africa)(Pty) Ltd, based in Cape Town, South Africa. In this role, Bernadette oversees the philanthropic work of the ELMA Group of Foundations in 10 countries in Southern Africa. She also serves on the Boards of the ELMA Philanthropies Services (US) Inc, and the ELMA South Africa Foundation.

Prior to joining ELMA in 2006, Bernadette was chief executive officer of the Women’s Development Bank Trust, an organization that promotes the participation of women at all levels of the economy through investing in leading South African companies, providing microcredit to poor rural women, supporting the growth of small and medium women-owned businesses and supporting the appointment of women to executive and board roles in major South African companies. She has served as non-executive director of the Bidvest Group Limited and Advantage Asset Managers (Pty) Ltd.

Bernadette has international experience as an entrepreneur and corporate lawyer. Previously she served as a consultant to the Commission on Gender Equality advising them on issues of women’s economic empowerment. The Commission published her work The Working Woman’s Manual, a volume on women and labor law in South Africa (1996). Honored by France with the Ordre du Mérite in 2007, she holds a magna cum laude BA degree from Wellesley College in the United States and a Juris Doctor from Columbia University, also in the United States.