Purpose
Executive Communities believes in the incredible power of communities. Our initiatives connect finance, HR and IT executives, boosting their knowledge, networks and careers through down-to-earth engagement, world-class events and original content. The CFO, CHRO and CIO communities are supported by partner organisations that share our vision. They benefit from the unique opportunity to build meaningful relationships with decision makers on a neutral platform. Through everything we do, we aim to positively influence individuals’ lives and careers, inspire organisations and contribute to the countries we are active in (currently Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda).
What's next?
At Executive Communities, we believe that our purpose has no limits or boundaries - and we love having conversations to explore the need for executive communities in other parts of Africa and beyond. Building communities is serious work and once we commit to starting a new executive community (in 2025 we're launching CITO East Africa!), we do so with the promise of building a sustainable organisation that will add value for many decades to come.
Culture
At Executive Communities, we are extreme about the pursuit of honesty, kindness, fun and finding solutions with a ‘can do’ attitude. We bring our whole selves to work, create a safe space for a diversity of minds and strive to discover and develop the unique talents of every individual. We love and aspire to do new things, realising that this means we’ll make mistakes – which we’ll fix and learn from together. We work hard, have each other’s backs and aspire to be the world’s best listeners – to our communities, our partners and each other.
Roots
Executive Communities was founded in 2011 by the late Alex van Groningen, an indomitable entrepreneur and maverick business builder. The purpose and the culture of the organisation are grounded in his relentless love for South Africa, his enthusiasm for communities and his keen eye for creating value for corporate partners.
Registered in 2013 as CFO Enterprises South Africa, the focus of the organisation was initially on building the thriving CFO South Africa community, after which the unique approach to executive engagement was also introduced to CHROs (2017), CIOs (2022) and East African executives (2023). The Indaba concept, where executives share their insights with the wider professional communities, was launched in 2016. In 2025, the organisation rebranded as Executive Communities, reflecting the purpose of the organisation and an ambition to add value wherever we can.
Giving back
Executive Communities also aims to positively influence individuals’ lives and careers, inspire organisations and contribute to the countries we are active in. We are also deliberate about building teams and working with partners, suppliers and service providers that represent the diversity in the communities we serve, whether that relates to gender, age, race or personalities.
In addition, we support several initiatives that align with our purpose and culture. Through a partnership with the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, we provide fellows with relevant experience the opportunity to engage with the various executive communities for a year, helping them to hone their networking skills and build relationships to boost their careers. Thanks to a partnership with Feenix, we provide financial assistance to talented tertiary students in the finance, HR and IT space who have completed their assignments, but are unable to pay the fees to finish their diploma or degree. CFO Magazine's CFO Cares series gives finance executives the opportunity to shine a light on uplifting projects they are involved in outside of their work.
2025 also saw the first cohort of interns in the pilot Executive Communities internship programme. This supports the organisation in three ways: providing additional resources for tasks during our busiest period, getting to know new talent for when future roles become available and, importantly, providing young people with much-needed workplace experience that will stand them in good stead when applying for future positions either in Executive Communities or at other organisations. The success of this pilot programme will be evaluated in November 2025, and considered for repeat implementation in future.