Shirley zinn biography

Shirley Zinn is Non-Executive Director of Sanlam and former Head of Human Resources for Standard Bank South Africa. Zinn’s interview focuses on her personal journey from a childhood of poverty in apartheid-era South Africa to her position as a prominent business leader.

She discusses her upbringing in the Cape Flats, an area within Cape Town, which was established under the Group Areas Act (1950) to keep Black and Indian communities separate from White communities.

Shirley zinn biography

Zinn describes receiving a government bursary to study education at the University of the Western Cape, where upon graduating she was required to teach for four years. Zinn went back to the Cape Flats where she took a position teaching English to high school students and adult learners.

Zinn explains that she developed her own pedagogy involving participative and collaborative learning, which encouraged the students to return to class. From here, Zinn moved on to get her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Educat