Being the CEO of the largest stock exchange in Africa through the presidential term of Jacob Zuma “was not for sissies”, says Nicky Newton-King. She speaks to MatieMedia’s William Brederode about the values that guided her 23 year tenure at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the importance of using privilege for good.
Nicky Newton-King must have taken the head of many a boardroom table in her professional career. Talking from the head of the large table on the patio of her Somerset West residence she tells a story from when that position was not yet familiar to her.
“When I was four years old, I went with my father to his office. I used to often go to his law office […] and I used to play underneath the table. I just knew that one day I was going to be at the table. I just knew that,” she recalls.
From under to around the table, Newton-King explains how family dinner conversations would always focus on privilege, rights, inequity and the responsibility to try and make a difference for others.
“It was never ‘the way you measure people is what they have’. It was: ‘The way you measure people is what they do with what they have for other people.’”
It was this commitment to social responsibility that Newton-King pioneered in a South African business context, stressing that the social licence of a business is more important than its legal licence to operate. This came at a time when the business environment felt like “cowboy city”, says Newton-King.
A twist of fate
Newton-King studied BA law, followed by a LLB, at Stellenbosch University. Despite nearly getting expelled from residence for repeatedly missing the 20:00 curfew owing to competitive squash matches and evening visits to what she calls the KGB (the university library), Newton-King loved her studies.
Nicky Newton-King was the articles clerk for the partner at Weber-Wentzel law firm who was the outside counsel to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). She said that she met with the JSE on her first day at work. PHOTO: William Brederode
After getting a masters degree from Cambridge during a stint overseas, Newton-King started working at the Webber-Wentzel law firm.
She was assigned to a partner at the firm who’s tough approach meant that he struggled to keep an articles clerk.
“I think people just thought, well, you know, ‘She seems to have a bit of a backbone. Let’s try.’”
That partner happened to be the outside counsel to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) – which became Newton-King’s first client on her first day at Webber-Wentzel. Newton-King was offered a job at the JSE in 1996 and, after making the difficult decision to leave the law firm where her father had seniority and where her whole history had brought her, she joined the JSE.
While becoming a lawyer was her destiny, joining the JSE, where she would become the chief executive officer (CEO) in 2012, was a product of circumstance.
Newton-King is an avid cyclist, using a Merida bike connected to the Zwift indoor cycling app to cycle at home. Zwift made lockdown more bearable for Newton-King. PHOTO: William Brederode
Business philosophy
Aarti Takoordeen, chief financial officer (CFO) of the JSE since 2013, says that the undertone of all Newton-King’s deals was to find a win-win solution through transparent, straightforward and direct practices.
“She expressed an intolerance for leaving dead bodies in your wake,” says Takoordeen.
Nicky Newton-King is straightforward, transparent and direct in her business dealings, according to the chief financial officer of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Aarti Takoorden. PHOTO: William Brederode
Newton-King tells a story of a negotiation course she was involved in as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader’s years back. The participants were given scenarios and had to negotiate a deal without knowing the other side’s position. “I don’t know why, but they were all looking at me. How are you going to negotiate this?”
Newton-King decided to leave something on the table, which was snapped up by an American negotiator on the other side leaving that team better off. The response was: “Oh, Nicky you lost that.”
“And I said no, no, no. I now asked this guy on the other side what he felt like. Is he going to go and do business with this guy again?”
She says that she enjoys doing deals because she is “very good at finding the art of the possible”.
Newton-King explains that she has always been committed to a stakeholder rather than a shareholder view on investing. A stakeholder buys into a blended value proposition where a business exists to serve society, their staff and those who own the business, says Newton-King. On the other side, “if you have a shareholder-driven view on business, then your job is to maximise profit for the company. And I think that’s fundamentally wrong.”
Taking stock
The influence that Newton-King had on the JSE through her 23 year tenure at the company is immense, says Takoordeen.
“Did I love it? I loved it! Was I tired and at risk of at some stage or another having a medical issue just because of the exhaustion? Absolutely,” says Nicky Newton-King about her time at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. PHOTO: William Brederode
One of the key roles of the JSE is to set the listing requirements for publicly traded companies, only allowing companies compliant with the JSE’s standards to be traded on the exchange, says Newton-King. She adds that the JSE “raised the game significantly” when the listing requirements were changed in 1998.
Newton-King helped to draft legislation to reduce insider trading, which is another example of people’s tendency to “max out for themselves, not for others”. This is something that she finds “deeply offensive”. She also prioritised technology expenditure, which helped bring the JSE into the 21st century.
Newton-King explains how emerging markets need to realise they are competing for the world’s capital and thus have to “tart [themselves] up in an authentic manner so that the people you are trying to attract, find you attractive”.
Beyond that, Newton-King says there are certain non-negotiables with respect to the business environment, such as rule of law, strong property rights, clarity on tax and policy certainty, if an emerging market is to attract capital.
“People will take a more scary environment, but tell them it’s more scary,” says Newton-King, displaying the sort of transparency that her former CFO, Aarti Takoordeen, praises her for.
Stepping down as CEO
After 23 years at the JSE with all but six months of that as an executive, and eight years as CEO, Newton-King decided to leave the JSE in 2019 claiming that a leader should not become the organisation.
“Did I love it? I loved it! Was I tired and at risk of at some stage or another having a medical issue just because of the exhaustion? Absolutely. Given that my CEO-ship overlapped completely with President Zuma, it was not for sissies.”
Nicky Newton-King, speaking as chairperson of the Somerset College board, at the opening of the institution’s E-steam centre. “We can produce people who are outstandingly trained intellectually, but who are grounded in this country,” says Newton-King about the potential of the college. PHOTO: Supplied/Somerset College Facebook.
Newton-King says that while she still wants to contribute, she isn’t anxious to be busy.
She is currently on the board at Investec, involved with educational work, looking to join the Stellenbosch University Council and is the chairperson of the board of Somerset College, a private school in Somerset West.
Newton-King shares her vision for Somerset College: “I look at it as a change agent. If we can produce people who are outstandingly trained intellectually, but who are grounded in this country and able to contribute here – that’s a win.”
Principal of Somerset College, Graham Sayer, says that Newton-King is still prioritising the social responsibility of organisations. “She brings a real commitment to excellent corporate governance and corporate social responsibility [to the school].”
“It’s not just a tick box thing, or handing out directives. She genuinely wants organisations that she’s involved with to be part of uplifting the nation,” said Sayer.