Charmaine Smith started her career in education. Subsequent to her formal teaching and education experience Charmaine has been involved since 2006 in effecting development impact projects in South African rural and peri-urban communities and in Uganda; Tanzania; Kenya and Tanzania. Charmaine has worked in strategic areas of impact as well as working on the ground in communities. This has allowed her to grow her skill sets in both operational and strategic areas of development. 

Charmaine co-founded Infundo Consulting in 2007; to provide a vehicle for larger long-term work in development. Infundo’s Building Sustainable Communities framework combines business strategy outcomes with community development impact and is backed by 15 years of proven performance results in tangible documented outcomes. 

Through Infundo and the various board roles Charmaine has worked extensively with corporate sponsors and donors; stakeholders; Boards & Committees; Executive teams; Government structures; Community forums; School Management teams; School Governing bodies; NGO’s; CBO’s and other relevant bodies in the pursuit of creating sustainable communities with social justice and sustainable economies at the heart of her work.

Charmaine has shared her passion for social justice at speaking engagements in business and development forums in SA and Ghana. She also served as conference chair for the 7th Annual Board Secretaries & General Counsels conference in March 2022. 

She was acknowledged for her work by Finweek in 2015 – on their list of “Women to Watch”.

RELEVANT LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE:

• Director Infundo Consulting (Pty) Ltd (2007 - )

• Chairperson READ Educational Trust (November 2017 - ) 

• Board member of Nation Builder (Mergon Integrate) (January 2018 - )

• Member of Mergon Allocations Board (2018 – Nov 2022 )

• Trustee Muthobi Trust (2020 –)

• Director Muthobi Partners (2022 - )

• Non Exec Director King Price Insurance (May 2019 - ) and King Price Financial Services

• Chair Risk Committee King Price (May 2019 - )
• Chair Social And Ethics Committee (August 2021 - )

Charmaine is married to Peter; they share 5 children and 4 grandchildren