BWA awards send a strong message, says corporate winner

Full Stop Communications

SPAR Eastern Cape advertising manager Roseann Shadrach (right) is joined by her mother, Selina Naicker, at the Business Women's Association regional achiever awards function in Port Elizabeth last week. Picture: Bernadette Meistre/One Two Tree Photography
SPAR Eastern Cape advertising manager Roseann Shadrach (right) is joined by her mother, Selina Naicker, at the Business Women's Association regional achiever awards function in Port Elizabeth last week. Picture: Bernadette Meistre/One Two Tree Photography

SPAR Eastern Cape advertising manager Roseann Shadrach believes that the Business Women’s Association achiever awards sent a message that females are more than capable of handling the corporate environment.

Shadrach was recognised for her contribution to the community when she was named the corporate category winner at the BWA regional awards evening in Port Elizabeth last week.

“These awards affirm that you can respect yourself as a female in business,” she said.

“As women, we don’t have to compromise our morals and values to succeed in the business world.

“My message is to remain classy and professional, work smart and appreciate your contribution to business.

“The most challenging part of being a woman in business is that we are stereotyped as being over sensitive and highly emotional. That, however, is our secret power,” she added with a chuckle.

She paid tribute to the BWA, who provided a platform to recognise the contribution women made to business and to society.

“Women are no longer just wives, mothers and homemakers,” she said.

“We have fought hard to cement our footprint in the business world and it’s great that organisations such as the BWA recognise this and allow women the opportunity to be celebrated.”

As a businesswoman who has risen from being a data controller 11 years ago to SPAR EC advertising manager, Shadrach has helped to initiate a number of community-based projects in the Eastern Cape.

These have created a tangible effect to SPAR’s philosophy of giving back to the community and to help the less fortunate.

Close to her heart are the SPAR Bags of Blessings and SPAR Festive Feed initiatives, organised in association with Nelson Mandela Bay charity organisation Love Story.

These projects provide food and products for hundreds of people in the city’s poverty-hit areas in the first week of December.

Shadrach said she was overwhelmed and humbled by being recognised at the BWA regional awards function.

“I am grateful, firstly, for having been nominated and even more so for having received the overall award,” she said.

“I’m extremely passionate about my brand and to be recognised on this kind of platform is quite surreal.”

She added she wanted to acknowledge her late husband, Ashton, sons Zach and Connor and her parents.

“They have been my support system over the years and without them I wouldn’t be able to give the level of dedication and commitment that I have.”

Shadrach said her philosophy in business was based on passion, honesty and uncompromising values.

“At SPAR, we are extremely passionate about making a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. And as the brand leader in our region we are positioned to be a blessing in the communities we serve.”

Besides the Bags of Blessings and Festive Feed projects, Shadrach also helped to launch the City Feed to celebrate Mandela Day each year.

This provides an occasion where Love Story volunteers and SPAR EC combine to provide meals outside City Hall to feed the many who are homeless and hungry.