Meet our Top 50 Thriving Female Founder for 2019 Edition
Lerato Motsamai is a seasoned marketer with over 20 years combined experience within the petrochemical sector. Her experience ranges across leadership, management and strategic planning where she held management positions at Engen Petroleum and Chevron South Africa. Lerato is presently the Founder & CEO of Petrolink, an oil company that formulates, blends, and packages higher grade automotive and industrial lubricants.
She leads the strategy development and day-to-day operations at Petrolink, and is responsible for driving the company’s vision and mission of being a sustainable and Proudly African energy company. Through a robust network of distributors in Southern Africa, she provides customised lubrication solutions to clients in the mining, rail, aviation, automotive, agriculture and heavy-duty industries, and takes great pride in the company’s positioning in the research & development of biodegradable grease technologies.
Lerato has been recognized by IOL’s 2018 Business Report as one of three women influencing the South African Energy sector, and by the 2018 Financial Mail Women, as a driving force in Energy. In 2018, Lerato was announced a Women of Fortitude honoree, a recognition given by the South African Government’s Inter-Ministerial Committee that is headed by the Minister of the Department of Energy. She is a alumni of the highly-competitive Fortune 500 U.S Department of State Program, and was selected as a 2018 Inspiring Fifty South Africa winner by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa.
Lerato is deeply invested in the economic advancement of African girls and women, and founded Girlignite Africa Academy, an organisation that uses technology, education and entrepreneurship to bridge the high NEET rate amongst Black African females in South Africa between 15 – 24 years old. Lerato is a mother of two children, who loves art and the outdoors.