Shirley is Chief Executive Officer for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Southern Africa and Regional Senior Partner, Southern Africa from 1 July 2019. She is the first woman to hold this senior regional position. 

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She has been a Partner in PwC Assurance Services practice for 17 years. She is a Chartered Accountant (CA(SA)), qualified Chartered Director Southern Africa (CD ((SA)), and holder of Certification in Risk Management (CRMA), Certification in Controls Self-Assessment (CCSA) and Certificate in Corporate Governance (Cert. CG) and has over 28 years internal, external audit, risk management, compliance and governance experience within private and public sector across all industries. She has published several articles on internal audit in the professional journals of the IPFA, JUTA and IIA. She is a renowned speaker and has presented at National, Regional level and International conferences. She served as a board member of the IIA SA and chair of its Audit, Finance and Risk Committee for 6 years before becoming President, a role she diligently played for two terms, i.e. 4 years. She served as Chief Audit Executive (CAE) for National Department of Justice from 1999 until March 2004.

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Before her CEO role she served in various leadership roles within PwC including the following: PwC South Africa Governance, Risk and Internal Audit Leader: July 2006 – June 2009 PwC Southern Africa Governance, Risk and Internal Audit Leader: July 2009 - June 2014 PwC Africa Governance, Risk and Internal Audit Leader and a member of the Global Leadership Team: July 2014- June 2019.

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PwC Government & Public Sector Leader and a member of the Global Leadership Team : July 2016 to June 2019 Partner-in-Charge – PwC Menlyn Office : July 2016 to June 2018 PwC Africa Diversity & Inclusion Leader and a member of the Global Leadership Team : July 2018 to June 2019 PwC SA Governing Board Chair : October 2012 to June 2018 PwC Africa Governance Board Member : October 2012 to June 2018 PwC Global board Member : March 2015 to June 2017.

She served on the PwC Global Government and Public Sector Leadership as well as the Global Diversity and Inclusion Leadership team. She is currently Partner-in-Charge of the Waterfall Office since 1 July 2018. She serves on the PwC Africa Leadership team.

She has been proactively involved in the internal audit profession at local, regional and global levels. She has proactively served on IIA local, global and regional structures. She served as past past President of IIA SA and served on the IIA SA board since June 2015 until 30 July 2019. She was a member of various committees of the IIA SA board while serving as President, past President and past past President. She served as chair of the Institute Relations Committee (IRC) since July 2017 until June 2020, an IIA Global Board Committee where she has been a member for 6 years. She served as a member of African Federation of Institutes of Internal Auditors (AFIIA) representing Southern Africa, then Secretary General. She is  currently a member of Board of Trustee of Internal Audit Foundation, an IIA global organisation since March 2020.

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She is passionate and has presented on Transformation, Diversity and Inclusion, locally, regionally and globally, including at Africa WEF in Cape Town and UN Women side events in New York as well as at the Forbes Woman Africa Leading Women’s Summit, the Standard Bank Top Women Leaders Conference, ABASA Women Leading Conference, GIBS’ Leading Women in Business Power Breakfast, AWCA Women’s Month Conference and IWFSA Women Leadership Summit. 

She serves on the Judging Panel for the Gender Mainstream Awards since 2018. She serves on the Rising Star Awards Judging Panel since 2019 and Top Women panel since 2022. She has had an opportunity to write publications and co-present with Prof Mervyn King on governance, risk and internal audit matters locally and regionally. She serves on Africa Initiative Advisory Council – an IIA Global initiative to assist African countries Institutes of Internal Auditors in advocating Internal Audit profession. She is a thought leader and trusted advisor on matters of Governance, Risk and Controls. She is currently an ambassador of Standard Bank Top Women. 

She is passionate about education and people progression in general.

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She has received several accolades as follows: 

In 2002 she was honoured by the Institute of Internal Auditors in recognition of her excellent achievement in the development and growth of internal auditing in the Public Sector. In 2003, she was named “Internal Auditor of the Year” by the IIA SA. Shirley was honoured by the BWA in June 2006 with the Regional Businesswoman of the year award. She was also honoured the outstanding contribution award by IPFA in 2004. She was a finalist of the “Africa’s Most Influential Woman in Business and in Government” during 2013. She was nominated finalist of the “Top Black Female Leader of The Year” by Top Media Communications during 2014. She was honoured by African Woman Chartered Accountants as “Audit Partner of The Year” in 2016. She was also honoured by Black Management Forum as “Manager of The Year” again in 2016. She was honoured “Regional Businesswoman of The Year” award by BWA in 2006. She was honoured by South African Professional Services Awards with the “Big 4 Professional of the Year” as well as being named the overall “Woman Professional of the Year” in February 2018. She is the nominee of “Businesswoman of the Year” for 2018 by BWA. She was honoured by South African Professional Services Awards for the “Accounting Industry Leader of the Year” and “Overall Professional of the Year” in 2020. She was nominated finalist for the “Role Model of the Year” by Gender Mainstream Award in September 2020.