Eating the fruits of one’s hard labour

Monique AdamsComing from humble beginnings and shaking up a storm in the corporate worldThe ever-smiling Emma Claasen was born in Windhoek and grew up in the dusty and busy streets of Soweto, Moria Street. After the loss of her mother, she embarked on a new journey by relocating to a small village in the south, Stampriet, where she lived with her grandmother.This is where she completed her secondary education at the Mariental high school. “I have come a long way since then. Over the years I have poured my heart and soul into building a career for myself that I am not only passionate about but absolutely love. Outside of my career, my life is completed by my two children. My beautiful daughter and extremely smart boy are my driving focus in everything I do,” she says.As system administrator, she is responsible for ensuring that everyone follows their internal risk processes on various systems for all their clients and engagements.She started at Deloitte as a secretary for the tax and legal and risk advisory business units, where she discovered her passion for risk and compliance.Within a year at Deloitte she had the opportunity to create her own role as the system administrator and because of her role being the first of its kind at the company, it has been the most challenging thing to date.“Navigating though Covid-19 has also been very challenging. It has completely changed how I work and engage with my colleagues. It has been tough, but a great take-away from working remotely has been growth, adaptation, learning and innovative ideas, which makes me excited for the future,” she says.A typical day at the office consists of ensuring that they are compliant when it comes to engaging with clients and projects. She is also responsible for ensuring that all risks are mitigated for clients through client assessments.Claasen also needs to ensure that clients and projects interface into other systems from their central risk management system. On a daily basis she extracts reports to review along with other administrators to ensure that opportunities and engagements progress on the risk system.One thing she knows is how to strike a healthy balance between attention to detail and a timely delivery of output. Her greatest fear is to wake up one day and realise that she has not put in all her effort into positively impacting the lives of others within her team. If she could change one thing in the world it would be fairness and equality for human beings despite racial, social-economic and gender differences.The advice Claasen gives to aspiring young people is, “Work hard and surround yourself with people who will motivate you to do your best. I have found my team of people that make an impact that matters in my life on a daily basis in Deloitte.”

Eating the fruits of one’s hard labour

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Republikein 2025-08-04

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Eating the fruits of one’s hard labour

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Republikein 2025-08-04

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