20fifty has recently been acknowledged as one of South Africa’s Top Gender Empowered Companies, through the Standard Bank Top Women programme. Endorsed by the Commission for Gender Equality, United Nations Women, Standard Bank Top Women is South Africa’s leading gender empowerment brand. Standard Bank Top Women celebrates and acknowledges organizations across the public and private sector for prioritizing gender empowerment as an integral part of their business strategies. 20fifty is a leader of gender empowerment and transformation in South African business within our sector. But it’s no surprise to us, as our 20fifty energy is led and fueled by incredible women leaders. Here, we introduce you to our Women of 20fifty.
Catherine Lückhoff
As Co-Founder and CEO at 20fifty, Catherine Lückhoff is renowned for her propensity towards big picture thinking. Catherine’s career journey is one of adventure, driven by curiosity and delivering exceptional results. Her career adventure traverses several sectors. From founding an integrated communications agency, MANGO-OMC, to her current role as Co-Founder and CEO at 20fifty, Catherine also launched the first PaaS for on-demand niche audio streaming services and helped companies such as Mozilla Firefox and Naspers connect into Africa.
Drawing from a deep well of principled development and drive towards improving the future, Catherine’s guiding belief rests on the simple notion that people matter, and so does improving the future they will inhabit. All of her roles across several industries have relied on imagination, grit and an ability to bring smart, interesting humans together to push boundaries and solve problems.
Outside of 20fifty, Catherine is a renowned mentor, speaker and presenter. Her speaking experience includes presenting at the AWS Summit CPT, Tech4Africa, Midem, MLOVE; at SXSW as a panelist, GSMA Connected Women, Global Media Forum, Digital Futures Society Summit, Youth Alliance for Leadership and Development in Africa, #FastForward,AfricaCom and more. Cath is also an Advisory Board member for Wallifornia, an Entertainment and Technology hub based in Belgium, where startups, professionals & investors develop together the future of their industries. Catherine’s accolades and awards include:
- A nominated member of the African Leadership Network and a mentor for TechStars Africa (Barclays Accelerator), SW7 and NetProphet SparkUp!
- Most Innovative Woman in Cloud Innovation – South Africa 2019 (Influential Businesswoman Awards)
- Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans
- Judge for the ITU Telecom World 2018 – Global SME Awards Programme
- GSMA Global Mobile Awards Judge 2015 and 2016
- Included in FinWeek’s “SA Women Making it Big in Tech” in 2015
- Featured in Destiny Magazine’s “Power of 40” Supplement
- Nominee for Female Tech Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 by the Female Founders Initiative EMEA
And so much more! Watch this space, as Catherine has just taken off to shift into her spot on the #90DayFinn programme. A rigorous selection process led to her being selected for this programme, designed and run by Helsinki Partners, a city-owned non-profit supporting international businesses to succeed in Helsinki. Helsinki Partners selects and places 15 entrepreneurs, investors, corporate executives, event organizers, and tech talents from all over the world to live and find opportunities in the Nordic capital for three full months. During her time in Helsinki, she will be leading 20fifty in just the same way as she always does: leading our determinedly connected collective.
Melanie Mauch
As Technical Team Lead at 20fifty, Melanie is not one for sitting still. Melanie is the team lead that tracks and ensures our consistent delivery of exemplary work, and she’s a well of knowledge and wisdom, so generously shared across the team. Melanie is also a PhD Candidate, pursuing her Doctorate in Informatics. Prior to this, Melanie completed her Masters in Socio-Informatics (Cum Laude), having completed her Bachelor of Science (BSc) Honours Degree (Cum Laude). Melanie started her career as a Software Developer at one of South Africa’s largest financial institutions, and then moved on to a role as DevOps Engineer at a premier software development house. She then moved up the ranks, into her role as Cloud Engineer, and then Technical Lead. After 9 years, Melanie joined our team at 20fifty. She is also fully AWS qualified. Melanie places extreme emphasis on mentoring, coaching, and capacitating our team, while also remaining deeply involved in our backend development cycles. Her natural ability to nurture talent, spot opportunities to discover new solutions to unique problems, and her principled approach, brings a calm, focused energy to our team, even in times of frenzied development.
Erika Muller
The work may be done, but who’s making sure everything’s paid? At 20fifty, that’s Erika Muller. As a top achiever in the finance realm, Erika holds a Professional Certificate In Taxation, and is currently pursuing her Occupational Certificate as a Tax Technician. Erika received a bursary for her studies, as a result of her outstanding results and determination. It’s that efficient determination that keeps the business of 20fifty on track, matched with Erika’s excellent communication skills and diverse experience across multiple industries. Erika is also backed by her National Diploma in Company Administration, meaning every bit of digital documentation (we’re paper-free, remember?) is perfectly in place, and always exceptionally delivered. As an accomplished Financial Manager, Accountant, and Administrator, Erika has also owned and sold several small businesses, and always for a profit. With a special interest in property renovation, Erika has also worked across the property, real estate and hospitality sectors. Erika is our business’ solutioneer, back office style. We’d be lost without her efficient excellence in all that she does.
Cath Jenkin
As our fractional Head of Content at 20fifty, Cath works closely with the team to drive strategic communications and generate precision-engineered content that reflects our business approach, team, growth, and adventurous exploration towards the future. Cath joined our team during 2022, and enables us to use our words to ensure every word we produce is of exemplary quality. Backed by her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, and certified in Project Management, Cath is renowned for her extreme organizational skills. As Top Dog at Bulldog Development Studio, Cath leads and capacitates multiple teams across the globe. Having reshaped her freelance business to accommodate this need across multiple sectors, Cath has been driving strategic content machines for more than ten years. Before that, Cath cut her teeth in the communications world through her work with a FET institution, and went on to work in the NGO world. As the IT and New Media Manager, Cath spent a decade heading up their media and communications, managing their information technology systems, and expanding the programme’s reach through new media channels. Cath lives by the mantra “underpromise, overdeliver” and would be simply adrift without her GCal.
20fifty is a connected collective of solutioneers that solves the right problems, for the right clients, at the right time. How can we help your business build for 2050 and beyond?
