Sumaya Regal joined Sonke in February to support the office of the Executive and Deputy Executive Directors and also serve as the board secretary. She is based in the Cape Town office.
She is somewhat of a godsend to Sonke, and makes a lot of communication much easier, especially when it comes to the very busy Dean and Des.
She has extensive experience in setting up office management systems and implementing procedures as well as managing the offices of high-level executives in educational institutions, NGOs and corporations. Over the last seven years Sumaya has professionally managed the office of the Executive Director of the Open Society Foundation for South Africa and Director of the Indonesia Program. The OSF-SA is an international donor organisation and forms part of a network of 60 foundations all over the world with its head offices in New York and Budapest.
She also gained international working experience at the largest mutual funds company in Boston, USA which has provided her the opportunity to work with people of many nationalities. Sumaya graduated from the University of the Western Cape as a secondary school teacher and obtained her human resource management qualification from Technikon South Africa.
Sumaya has been married for 20 years and is the mother of two young sons. She loves entertaining family and friends from all over the world has been lauded as an excellent hostess and cook! She and her family enjoy travelling and Sumaya has lived, worked and travelled extensively in the USA and the Middle and Far East. Malaysia is her perfect family holiday destination and they have travelled there several times.
A true Capetonian and proudly South African, her ultimate aim is to raise her sons to become bastions for justice, ideal husbands, and nurturing fathers and men who will be a benefit to their families and their communities at large.
As the most recent addition to the Sonke family, we welcome Sumaya and hope she will be truly happy with us!
