Prof Leenta Grobler, the director for business development and stakeholder engagement in the Faculty of Engineering at the North-West University (NWU), is a true trailblazer and not even the Covid-19 pandemic can hold her back.
She was recently announced as a semi-finalist in the category Public and Private Service of the annual Accenture Rising Star Awards.
These awards aim to recognise, celebrate and connect young South Africans professionals between the ages of 28 and 40 who display great leadership qualities and strive towards achievement, success and making a difference.
In 2020 Prof Grobler, as team leader of the faculty’s Digital Health group, together with her team, developed the TjopTjop health screening app to assist schools, businesses, and other institutions to easily collect and store health screening information from students, pupils, staff and clients. For this initiative they received an international award from the Covid-19 Innovation Challenge of the United Nations (UN) Africa Innovation and Investment Forum in 2020.
In the same year, Prof Grobler and her team manufactured face shields for members of the community and partnered with the Central University of Technology to reverse engineer a ventilator last used in the Vietnam war to create a ventilation solution that will not be susceptible to loadshedding for South African clinics and hospitals. They then went on to create not only a remote monitoring system for ventilators, but also a digital interpreter for the PCR tests performed to diagnose Covid-19.
“I am grateful for the loyalty, dedication and support from my team who help me create and develop life-changing technology that will shape the future of healthcare in developing countries, and thankful to the NWU for giving me the platform to thrive,” says Prof Grobler. “Being nominated in the Accenture Rising Star Awards is a huge honour. I am so proud to be recognised alongside some of the most influential leaders in our country.”
Staying humble and having a willing and enabling attitude helped her build meaningful relationships with people in various sectors, which is absolutely vital in her current role at the faculty.
She adds that it has been a long road to get to where she is now. For 14 years she has supported many of her older colleagues from the sidelines, gaining experience and learning from them – even though her role in their successes was often invisible.
“I am a firm believer that women will change the world for the better if they are given the opportunities and confidence to try. I hope to be a role model for girls by leading by example – showing that engineering is not only a career option girls can succeed at, but also a sector they can thrive in – which will lead to better products and services for all of us,” she says.
The university applauds Prof Leenta for flying the NWU flag high, and looks forward to all future ground-breaking developments and partnerships she will embark on. The Accenture Rising Star Awards will be hosted later this year.
Prof Leenta Grobler is one of the NWU’s rising stars.
