Investment Insights

Tshegofatso Tlhong is a Portfolio Manager within the Kgori Capital team. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder and holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours): Investment Management from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Her career started as an Intern Analyst at Coronation Fund Managers Botswana. A year later she joined Fleming Asset Management Botswana as an Equity Investment Analyst and Trader. Three years on, she progressed to the role of Portfolio Manager which she occupied for a year before joining Kgori Capital in 2016. Tshego has 6 years asset management experience.

The interview below introduces you to Tshegofatso the person…

Have you always known you would be a fund manager?

Nope. First I wanted to be a dentist (I had a horrible overbite at the time from sucking my thumb), an Accountant like my Dad and, finally, I wanted to build an empire as an entrepreneur (I started my first business at the age of 11 with a group of friends). While in high-school however, I happened to meet a gentleman who was a CFO; we spoke at length about what he did, investing was a major part of it and his passion was contagious! I had been buying shares on the BSE from a young age, my parents are avid investors in international markets, so in a way it was meant to be!

If you weren’t a Portfolio Manager, what would you be?

Well, in addition to being a PM I am also an entrepreneur. I own an ecommerce marketplace (Ziigie.com) and my dream of building an empire is alive and in motion. I am a firm believer in realising my dreams and helping others realise theirs where I can.

How do you relax and unwind?

I feed my creative side, I derive a lot of pleasure and joy from creating and experiencing new things. I travel a lot, both across Botswana and internationally; travel has a way of opening my mind to new possibilities. I am a nature photographer, I read books and I love food (cooking and eating it).

How do you balance work demands and motherhood?

Flexi-time has helped immensely. I have been fortunate to work in environments where family is regarded highly and therefore I have the flexibility to be doing school runs, attending activities, as well as doing homework and teaching my child life lessons the classroom can never teach. Once he falls asleep I can hop back on to my laptop and work remotely. Of course there can never really be a perfect balance, sometimes my attention will be more skewed to one versus the other, but on average I try to give each attention. Making time for myself is also key to refuel my tank; parenting, relationships, work etc. are acts of giving of yourself to others and you can’t give what you don’t have.

What are you currently reading?

I am between a few books at the moment… depending on mood. They are The Power of Your Mind by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome; Startup Leadership by Derek Lidow; Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant and The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish