Lazola Sikupela takes new role of HR Director, Africa at Diageo

Diageo has promoted Lazola Sikupela as Human Resources Director for Africa, elevating a leader who has risen through the company’s people function from talent specialist to continental remit.

Sikupela, who confirmed the promotion in a personal announcement, assumes responsibility for human resources across Diageo’s African markets. The role places her at the centre of workforce strategy for one of the world’s leading beverage companies on a continent where commercial growth, skills and inclusion are tightly linked.

Her path inside Diageo has been unbroken and progressive. She began as a talent specialist in Cape Town, then moved into junior human resources business partnering in Johannesburg. She went on to serve as HR business partner with responsibility for skills development and employment equity, before taking on commercial and marketing as HR business partner in the Johannesburg metropolitan area.

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A subsequent appointment as Global Commercial HR Business Partner extended her brief beyond a single market, pairing local insight with a wider commercial lens. She later served as Human Resources Director for South Africa, the role from which she now steps into the Africa mandate.

Before Diageo, Sikupela worked as an account executive at Status Staffing in Cape Town, managing client relationships and leading recruitment and headhunting. She also completed a human resources graduate programme at Visa in Cape Town, inside a global payments technology company whose network connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments across more than 200 countries and territories.