Speaker Bio

Lele Modise is the Group Chief Legal and Regulatory Affairs Officer (CLRO) at MTN Group Limited (MTN), and was previously the MTN Group Chief Legal Counsel, having joined MTN Group in August 2019. Lele leads the Legal and the Regulatory Affairs function across Africa and the Middle East in respect of various key transactions and projects (including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and restructurings, investments, disposals, joint ventures), key litigation and dispute resolution, regulatory matters including operational aspects relating to licence renewals, applications and spectrum acquisitions. Lele also leads MTN’s industry advocacy programmes, and engagements with regulators, ministries, and industry bodies, in respect of legislative and policy developments.
Lele holds a B.Proc, LLB from the University of Pretoria and Masters in Banking Law (LLM) from the University of South Africa. She began her career in 2000 at Bell Dewar & Hall Inc. (now Fasken Martineau) and was admitted to the South African High Court as an attorney in 2003. She later joined Bowman Gilfillan (now Bowmans) where she became partner, specializing in Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions and Banking & Finance, and also as Head of the Private Equity practice. In October 2014, Lele joined Barclays Africa Group Limited (Absa Africa) as General Counsel for Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) and was appointed as General Counsel for both Wealth, Investment Management and Insurance (WIMI) and CIB in November 2015. In 2017, until she joined MTN, Lele continued as General counsel for CIB at Absa Africa and also established the Transaction Management function which provided end to end post deal management across the bank.