Wendy Appelbaum chairs De Morgenzon Estate, a wine farm and agricultural business in Stellenbosch. Through The Wendy Appelbaum Foundation her company initiates, selects and drives programs addressing, in the main, the health and education interests and concerns of South African women.
Appelbaum holds various directorships, trusteeships and is a member of numerous organisations registered both in South Africa and abroad including the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre (Pty) Ltd, a post-graduate teaching hospital of the University of the Witwatersrand; The Donald Gordon Foundation, the largest private charitable foundation in Africa; and the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA). She is a director of Sphere Holdings (Pty) Ltd, a black empowerment company focused in the financial services and mining sectors and a Director of WESGRO (Western Cape Tourism, Trade & Investment). Appelbaum is a member of Harvard University’s Women’s Leadership Board and Harvard’s Global Advisory Council and is also a member of the International Women’s Forum and Board member of Synergos Africa.
She was previously the deputy-chairman of Women’s’ Investment Portfolio Limited (Wiphold Limited), the first women controlled company to list on the JSE with then assets in excess of R1 billion.