Ritasha Kalidas is the Group Head of Cyber Security at Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA), where she leads the organisation’s cyber security, privacy, and IT governance strategy across multiple regions and markets. With more than 21 years of experience, Ritasha has built a distinguished career at the intersection of information security, risk, compliance, and data governance, spanning sectors as diverse as banking, telecommunications, manufacturing, petrochemicals, entertainment, and the military.
Over the past 15 years, she has held a range of executive leadership roles in compliance, IT, risk, and operations, consistently driving enterprise-wide resilience and transformation initiatives. Prior to joining CCBA, Ritasha served as Acting Chief Information Officer at Tiger Brands, where she led the IT division and strengthened technology governance across the group.
Ritasha is recognised as a trailblazer in the African technology landscape and was the first woman in South Africa to earn the Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) certification. She is a frequent speaker and panel moderator involved at more than 40 international and local conferences on cyber security, privacy, and information risk. Her influence has been widely acknowledged: she was named among the Top 100 Influential Women in ICT by Brainstorm and ITWeb, and recognised in 2023 as one of the continent’s Women Transformation Movers.
Throughout her career, Ritasha has served on risk, audit, and board committees, providing strategic assurance on cyber resilience, risk management, and governance transparency. She has also led complex vendor ecosystems, both locally and internationally, including the establishment of new vendor management capabilities within leading financial institutions such as Rand Merchant Bank.