When Janet Eastwood walked into Phyllis Yaffe’s office to interview for a marketing communications position with History Television, she wasn’t at all convinced that she was ready to make a career move from ctv. But Yaffe’s personality was enough to change her mind. ‘Our interview was two and a half hours long. We got on like a house on fire and I left the meeting suddenly convinced that it might be the right opportunity for me. And it had almost everything to do with [the prospect of] working with Phyllis.’

Eastwood says her impressions of Yaffe have been borne out over the past three years. ‘Phyllis has extremely high standards, but as somebody who has very high standards and expectations myself, I find that stimulating and not daunting. And one of the best parts of working with Phyllis is that if she trusts your expertise, she is willing to give you a fair bit of power and autonomy.’

According to Eastwood, Yaffe is ‘gender blind’ when it comes to promotion and empowerment of her management team. ‘Phyllis is interested in having the best people in the roles and she would give every consideration to a woman…and to a man. Phyllis is really somebody who looks at the talents of an individual and their strengths versus their gender. Phyllis wants to be number one and she gravitates towards people who share that vision.’