Nivi Grogor is rewriting the rules of the fight In a sport where tradition, toughness and male leadership have long dominated the ring, As CEO and majority owner of Golden Gloves, one of South Africa’s most respected and historic boxing promotions, she is breaking barriers, challenging stereotypes and redefining what it means to lead in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
From investing in emerging African boxing talent to championing athlete wellbeing and creating greater opportunities for women in sport, her vision extends far beyond the ring.
This Women’s Month, we caught up with the woman at the helm of Golden Gloves, to talk leadership, resilience and what it means to build a career in spaces where women have historically been underrepresented.
Coming from a technology background, Nivi’s arrival in professional boxing was anything but conventional. She stepped into a legacy sporting institution with a decades-long history and took a majority stake in a company responsible for building more than 50 world champions. She entered an industry where women in positions of ownership and leadership remain the exception and quickly learned that being underestimated can be its own kind of power.
Today, Nivi is using her position to help shape the future of African boxing, with a focus on athlete development, innovation, commercial growth and wellbeing. Her approach to leadership is equally uncompromising and human: she believes empathy and authority are not opposing forces, and that women should not wait for permission to take their place at the table or build their own. Here, Nivi talks about breaking glass ceilings, navigating imposter syndrome, being underestimated and the lessons she wishes she could give her younger self.
GLAMOUR: You walked into one of the most male-dominated industries in the world and bought a majority stake in its biggest boxing promotion company. What was the reaction when you first entered the room?
Nivi Grogor: Polite. Curious. And, under the surface, a quiet assumption that I was there to observe rather than to lead. Golden Gloves is a business with people who have known each other for decades, and I arrived as a woman from technology who had bought control of the company that built 50-plus world champions. I could feel everyone trying to place me — was I an investor passing through, someone's representative, a marketing idea? I didn't fight the assumption; I let the work answer it. Respect in this sport isn't given because of a title. You earn it by understanding the thing they love as much as they do.
GLAMOUR: Have you ever been underestimated because you're a woman? What happened next?
Nivi Grogor: Constantly, and I've stopped treating it as an insult and started treating it as an advantage. When people underestimate you, they show you their whole hand. They speak more freely, they prepare less, they assume you'll defer. The most common version is people trying to go above my head — routing around me to find the "real" decision-maker, only to realise the decision-maker was me all along. I let that play out, because by the time they understand the room, I already understand them. Being underestimated buys you a few seconds of being invisible, and a few seconds is all you need to see clearly.
GLAMOUR: What's the biggest myth people have about women in leadership?
Nivi Grogor: That warmth and toughness are opposites — that a woman has to choose between being liked and being respected, between empathy and authority. It's a false choice. The best leaders I know are deeply human and completely uncompromising about standards, at the same time. Like in this boxing industry, for example, I can care genuinely about a fighter's family and still make the hard commercial call about their career. Softness isn't the absence of strength; very often it's the source of it.
GLAMOUR: What do you wish more young women knew before entering business?
Nivi Grogor: That you do not need to feel ready to begin. Permission is something you give yourself. I'd also tell them: build your own table rather than waiting for a seat at someone else's. Learn and understand the business end to end. Having a holistic view and approach is key to seizing opportunities.
GLAMOUR: What has been the most difficult glass ceiling you've had to break?
Nivi Grogor: The one inside my own head was harder than any external one. The outside doubt I could out-work. The internal voice asking whether a tech founder really belonged at the helm of a legacy sporting institution, that took longer to quiet. The external ceiling in boxing was real: a heritage industry, deeply traditional, where ownership had looked the same for decades. But the moment I stopped seeking permission to belong and simply behaved as though I did, the ceiling turned out to be lower and thinner than it had looked from underneath.
GLAMOUR: Have you ever experienced imposter syndrome, and if so, how do you overcome it?
Nivi Grogor: Of course! Anyone doing something new generally does. I don't try to make the feeling disappear, because I've decided it's actually a useful signal: it usually means I'm standing somewhere unknown, which is exactly where growth happens. What I've learned is to separate the feeling from the facts. The feeling says you don't belong. The facts say you built a company, you closed the deal, you did the homework. I trust the facts.
Recent stories by:
Thobeka Phanyeko
Women's Month: This is how women are building intentional communities
Are you considering pivoting your career in your 40s? This is what you need to know
Wellness Wednesday: The joy check-in you need, according to Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, Melissa Lainn
Women’s Month: Liezl Gericke on Leadership, Resilience and Making Space for Others
