Aletta Rochat, DTM, 2025–2026 International President

What to wear? That question was very much on the mind of Aletta Rochat, DTM, in the months leading up to the 2024 World Championship of Public Speaking^®. This wasn’t about fashionista tendencies or shopping for a knockout dress to wow the crowd. No, it was about clothing as a point of cultural pride.

As Toastmasters International President-Elect at the time, it was Rochat’s role to chair the championship event. Born in South Africa, the longtime resident of Cape Town wanted to wear an outfit representing her African identity. She took photos of clothing options and sought feedback from leaders in her District. They responded with passionate opinions about cultural attire and aesthetic design.

The search turned into a Toastmasters team effort. One member sent her elaborate beadwork to wear.

When the championship round began, in Anaheim, California, there was a regal-looking Rochat onstage, attired in an intricately designed black-and-white dress and equally stylish headdress.

This past August, at the 2025 Toastmasters International Convention, Rochat was installed as the organization’s 2025–2026 International President—the first member from Africa to hold that position. She once again showed her cultural pride through her attire, bringing a bit of African inspiration into many of her outfits.

“It’s very exciting,” she says. “You know, when you come from Africa, Africa is often a place that’s overlooked and underestimated by people. So what’s amazing to me is that my becoming President is deeply meaningful to the Toastmasters here—not because it’s me, but because of what it represents for Africa.”

Nourishing the Soul

Rochat has always been a people person, whether enjoying her Toastmasters friends, discussing literature in a book group, or training with other women in her Cape Town running club. Such social interaction, she says, “feeds my soul.”

Since joining Toastmasters 17 years ago, she has seized the many opportunities the program offers, leadership experience being one. As she has assumed one leadership role after another, she has built confidence and found fulfillment helping others.

“Each step of the way I’ve learned to expand my capacity to deliver whatever needs to be delivered,” says Rochat, a member of Cape Town Toastmasters.

“You see yourself grow, you see other people grow. You get to make a contribution, and all that is very meaningful to me. And it’s so much fun, really.”

Rochat works as a coach—both one-on-one and with groups—helping people hone their executive presence. Her first client, years ago, was someone who wanted to be confident delivering a speech at his 50th birthday but was too busy to join a Toastmasters club.

“I just love doing this work, because people will come to me and part of it will be about their presentation skills, part of it will be about their leadership skills, part of it will be them just thinking strategically. So it’s all wrapped into one.”

Her career, she says, “wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for Toastmasters.”

 

Listen to The Toastmasters Podcast to hear more from your International President.

Her Early Journey

When she was growing up, Rochat’s father worked in the mining business, so the family had to relocate often for his work, moving from South Africa to Zambia, then to Toronto, Tasmania, and back to South Africa. She constantly needed to connect with new people in different countries in order to make friends.

“I think that’s where my love of communication started,” she says. “It was almost like a survival skill in the beginning.”

She became a leader in school, and at 17, participated in a Rotary International Youth Exchange program, moving from South Africa to live with host families in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, for a year.

“It was a big adjustment but such an incredible adventure. I made lifelong friends, learned so much about myself, and grew in confidence and independence in ways I never expected.”

Rochat developed a career in marketing management before later focusing full time on raising her children. She and her husband of 35 years, Rory, have three children, now all adults: Nicole, 33; Cate, 31; and Trevor, 26. Her husband runs his own business, a retail fuel operation based in Cape Town.

Looking for a communication-related creative outlet, Rochat discovered Toastmasters in 2008, finding a club located near her home. “I joke that I went to my first meeting to run away from my kids,” she says with a smile. “I had been a stay-at-home mom for a number of years, and I was looking for something that was just for me—nothing to do with being a wife or a mom.”

She was already a confident communicator but the leadership journey opened a new path of personal growth. Rochat says leadership is all about relationships and recognizing others.

“I often say that the most underrated leadership tool, in my opinion, is validation. So if you want to build a team that thrives, keep on validating them in person,” she says. “Send them a voice note, thank them for doing whatever, and thank the ones who ask you the hard questions, because they’re also helping you.”

She tries to help members “see the potential in themselves” and she offers tips wherever she can. “I try to just find very practical ways of making it easier to be a leader.”

When Rochat served as Region 11 Advisor, from 2016 to 2018, she held virtual meetings with District leaders, gave advice on overcoming challenges, and presented a webinar on “What Leaders Learn From Speech Contests.”

 

 

Family Support

As a dedicated leader, Rochat has spent a great deal of time on her Toastmasters activities through the years. “I have to give a huge thank-you to my husband, who isn’t a Toastmaster but has always just realized that this is my thing and has been so supportive,” she says, “especially when it’s been me spending time away from home, and especially when the kids were still in school.”

She adds that her children are excited about her becoming International President. “They tease me a lot about it as well. My daughter will say, ‘You’re the queen of Toastmasters!’

“Or I’ll leave her a voicemail and she’ll say to me, ‘Mom, you’re using your Toastmasters voice. Just use your normal voice.’”

Her daughters are particularly proud “in terms of me being a woman rising up in leadership,” she notes.

(Rochat is the 10th woman in Toastmasters’ history to serve as International President. She’s also the third woman in a row to be elected to the role, following Radhi Spear, DTM, and Morag Mathieson, DTM.)

Outside of Toastmasters, Rochat is an avid hiker and runner who raves about Cape Town’s beautiful greenbelts, vineyards, beaches, and mountain ranges. She has run a number of half-marathons—13.1 miles (21.09 kilometers)—and she is scheduled to run her 10th Two Oceans Half Marathon in Cape Town in 2026.

South Africa, of course, was the homeland of Nelson Mandela, one of the great leaders, and orators, in history. Rochat calls him “a nation builder,” citing examples of his willingness and ability to reach out to people, even opponents.

“He was incredibly skilled at communicating with words and communicating with actions that brought people together. And I think that’s something that I wish all of us could do more of. He was very inspiring.”

A New Chapter

Rochat is excited about meeting new Toastmasters around the world as International President. She wants to help the organization build back its membership numbers post-COVID, and believes existing members need to think of sharing—as opposed to selling—what Toastmasters offers to individuals.

“You’re inviting people to share an opportunity. And then you’re looking after them once they’re there, and that seems doable to most everybody.”

“Sharing and serving. If we all do that, then we will start building more clubs and growing our organization again,” she says.

Rochat adds that she feels very lucky to have discovered Toastmasters and to continue reaping its many benefits, namely growing, learning, and connecting with others.

“You know, I’m in my 60s and my biggest fear of growing old is having my world shrink—and Toastmasters is the opposite of that. It just keeps me engaged, keeps growing my world, and that to me is so stimulating.”

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