Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) has named Emrie Brown as its new CEO, making her only the second woman to lead a corporate and investment banking unit in SA, alongside Nedbank’s Anel Bosman.
Brown’s appointment is effective as of October 1 and will see her take over from RMB’s current CEO James Formby, who steps down after seven years as the leader of FirstRand Ltd’s corporate and investment banking division. Formby is considering “a number of options available to him within the broader group”, FirstRand said in a statement on Thursday announcing the leadership change.
“I am delighted to be able to pass the baton to someone of Emrie’s talent and experience,” said Formby. “The time is right to hand over and I have the right person to hand over to.”
Brown’s rise to one of the top positions in corporate SA was not a traditional one given her rather humble background in Pretoria, where she attended Hoërskool Silverton rather than one of the prestigious private schools where many of the country’s financial elite are groomed. The daughter of an artisan, Brown put herself through university with the help of a bursary from KPMG in Pretoria, where she initially qualified as a chartered accountant after completing her articles with the firm.
“I was one of the first women to get a bursary through KPMG in Pretoria,” says Brown. “I studied at Tukkies [University of Pretoria] for my undergraduate degree and did my honours at RAU, which is now University of Johannesburg.”
However, what truly put her on the path to success was achieving the second-highest mark in the country in the highly competitive and challenging chartered accountancy board exam.
“That’s really what opened doors for me,” she says. “Because I did exceptionally well academically people were willing to give me an interview.”
After lecturing for a year at the University of Pretoria she was attracted to the allure of investment banking and ended up joining Nedbank’s investment banking arm the following year in 1997. After gaining experience in structured finance at Nedbank, she joined RMB in May 2001, working in a variety of roles ranging from leveraged finance and deal making to business development where, in the initial years, she worked closely with Alan Pullinger, who is now FirstRand CEO.
In 2009 she moved to Cape Town to head up RMB’s Western Cape investment banking team but ended up leaving the bank after six months because she wanted to have children.
“In those days there weren’t too many women in senior banking leadership roles who had children so I thought it was the end of my banking career,” she says. “Just three months after leaving I realised I really missed RMB and called up the head of the investment bank and asked if I could come back.”
That saw her rejoin RMB in 2010 as a transactor until she eventually relocated to Johannesburg after being appointed co-head of investment banking in July 2015.
While she works long days that typically see her start work at 4am she makes sure she sets aside time each evening to spend time with her two boys, aged 9 and 11, and also enjoys supporting them at school sports on weekends. But as head of one of the most financially and strategically important units in the FirstRand group she has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders and says one has to accept it is not a run-of-the-mill “nine-to-five job.”
“Fortunately, I love what I do so I don’t need anyone cracking the whip to get me at my desk,” she says.
At 52, Brown also happens to be the oldest CEO in RMB’s history but says that that is part and parcel of being the first woman to lead the unit. Nevertheless, she says she’s never battled to achieve recognition as a woman in the industry though she does say that being a “minority voice” can be a challenge.
“I was always an equal partner to all the men and women that I worked with at RMB,” she says. “It’s not that its hard being a woman but it can be hard being a minority voice. That’s why I’m passionate about diversity and inclusion, be it gender, race or even in terms of education and qualifications.”
As far as her business goals are concerned, she wants to accelerate RMB’s data and platform journey as these play an integral role in delivering innovative solutions to solve clients’ specific needs. While she also wants to boost RMB’s market penetration in the rest of Africa, she says SA continues to offer significant growth opportunities, particularly in the realms of sustainable finance and projects linked to environmental, social and governance issues.
Asked to name the biggest business challenge she faces she names an unexpected dilemma: retaining top talent. Ironically, she says, this is partly due to SA having the capacity to produce highly qualified people whose financial, engineering, legal, actuarial and technology skills are highly sought after across the globe.
“What makes RMB successful is the quality of its people so what keeps me up at night is the war for talent,” she says. “People emigrate and leave for opportunities outside of banking, which is a worldwide problem. When you’re 35 and highly qualified the world is your oyster — you can get great exposure working internationally.”
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