How do you answer the question "what do you do?" in no more than 10 words?
I enable South Africans to save using uncomplicated products.
Tell me about your role as head of retail investments, including your main tasks each week.
Each week I work with various stakeholders to ensure that our platforms and processes enable seamless customer experiences. We dedicate time to manage how we show up in the market in terms of messaging and rates. We also work with technical teams on items such as balance sheet management and compliance with various legislative requirements.
How did you get into financial services?
I studied information systems and accounting directly from high school. I continued with studies in financial management while I was a young professional in what was a newly listed boutique asset management firm at the time and learnt about the business of institutional investments.
I pursued an MBA and then switched to a general management role in investment banking before moving into retail banking, initially in unsecured lending. But investments is definitely a sweet spot for me.
What do you think makes you good at what you do?
The ability to understand economic and financial information and use it to deliver solutions for ordinary South Africans has been vitally important in helping me to deliver value for various stakeholders.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
It is quite fulfilling to create solutions that compete well in the markets we operate in. I enjoy that we work with various experts and a number of different technologies to solve everyday problems and enhance the savings and investment experience of ordinary South Africans.
What would people find most surprising about your job?
At times I get questions about the direction of economic trends and, for example, whether interest rates will increase. Some people have thought that I might have some sort of insider information of how the different variables will move, and the truth is that there is no crystal ball.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
I did not have the necessary language to articulate an exact profession. I knew from a young age that the financial sector and things to do with wealth creation interested me. I saw that business people wore suits and seemed to make decisions on issues that affected many lives, and I was intrigued by that.
What do you look for when recruiting people for your team?
I look for curiosity, a positive attitude and a teachable spirit.
What advice do you have for young people at the start of their careers?
It is important to learn skills that have computational and technology elements as well as developing excellent written and spoken communication skills.
It is not sufficient to know how technologies work if one cannot articulate how those technologies solve real-life problems that ordinary people are looking solutions for. In the African context, in particular, there is a great need for problem-solving skills, and if you are a young professional your qualification and experience should be geared to developing solutions for real-life problems that will grow local economies.
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