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Tell us about your role at Standard Bank CIB South Africa and what your priorities have been in your first year.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my first year in this position, particularly the breadth and depth of my role. Our strategic pillars are to transform client experience, drive sustainable value creation, deliver operational excellence, and grow our people and culture. Although all four pillars receive attention, my own time has been biased towards clients and people.
How has your experience at KPMG and Deutsche Bank shaped your approach to corporate and investment banking?
Pivoting across different roles has allowed me to continue learning and derive significant job satisfaction throughout my career. Banking is typically a specialised discipline and, if you aren’t purposeful about it, it can be difficult to reorientate your career or learn different skills and disciplines.
I’ve always believed that you shouldn’t be afraid to seek out different opportunities at the appropriate time in your career.
What are the opportunities and challenges for businesses looking to raise capital in South Africa’s current environment?
We’re faced with the reality of a low-growth environment that is highly sophisticated and competitive. The way to differentiate yourself is through the quality of your insights, solutions, and service.
Achieving this requires winning the war for talent. A big part of my role is to ensure that we can attract and retain the best people in the market by creating a culture and environment where they feel motivated, inspired, and appropriately challenged to deliver their best.
How do you balance international best practice with local market realities when advising clients?
My view is that we absolutely have to leverage international best practice in our business while making sure it’s fit for purpose given the nuances of our local market. Working across global markets was an excellent training ground for this. It’s a fast-paced environment where the required solutions continually evolve.
One of the things we did well was to work with international partners to import new technology and solutions from markets that were more advanced than South Africa – before, in due course, building the competency ourselves.
Which sectors will drive the most significant deal activity and investment opportunities in South Africa over the next few years?
As the country looks to balance energy supply and demand, energy transition and security will continue to offer opportunities in the generation and transmission subsectors. Secondly, general infrastructure related to transport, logistics, and water will provide significant private sector opportunities over the medium term.
Lastly, private capital will continue to be a significant evolving opportunity for the Group.