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Work Background
YocoDirector of Risk
Jan. 2025City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South AfricaI lead risk strategy and analytics at Yoco, ensuring risk is understood and managed in a way that enables growth. My focus is on enterprise risk, payments & credit risk, and anti-financial crime, using data to drive better decisions and governance. I work across data, product, finance, and operations, aligning risk with strategy and embedding it into how Yoco operates. I also partner with the Audit & Risk Committee to ensure strong oversight and risk intelligence. I like breaking down complex risks, refining models, and building systems that support informed, practical risk-taking as Yoco scales.
YocoDirector - Business Alignment
Jan. 2023 - Jan. 2025As the Director of Business Alignment at Yoco, I play a pivotal role in shaping and steering cross-functional processes, projects, and initiatives, reporting directly to the CEO. I focus on identifying and addressing critical cross-functional challenges, and implementing projects that improve our operational metrics and decision-making processes. My role includes planning and coordinating efforts aimed at improving efficiency, enhancing quality, and fostering scalability across the entire organisation.
YocoDirector - Data
Jan. 2022 - Dec. 2022Cape Town Area, South AfricaResponsible for leading the Data function of 30+ data scientists, data engineers, data analysts and analytics engineers.
- Owning the data strategy and strategic data execution - using data to drive impactful business decisions
- Growing and managing the data function, hiring and retaining top-performing data leaders, scientists, analysts, and engineers
- Creating a data culture within the Yoco, partnering with senior leaders across the business to maximize value from data
- Setting up self-service data to democratize data access and scalability
YocoHead of Data
Jun. 2016 - Dec. 2021Cape Town, Western Cape, South AfricaResponsible for creating and growing Yoco's first data team in 2016.
Architecting a modern and scalable data stack, before it was commonplace, that scaled up seamlessly to service the business as it grew
Driving data culture and data driven decision making across all functions of the company
Developing the Yoco Small Business Monitor, a data product to create transparency of the impact of Covid-19 on Yoco's merchants
Leading the launch of Yoco's first Capital product
Building operational scalability through the implementation of a robust CRM platform
YocoRisk Manager
Oct. 2015 - Jun. 2016Cape Town Area, South AfricaResponsible for building the Yoco risk management team. The team focused on:
* Managing the risk system to ensure scalability & effectiveness
* Risk analytics to identify common behaviours and trends
* Preventing credit card fraud, leveraging technology to ensure scale
* Contributing to capital raising and deal-making within strategic wholesale partnerships
Delta PartnersAssociate
Aug. 2014 - Sep. 2015Clients included the largest fixed line telecommunications players in the Middle-Eastern region. Focus on the wholesale division, key outcomes as the project manager include:
* Sizing the market for potential new services
* Quantification of the group risk of not responding to regulatory pressure (~$1bn / year)
* Identifying key next steps to raise the profile of wholesale within the organisation
* Managing junior team members and training them in the wholesale basics
* Develop organisational implementation plans for the delivery of new products, services as well as mitigation of the regulatory risk
Delta PartnersAnalyst
Jan. 2013 - Jul. 2014Clients include the largest fixed and mobile operators in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Key contributions to projects include:
* Preparing a migration plan for legacy services to fibre based technologies in a value accretive manner. Portfolio value was > R13bn / year
* Leading the negotiation between fixed and mobile players for the provision of leased line services to the value of >R1bn / year
* Re-pricing critical wholesale products using thorough quantitative methods and accounting for supply and demand factors
* Creating a lobbying strategy for a large mobile player to engage with government
Towers WatsonIntern
Nov. 2011 - Dec. 2011
Swiss ReIntern
Jun. 2011 - Jul. 2011
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