Thabo Hermanus Biography

Thabo Hermanus, Chief – Credit & Bureau Services for Experian Africa, is responsible for the company’s Africa CX Agenda, which drives their customer centricity, a cornerstone of any ambitious business’s growth. He is not new to Experian, having previously joined the South African business in 2002 as Head of Finance. On leaving Experian in 2007, Thabo co-founded Nimble Collections Services, one of the leading participants in the Sub-Saharan African market with operations in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. After five years, Thabo joined Standard Bank as the Head of Customer Collections and Payments Strategies, and later a role in Regulatory Advocacy. Thabo moved back into the credit bureau environment when he joined Compuscan in 2017 as Managing Director for South Africa.

Currently, as Chief – Credit & Bureau Services for Experian Africa, Thabo manages the Consumer and Business bureau divisions including Product and Commercial Strategy for the Africa business together with the operational customer support functions. Thabo is an Accounts and Economics major, having obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Cape Town. He is married with two daughters and invests most of his spare time in building close relationships with them.

Ans Gerber Biography

A data scientist in the Innovation team of Experian, Ans has experience in Analytics across various disciplines. In her current role, she is part of a dynamic team that continues to push the boundaries of what is deemed ‘typical’ bureau activities, by finding and creating new data sets, building new products and creating value propositions that address industry needs and also help to build an inclusive credit economy for Africa, by empowering consumers.

Moosa Suliman Biography

Moosa is an experienced Corporate Credit Executive with Transnet. Transnet has a turnover in excess of R60 billion with a debtor's book of over R12 billion. It employs over 65,000 employees. He is driven in achieving best practice in the industry and sharing his knowledge and sound advice willingly. He is passionate about assisting customers while ensuring credit risk is reduced. He is integral to the Transnet team starting off at the Rail division in 2005 transforming his team and function from a debtor's department to fully fledged credit management role. He left the Rail division 2013. However, his remarkable ability to guide and lead his team, in a professional and respectful manner resulted in him been recalled less than a year after he left at head office in Group Role. Moosa has worked on initiatives with Experian and credit service providers in developing ideas that have benefited the credit industry as a whole.

Ayanda Kotobe Biography

Ayanda Kotobe is a seasoned finance professional with a wealth of experience in auditing and financial management. A proud Chartered Accountant (CA(SA)), Ayanda earned her BCom Accounting Honours from the University of Johannesburg in 2009 and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2012. She began her career at Deloitte and Touche, where she honed her skills as an Audit Senior and later as an Audit Manager, including an enriching period working with Deloitte LLP in New York City In 2015, Ayanda transitioned to Barloworld Equipment, where she served as Financial Manager for nearly three years. Her exemplary performance led to her promotion as the Country Financial Director of Barloworld Equipment in Botswana, where she managed the full financial operations and led the finance team. In 2019, Ayanda returned to South Africa to take on the role of Finance Director at RS South Africa, where she currently oversees the Finance and Corporate Services functions, driving strategic financial initiatives.

Muhammad Akoojee Biography

Muhammad Akoojee leads a team of credit analysts involved in the delivery of comprehensive credit reports for high risk, or high value credit engagements. Muhammad's Platinum team performs assessments on a wide range of credit risk factors, highlighting the risk, and enabling sustainable business growth for credit grantors.

Karen Gischen Biography

Karen is a Product Manager at Experian South Africa and is responsible for the Business bureau products with touchpoints into the consumer side of the business. Karen started her career at KreditInform which was one of the biggest commercial bureaus in the country at the time. Experian acquired KreditInform in 2009 and she has fulfilled a multitude of roles ranging from Researcher, Account Manager assistant and Support Manager for the Tier 1 Banks, Unsecured Lending Financial Institutions, Telco’s, and Retailers. Her current role is in Product Manager for Business Information Services.

Chris Swanepoel Biography

Chris Swanepoel is a senior analyst at Experian Africa with an honours degree in Business Mathematics and Informatics. He has been working in the credit industry for the last 9 years in all areas of the credit lifecycle. His main area of expertise lies in business intelligence and custom analytics solutions. He also has strong knowledge in the risk model development space.

Koketso Rakopo Biography

Koketso Rakopo is a Senior Regulatory Analyst for Experian Africa and is focused on IFRS9 modelling and enhancements with a good understanding of the regulatory shift from IAS39 to IFRS9. Prior to joining Experian, Koketso worked within the credit risk environment across the credit lifecycle specifically concerning acquisition, compliance, collections and provision modelling (IFRS9). As a senior analyst, Koketso invests his time looking into applying traditional and machine learning approaches within regulatory (IFRS9) and decision analytics. Koketso holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Actuarial Science from the University of Cape Town.