Strate’s 2024 Regulatory and Supervisory Report is available – read how we’re upholding market stability through effective oversight

Rato de Mendonça

Non-executive Director

Bachelor of Commerce in Economics & Transport Economics

Financial Markets Association ACI Dealing Certificate

Rato is an experienced banking professional with extensive expertise in Corporate Banking, Transaction Banking and Global Markets. He currently serves as Head of Financial Institutions & Investor Services in Transaction Banking at Standard Bank, where he oversees corporate and investment banking services. His previous role was as Global Head of Sales, in which he led the execution of Transaction Banking’s sales strategy in the Corporate and Financial Institutions sectors across Standard Bank’s presence markets and international organisation centres.

Rato has built his career over three-decades with the Standard Bank Group, leading relationship and sales teams in product houses, sectors and regions.

His senior leadership responsibilities have included leading teams in SBSA Isle of Man, Global Markets FX and Money Market Sales in South Africa, Client Coverage in Financial Institutions across African Regions, Transaction Banking Sales in South Africa and Client Coverage Cape Regions in South Africa.

Louise Currie

Non-executive Director (alternate)

BCom (Hons) (Unisa)

As CIB Client Service and Digital: Executive Client Delivery at Nedbank, Louise Currie focuses on enhancing the client experience through transforming the operating juristic model by steering digitisation at employee and client level.

Louise has over 25 years’ experience in the investment and custodial world, locally and internationally. She began her career in the financial industry in project management focusing on productivity studies in the commercial banking environment. She has been involved in the establishment of the bond market for South Africa and getting South Africa and the local banks ready for the dematerialisation of equities. She went on to take leadership roles in client and operations management on the investment side.

Hendrik Fourie

Non-executive Director (alternate)

MCom (UJ), MCom (Wits), CA(SA), MBA (Gibs), PhD Finance (in progress) (EDHEC, France)

Hendrik Fourie is an experienced financial professional with extensive expertise in institutional banking. He currently serves as Head of Institutional Client Group at RMB, where he oversees global teams managing client strategy. He has held various roles, including Head of Client Strategy and Head of Invest, responsible for managing investment strategies across Africa, the UK and the US, and co-Head of Global Securities Services, where he led strategic expansion and product innovations.

Beverley Furman

Beverley Furman is Head of Operations, responsible for operationalising Strate’s key services in a world-class manner. Bev, who has over 20 years’ experience in the financial markets, partners with Strate’s service heads to ensure operational delivery in an efficient, risk-aware and future-proof manner. She is also responsible for Strate’s change management capability. Previously, Bev was the Head of Strate Supervision, which she created in 2001 to supervise and monitor compliance by CSD Participants with South Africa’s securities legislation and the Financial Markets Act.

Christine Clark

Non-executive Director (alternate)

BCom (Wits) BCom Hons (Unisa) CA(SA)

Christine Clark has over 30 years’ experience within the financial markets sector, and specifically in corporate and investment banking. Currently, she holds the position of Global Markets Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Rand Merchant Bank. She was at Absa (formerly Barclays Bank) for eight years, serving in a number of roles in the Corporate and Investment Bank division including Managing Director: Global Markets COO as well as Director: Group Treasury COO of Banking – Group Treasury. Previously, she has worked at Citigroup, Gensec Bank (now Sanlam Capital). Riskworx and African Merchant Bank. Christine has extensive experience in financial markets, fixed income, regulatory change and compliance and risk management.

Chris Edwards

Non-executive Director

BSocSci Philosophy, PGDip Management (UCT)

Chris joined Absa in March 2010 where he is a Managing Principal and Head of the Prime Services and Passive Funds businesses. Prior to joining Absa, Chris spent 11 years with Morgan Stanley, based in London and then Hong Kong. During this time, he held a variety of positions, including responsibility for the distribution within the Prime Brokerage & Listed Derivatives businesses. Chris is a Director of Absa Stockbrokers.

Rajesh Ramsundhar

Non-executive Director

BCom (Wits), MBA (Gibs)

Rajesh is the Group Head of Standard Bank’s Investor Services business in sub-Saharan Africa where he has held several senior leadership roles, including head of business development, head of product management and head of cash management. He has over 20 years’ experience in financial services in the areas of banking, securities services, FX and money markets and has worked for both domestic and international blue-chip firms.

Fawzia Suliman

Non-executive Director

BCom Accounting (Wits) CA(SA)

Fawzia Suliman, JSE Group Chief Financial Officer, has a wealth of experience spanning over 25 years in the financial services industry in varying senior positions.

She joined the JSE in January 2023, where she leads the finance division and serves as a member of the group executive committee. Fawzia is responsible for group strategy and mergers and acquisitions. She serves on the board of the JSE and as joint executive director of JSE Limited with the JSE Group CEO, Leila Fourie.

Fawzia was previously an executive for special projects at Stanlib and held management roles at Credit Suisse, Macquarie First South and Mazi Macquarie Securities. She was nominated as CEO of the Year 2018 by the Association of Black Securities Investment Professionals (ABSIP).

André Nortjé

Chief Executive Officer

BCom (Hons) Financial Management (UP), MCom Finance (cum laude)(Unisa)

André has over 30 years’ industry experience, most recently as the chief operating officer at Momentum Investments. Former roles include chief operating officers of Momentum Asset Management and the fixed income, equity and solutions businesses at Ignis Asset Management in London.

Sameera Dada

Chief Financial Officer

BCom (Hons) Accounting (UKZN), CA(SA), MComm Accounting (Wits), PGDip Business Practice (Henley Business School)

Sameera is Strate’s Chief Financial Officer. She was previously chief risk officer at Ashburton Investments and headed Risk Management at MMI Investments and Savings. She has served as a financial and investment risk manager at Momentum Asset Management, among other roles.

André Nortjé

Chief Executive Officer

BCom (Hons) Financial Management (UP), MCom Finance (cum laude)(Unisa)

André has over 30 years’ industry experience, most recently as the chief operating officer at Momentum Investments. Former roles include chief operating officers of Momentum Asset Management and the fixed income, equity and solutions businesses at Ignis Asset Management in London.

Alicia Greenwood

Non-executive Director

BSc (Mathematics, Chemistry), PhD (Chemistry)(UCT)

Alicia is the CEO of JSE Clear and the Director of Post Trade Services at JSE Limited (since 2016). She is experienced in strategy, risk and capital management and financial services through various roles at JSE, Standard Bank, Discovery, Accenture and AECI.

Mark Murning

Independent Non-executive Director

BCom (Wits)

Mark has extensive experience in financial markets, having worked in several roles across the investment banking, capital market and asset management businesses within the Sanlam Group. Mark spent 26 years in the Sanlam Group, serving as the CEO of Sanlam Capital Markets and subsequently as CEO of Sanlam Specialised Finance. He has held several positions as a board member of divisional companies and on governance committees.

Kabelo Makwane

Independent Non-executive Director

MBA (Wits Business School) BCom (UKZN)

Kabelo has over 20 years’ information and communications technology experience and is currently Managing Executive for the Cloud, Hosting and Security enterprise business within Vodacom Business. Most recently, he was the managing director for the Africa Geo responsible for Accenture Operations, leading the Business Process and Infrastructure Outsource Business across Africa. At Accenture, he also held the role of managing director for Cloud and Technology Consulting. Kabelo has worked at Microsoft, where his last role was Nigeria country managing director. Prior to that he was at Cisco and Unisys Africa. Kabelo has fulfilled board responsibilities in the financial services and public sectors as a non-executive director and as part of independent advisory boards to the state.

Mathukana Mokoka

Independent Non-executive Director

BCom (UL), PGDip (Financial Accounting)(UCT), BCom (Hons) (UND), PGDip (Auditing)(UCT), CA(SA)

Mathukana is a qualified chartered accountant with diverse work experience in corporate finance and financial management. Her working career includes employment by Standard Bank as a deal maker (leveraged and acquisition finance), Cadiz Financial Services (corporate financier) and Woolworths (financial analyst). Mathukana serves on multiple boards, including Sanlam Limited, Palabora Mining (Pty) Ltd, Stadio Holdings, Alviva Holdings and Contract Services Group Holdings.

Helena Conradie

Independent Non-executive Director

BSc Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Hons), MSc Applied Mathematics (cum laude)(SU), CFA charterholder

Helena Conradie is a seasoned business leader and former CEO of Satrix, the leading index-tracking business in South Africa. Helena led the indexation business from 2000, starting with a small quantitative team managing the first exchange traded fund (ETF) in South Africa, to a diversified business offering ETFs, unit trusts and segregated portfolios across the retail and institutional space. Helena co-founded TenFour Partners in 2022.

Elias Masilela

Independent Non-executive Director

BASocSci (Swaziland), MSc Economic Policy and Analysis (Addis Ababa), Professional Certificates (Harvard)

Elias has extensive experience across a number of industries. He served as the commissioner of the 1st & 2nd National Planning Commission and was the chairman of the V&A Waterfront until end January 2020. He is current Chairman of Capital Harvest, Impact Investing South Africa and Sanlam. He serves as a member of the boards of Multichoice Group, Multichoice SA, Alternative Prosperity Holdings, Future Planet Capital in London and Strate. He was also a member of the boards of the South African Reserve Bank, the Government Employee Pension Fund, Airports Company SA, Economic Research Southern Africa and the UN Global Compact Board and chairman of the (UNGC) SA Local Network..

Keith Getz

Lead Independent Non-executive Director

BProc, LLM (UCT)

Keith is an experienced lawyer in takeovers and mergers, private equity, corporate restructuring, black economic empowerment transactions, exchange control regulations, commercial law contracts and stock exchange listings. He also advises corporate clients nationally and internationally on corporate and commercial matters. Keith is a director of Mr Price Group Limited and Trematon Capital Investments Limited.

Nigel Payne

Independent Non-executive Chairman

BCom (Hons) (Rhodes) CIA, CA(SA), MBL (Unisa)

Nigel is a specialist in audit and risk matters along with substantial corporate structuring expertise. He serves as a non-executive director on a number of boards and is the Lead Independent Director of BidCorp Limited, the Chairman of Vukile Property Fund Ltd and Mr Price Group Limited and a former member of the King Committee.

Louisa Stephens

Independent Non-executive Director

BBusSc (UCT), BCom (Hons)(RAU), CA(SA), CD(SA)

Louisa is a chartered accountant, chartered director and independent trader. She is an experienced independent non-executive director serving a number of listed and unlisted companies. Louisa has experience in investment banking and private equity..

Helena Conradie

Independent Non-executive Director

BSc Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Honours), MSc Applied Mathematics (cum laude)(SU), CFA charter holder

Helena is former CEO of Satrix, the leading provider of index-tracking products in South Africa, wholly owned by the Sanlam Group. Since joining Sanlam Investments in 2000, Helena has built up a highly regarded indexation business, which has over R140 billion in assets under management. Her team also manages the largest equity portfolio of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in South Africa. Under her strategic leadership, Satrix has built up a formidable offering of both vanilla, factor and global products, which are available in the retail and institutional markets across ETF, unit trust and segregated portfolios

Helena Conradie

Independent Non-executive Director

BSc Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Honours), MSc Applied Mathematics (cum laude)(SU), CFA charter holder

Helena is former CEO of Satrix, the leading provider of index-tracking products in South Africa, wholly owned by the Sanlam Group. Since joining Sanlam Investments in 2000, Helena has built up a highly regarded indexation business, which has over R140 billion in assets under management. Her team also manages the largest equity portfolio of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in South Africa. Under her strategic leadership, Satrix has built up a formidable offering of both vanilla, factor and global products, which are available in the retail and institutional markets across ETF, unit trust and segregated portfolios

Sameera Dada

Sameera Dada is Strate’s Chief Financial Officer. Previously, she held the position of chief risk officer at Ashburton Investments. Prior to that she held numerous roles including heading risk management at MMI Investments and Savings and serving as a financial and investment risk manager at Momentum Asset Management.

Gregory Naicker

Gregory Naicker is Head of CSD Services. He has built up a career of over 20 years at Strate and has substantial institutional knowledge of the business, stakeholders and the markets, both in South Africa and internationally. His passion for Strate has led him to build credibility with internal and external stakeholders across the market.

Farzana Khan

Farzana Khan is Head of Collateral Services. She most recently headed Rand Merchant Bank’s securities lending division and has over 22 years’ experience in the financial sector. Prior to Rand Merchant Bank, she held posts at Merrill Lynch S.A. and Standard Corporate & Merchant Bank. She is a registered securities trader with the JSE Securities Exchange, holds the designation for the Settlement Officer’s Exam and has the International Capital Markets Qualification from the South African Institute of Financial Markets.

Rudi Steenkamp

Rudi Steenkamp is Head of Technology and Data Management. He oversees the entire IT function of Strate. Since joining the company through Strate’s merger with UNEXcor in 2003, Rudi has worked in the IT space for over 16 years. With one of the most advanced and sophisticated IT infrastructures for a CSD, Strate has achieved 99.995% uptime for the last four years and is one of the top 2% users of the SWIFT Network internationally.

Pheona Härtel

Pheona Härtel is Head of Risk, Legal and Compliance. She is experienced in overseeing risk disciplines and has worked for several blue-chip financial organisations in South Africa where, among other things, she has led operational process re-engineering; implemented, and expanded upon, compliance and governance principles; championed Treating Customers Fairly objectives; and provided strategic risk and governance inputs to CEOs and executives.

Samantha Cooper

Samantha Cooper is Head of Human Capital and Transformation. She has extensive experience in Human Capital Management. Samantha is a registered psychometrist and an accredited life coach. Before joining Strate, Samantha held a number of senior roles within the South African financial services sector.

André Nortjé

André Nortjé is Strate’s Chief Executive Officer. He has over 20 years of executive management experience across multiple financial services disciplines and across multiple jurisdictions with a deep understanding of financial markets from both the buy and sell side. Before joining Strate, André held numerous executive roles ranging from treasurer of a commercial bank to chief operating officer positions for several investment management businesses in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Stuart Yates

Non-executive Director

BSc (Hons) Computer Science (Edinburgh, Scotland), Fellow (South African Institute of Financial Markets)

Stuart Yates held a long-established career in financial markets, having first joined the industry through specialised bond trading in 1979. He has held multiple roles in the financial sector including as the Banking Association’s member on the Bond Market Association and a member of the design team for SAFEX. After joining Rand Merchant Bank in 1992, he developed a treasury outsourcing business, headed HR during the FNB merger and was the bank’s representative on Strate’s board for six years. He is currently an independent non-executive director serving on a number of boards.

Strate Charity Shares

Strate Charity Shares (SCS) is an independent non-profit organisation, and joint market initiative from Strate, the JSE, ComputerShare and PSG who provide their services for free to realise the value locked up in odd lots of unwanted securities that could be used to support charitable causes.

It started with David Cobbett, a stockbroker, who had the idea of mobilising the millions of rands locked up in odd lots of shares in listed companies and using the funds for good causes. In 2001, he asked Tom Wixley, recently retired Ernst & Young chairman at the time, to help him make this dream a reality.

Market-wide engagement followed including with the Department of Social Welfare and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) who agreed that the value of any shares donated may be deducted from taxable income, as the scheme is registered under section 18A of the Income Tax Act.

Since its formation, Strate Charity Shares has given worthy causes over R10 million that would otherwise have remained unused.

To view the Strate Charity Shares funding and reporting guidelines, click here

Strate Charity Shares

Strate Charity Shares (SCS) is an independent non-profit organisation, and joint market initiative from Strate, the JSE, ComputerShare and PSG who provide their services for free to realise the value locked up in odd lots of unwanted securities that could be used to support charitable causes.

It started with David Cobbett, a stockbroker, who had the idea of mobilising the millions of rands locked up in odd lots of shares in listed companies and using the funds for good causes. In 2001, he asked Tom Wixley, recently retired Ernst & Young chairman at the time, to help him make this dream a reality.

Market-wide engagement followed including with the Department of Social Welfare and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) who agreed that the value of any shares donated may be deducted from taxable income, as the scheme is registered under section 18A of the Income Tax Act.

Since its formation, Strate Charity Shares has given over R10 million to worthy causes that would otherwise have remained unused.

To view the Strate Charity Shares funding and reporting guidelines, click here

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