As new country manager for South Africa, Pieter de Swardt will set strategy and drive growth in Entersekt’s home market, where seven of the top 10 financial institutions use its software. Like many of these customers, De Swardt is based in Johannesburg. He will report to SVP Middle East and Africa Pattison Mutambiranwa.
Entersekt has, to date, appointed country managers in Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom and Ireland, but other markets, including important ones like the United States, are served from regional headquarters or by other means.
Schalk Nolte, the company’s CEO, explained that it was time to apply the country model to South Africa for the benefit of a domestic client base that plays a crucial role in product innovation: “We strongly believe that Pieter will bring much needed focus to our sandbox region, where banks and other enterprises have long collaborated with us on driving digital service delivery forward. I can think of no-one better for the job.”
With more than 13 years in banking, De Swardt brings Entersekt a wealth of experience and valuable insight into domestic institutions’ business concerns. Had he needed further recommendation, his long acquaintance with Entersekt would have counted in his favor too. He played a leading role in building out Nedbank’s online and mobile banking channels, to which Entersekt contributed award-winning authentication and app security technology.
“I have been on the client side of Entersekt’s implementations, so I can hopefully contribute valuable tips on enhancing both our engagement and delivery processes,” said De Swardt. “Beyond that, I am passionate about innovation and making life easier for consumers, which fits perfectly with Entersekt’s aim to deliver great new digital banking and payments experiences. Key to success is talking to our customers, helping them locate new use cases for our technology, ensuring that security concerns do not inhibit innovation or intrude on the customer experience.”
Also joining Entersekt in the new year is VP engineering services Stuart Gray, a project, program, and services delivery specialist with extensive experience improving operational performance and customer satisfaction in the telecommunications, healthcare, and IT industries. Gray will oversee project management and delivery of professional services worldwide from Entersekt’s headquarters in Stellenbosch.
Richard Bailey, SVP engineering, said he was excited to see how Gray would evolve the delivery function at Entersekt: “Stuart’s mandate is, in part, to redefine how we plan for and deploy solutions, bringing scale to our services and delivery frameworks in line with accelerating demand and an expanded global network of development and implementation partners.”
Gray sees his role as centered on people: “It’s about ensuring that every one of us knows their part in achieving our goal, which is to meet our customers’ needs with winning solutions and services. Anything other than that represents failure.”
