GAVIN OPPERMAN

For Gavin Opperman, Absa’s Chief Executive of Retail Banking, a childhood dream of being a banker has turned into a life-long passion and involvement in the banking industry.

He currently heads a division that is responsible for roughly 40% of Absa’s income with more than 22,000 staff providing banking services to the Retail Banking Sector. It’s a job he views as a lifestyle and Opperman applies himself with characteristic energy and fervour.

“Banking is not for the feint-hearted. It’s not a 09:00 to 17:00 job,” says Opperman as he explains that many people remark at the long hours he spends at the office. “I have found my passion, and regard myself as very fortunate.”

Born in 1965 in the shadow of the Karee Mountains in the Karoo village of Carnarvon in the Northern Cape, Opperman grew up on his parent’s sheep farm outside Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape Karoo, spending his formative years at boarding school at Union High in Graaff-Reinet.

After serving in the parachute battalion in the army for his national service, Opperman started his banking career 25 years ago as a clearance clerk with Standard Bank in Grahamstown. “I started right at the bottom,” says Opperman adding that his job involved clearing cheques with other banks on a bicycle.

Studying for his banking exams with the Institute of Banking while he worked, the second eldest of four children, with two brothers and a younger sister, Opperman also worked as a teller and did voucher filing, during his 10-year tenure with Standard Bank.

An active 44-year-old, who won provincial colours for sport at school and still goes cycling or running almost every morning, Opperman joined Absa in 1994 and has held various positions including managing director of Absa Bank (Asia) Ltd with offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong. He held this position for two years and learnt to speak Mandarin fluently.

A student of the University of Cape Town Business School, he also held the positions of managing executive for Absa Home Loans and was appointed group executive for Secured Lending in 2008 until his appointment to head up retail banking in January this year.

Opperman says he does not drink or smoke, but admits to two vices: a love for chocolate where quantity, not quality, is the motivating factor; and Harley Davidson motorcycles.

He has three Harley’s, in addition to a silver Porsche, and hits the open road whenever he gets a chance. Opperman says his father, Christiaan, dislikes the bikes, but they share a hobby of restoring vintage cars.

A lover of Italian food, Opperman describes himself as a perfectionist. “My house is squeaky clean, and I’m terribly, terribly driven. On a scale of one to ten, I’m a 12!”

“I have an abundance of energy and get by on a lot less sleep than most people. I believe that life is short and if you’re not living on the edge you take up too much space,” says Opperman who is single.

Opperman has an eclectic taste in music and likes almost everything except “Boeremusiek and country”. 

When it comes to the banking business he likes to deal in facts. “I like facts and make fact-based decisions,” says Opperman. He believes in listening to his customers and considers his management style task focused and strategic, surrounding himself with a good team who complement and support his own competencies.

Being execution oriented Opperman says he needs to work hard on his people skills. As a manager: “I’m as hard as nails!” But if his staff suffer a personal problem beyond their control then he goes out of his way. “I really care for people when the chips are down,” says Opperman.

He says the challenge he faces now, as South Africa moves out of a down cycle, is how best to position the leading retail bank to become a world-class bank. The recent evolution in banking has seen a significant change in customer requirements and resulted in more sophisticated services, and Opperman expects to see further change with new banking models being brought into play as a result of the global financial crisis as changes in regulation are introduced.

“We are only custodians during our term of office,” says Opperman who believes in succession planning and expects to pass over the reins somewhere between three and five years.

As far as his personal goals go, Opperman says he looks at his career as a game of golf: “At 44 I’ve finished the first nine holes… I’ve got another 20 years in me, and could not imagine retiring at 50.”