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.”
