Baronice Hans of Standard Bank Namibia

Category:
Private and Corporate Sector

Name:
Baronice Hans

Position:
Executive Director
Head of Personal and Business Banking

Company, institution or business
Standard Bank of Namibia

 

Career
Baronice spent eight years at Nampower with her last role being General Manager: Finance, Treasury and Property Management. In 2009 she joined Standard Bank as Chief Operating Officer followed by her current position as Head of Personal and Business Banking. This is the larger of Standard Bank’s two core business units accounting for 66% of the bank’s earnings.
She says despite numerous challenges the bank experienced after replacing its 30-year-old Legacy Core Banking system, loans and advanced in her division have grown by 201% from N$6.5 billion to N$13.2 billion from 2009 to June 2015. Customer deposits have grown by 159%. The latest half-year results for 30 June 2015 show that Headline Earnings for her division are up 41%.
“In 2007 as the General Manager: Finance & Treasury at Nampower, I had the distinct privilege to lead the team that successfully listed the inaugural bond of N$500 million on both the NSX and the Bond Exchange of South Africa (BESA). This was the largest inward listing on BESA at the time.”
“We also successfully in 2008 concluded three Rand-based loans to the tune of N$1.1 billion with European Development Funding Institutions at interest rates below the Bank of Namibia’s repo rate then. This was a massive achievement because it was the first time that these institutions had advanced loans in Rand and without Namibian government guarantees. These negotiations were not easy and took almost two years.”
“As the leader of the Finance and Treasure Department, I was directly involved in all aspects of both the bond listing and the loans, including but not limited to the legal agreements, bond road shows and loan negotiations.”
“Over a two-year period, we also developed and implemented a state of the art corporate financial model with up to 20 years forecasting ability.”
Education
“I completed a B Comm degree at the University of Cape Town and a B Compt (Hons) CTA through UNISA. After I completed my articles at Ernst & Young, I qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2001.”
Credo
Success is achieved through ordinary men and women in my team doing extra-ordinary things in very trying time to raise the bar. I had to keep the team focussed and motivated even at times when it would have been easier to quit and move on. This was achieved through embedding a spirit of resilience and continuously focussing everyone back on our plan and our customers, who are the reason we exist.