Stuart Main as Nedbank's new treasury executive

Staff reporter

Nedbank Namibia has appointed Stuart Main as its new Executive: Treasury. Main, who joined Nedbank five years ago, will be responsible for leading the Treasury Department, whose primary function is to raise funding from institutional investors and manage the bank's liquid assets. He was educated at the University of Cape Town and the University of South Africa.

Before his promotion, Main worked as Head of Treasury Funding and his duties included managing the bank’s liquidity, cost of funding, excess liquid assets, as well as managing regulatory and bank limits. His duties have included formulating strategies to achieve the bank’s targets and overseeing wholesale investor relationships.

Main says he applied for the position because it relates to his work experience in financial markets. When he joined Nedbank in 2016, he held the position of Senior Dealer: Liquidity and Portfolio Management. Prior to joining Nedbank, his work within the financial services industry included positions such as Bond and Equity Trader, Head of Foreign Exchange and Fixed Income Trading and Research Analyst and Trading.

“I have had a very positive experience since joining in 2016, partaking in the opportunity to see the bank grow and develop over the past five years,” he shares of his experience within Nedbank.

Commenting on the overview of his responsibilities as Executive: Treasury, Main wishes to play a key role in how Nedbank might broaden its client offering in a way that offers even greater value to clients as well as to the bank. “I would like to bring a touch of New York to Windhoek,” he notes.

Main admits that the industry does face challenges, including issues concerning regulation, stating that the cost of regulation in the financial sector is necessary. Regulations are there to protect the financial stability of the system, as well as the bank and its clients.

“I feel that the pandemic fast-tracked the development of digital channels, so in my opinion technology has not really disrupted the banking industry but has helped improve efficiency in the sector. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it should be that you must be adaptive to a rapidly changing business environment.”

Main feels that there has been a lack of investment in sustainable development in recent years; however, notes that the country’s economic challenges and investments in green schemes are getting more attention. He believes the future of Namibia in green energy looks very bright.

“I think in a corporate space it would be pleasant to see other companies coming to the party in terms of their carbon footprint. Nedbank is leading the way in this space with initiatives such as the bank’s new campus building,” Main says.

Main’s views are aligned to those of Nedbank, which call for a high-performance culture. He emphasises the drive towards target performance excellence, a culture of learning, purpose and direction, alignment and focus, care towards stakeholders and ensuring there are standardised processes and systems for a proper workflow. It is to this that he attributes his winning of various staff awards during his time at Nedbank; these include the Top 4 Achiever in 2018, the MD award in 2018 and being part of the Top Sales Team in 2020.

Despite the challenging past two years, Main is an incurable optimist and lives by the quotes “Always look for the positive in any situation” and “You create your own reality”.

In closing, his advice to upcoming young professionals is to not sweat the small stuff and to always put your feet in other people’s shoes. Try to understand issues from their perspective, as it will certainly aid you in becoming a better leader.