RISK ADVISORY | WOMEN IN DATA CAMPAIGN

Deloitte Southern Africa | Johannesburg

Aisha Mohamed joined Deloitte as a manager in 2014 after turning down an offer in 2013, she is now an Associate Director in Data Analytics (DA) with Data Management as one of her core competencies and specific focus on Regulatory Analytics. She is also a Talent Partner within the Analytics team which fulfills one of her passions – people. Aisha also represented DA in the Google Analytics community of practice and supported the Global relationships with specific regulation relationships and partnerships. As an SME in Data Modeling, she got an opportunity to teach in the Data Factory for about four years and that contributed to her imparting knowledge and building content.

She became second in command to different leaders in data management and gave expert advice in data modeling, she also started picking up on Privacy, turned the clients around and that bore fruit as she is now the Lead Business Partner for the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). One of her strengths is people and client service. Making sure that clients get the best service that we can provide, building up people and personal development to advancing women in her circle is her greatest passion. She had formed and led an initiative for women where they can come together and offer support to each other in a Leaning Circle and through that platform she had the privilege to represent Data Analytics at Belgium University on Diversity & Inclusion.

According to Aisha, some of the important skills to pursue a career in Data Analytics are foundational Data Management, Engineering (Modeling/Architecture), Cloud implementation and infrastructure, these will set you up for a career in data analytics. The world is moving and evolving and that requires a core skill set and an analytical mind to be relevant.

ASSISTANT MANAGER | DATA ANALYTICS

Deloitte Southern Africa | Johannesburg

Meet Andrea Caetano, an Assistant Manager in Data Analytics, she joined Deloitte in 2017 through the Data Factory programme. Due to her work on multiple projects, she has grown in consumer insights and working information. In analytics, she has the opportunity to work with people from all walks of life and that is what drives Andrea. Every client’s data is different and that brings great insight as well as the most exciting solutions. There is always something new to learn or to solve in a data analyst’s typical day. 

Andrea and her team take the client on a journey, a journey of intertwined solutions ranging from designing, to building, to refining, and to embedding the solution into their organisation. The client is involved in the process, and they bring a unique and customised solution to them. Using a structured approach to tackle a problem or bring a solution and seeing clients wanting your solutions to be part of their organisation is the best reward. Dive in with both feet, have a willingness to learn and an aptitude to problem solve, whatever interests you – learn it, that is what Andrea tells the young and upcoming women in analytics. Whatever background you have, you can enter the analytics space and bring the most exciting solutions to our clients. Andrea wants to be known as “your go-to person”, she is aiming to be a specialist in customer insight and to ensure that her work has a direct impact on clients.

MANAGER | DATA ANALYTICS

Deloitte Southern Africa | Johannesburg

Anita De Jager studied Industrial Engineering and has been with Deloitte for over six years. She joined the firm as part of the Graduate Programme (Data Factory), in the role of Junior Consultant in Data Analytics (DA) and aligned with Operations. She is currently a Manager in DA and part of the Operational Risk team. Her role includes, solving business problems by translating them into technical terms and providing the insight to build a solution. Anita enjoys solving complex problems, she enjoys a challenge – her mom even gave her a nick name – “Uitfiguraris” – simply translated - one who likes to figure things out.

The fact that she doesn’t do the same thing every day helps her enjoy both left and right brain tasks or differently phrased, she enjoys analytical and creative tasks. Anita loves sport and music, concepts that you learn in music or sports practice teaches you something that a book does not teach you and that helps her interact with her team and understand teaming in a work environment. She brings the three-facet skills, Active/Creative/Analytical together to do her work better. She does a lot of self-study for her personal development and she would tell young women who want to pursue a career in analytics: “Don’t be too afraid to challenge yourself or ask for assistance”, if you go for it you might get it right”.

MANAGER | DATA ANALYTICS

Deloitte Southern Africa | Johannesburg

Haniksha is currently a Manager in Data Analytics (DA), specifically within the regulatory analytics division,  focusing on financial crime. She is leads the FinCrime team doing analytics within the Financial Services and Insurance industry. In her team, they help clients to prevent money laundering using data. Haniksha joined Deloitte in 2013 as an intern within the Talent Acquisition team (HR) and progressed to consultant in HR. In 2017 she made a great career move looking for something exciting and that is when she joined DA as a consultant. She had to push herself to the very edge, upskill very drastically and that was when she learned the most. It was a difficult journey coming from a non-technical background and she is very proud of her journey and achievements thus far.

During her tenure in HR, she was involved in interviewing and hiring many of the analytics team before joining DA herself. She believes that people and culture is very important when working together to solve problems using data, but behind all of that there is a person and that is very important to her. The support she gets shown is what drives and motivates her. She loves making the data look “pretty” – making it tell a story, and the look on the clients’ faces when they see their data is a great reward. Haniksha has been told that she has great emotional intelligence, she is very mature, and is very resilient and persevering. She is also very hard on herself and believes that one should not underestimate what one can do. Any skill can be learnt, no technical background doesn’t mean you cannot be great in DA you just have to work harder to prove capability and motivate your worth. 

SENIOR MANAGER | DATA ANALYTICS

Deloitte Southern Africa | Johannesburg

Meet Kim Eksteen, who joined Deloitte on four separate occasions, all in a slightly different role with Data & Analytics at the heart. She started in 2012 as a Consultant in Johannesburg – here she developed her foundational knowledge in descriptive analytics predominantly for clients running SAP as their ERP system of choice. In 2015, she embarked on a huge life-changing experience by moving to London with the firm – here she focused her attention on the Consumer Business Industry supporting large-scale retail clients on their digital transformations. Upon returning to South Africa in 2018, she moved to the Cape Town office & focused much attention on building the Western Cape analytics team from the ground up, alongside delivery on various analytics projects. Kim resigned in 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic to relocate and be closer to her family. She has since returned to Deloitte in a Senior Manager role working 100% remotely in a semi-flexible working arrangement. The first of Deloitte’s hybrid work model for the Data Analytics team! Kim currently uses agile project management methodologies to manage her team and is now largely working in the Insurance sector and seeing how clients and intermediaries partake in an exceptional experience when engaging with our clients and their products. Internally, she is supporting the growth of the delivery management capability – this is to ensure we are providing our clients with a high-quality experience in a consistent method across the DA team.

Kim feeds off the energy received from the number of diverse individuals she interacts with daily – the access to such talented, smart, and intelligent individuals makes her role incredibly interesting. She enjoys putting together multi-functional diverse teams that that work well together and are able to deliver a ‘wow experience’ through solving our clients complex business challenges. Kim always makes sure that she plays to people’s strengths, this means that collectively they are able to achieve greatness when working together! Kim truly believes there is room for women at the top; and as a woman leader, one needs to always aim to be the best version of themselves and believe that anything is achievable! She would like to be known for developing high-performing diverse teams and growing our talent within the industry.

MANAGER | DATA ANALYTICS

Deloitte Southern Africa | Johannesburg

Laura heads up the data migration capability in Data Analytics (DA) and works together with Deloitte Consulting to implement the ERP systems for clients across the world. She ensures that data lands inside the ERP System, clean, and fit for its purpose. She focuses on improving data quality while adhering to all audit requirements. She studied Human Resources and progressed to study at Wits Business school. Laura did not study Analytics, so she had to work hard to be where she is today. She believes that whatever you want, just give it your best and you can achieve it. Laura enjoys coaching, teaching people new skills, showing people how things work and making her team valued. She aspires to be a role model to all the female juniors within the team.

Laura loves the difference that she and her team make to their clients. In data migration and implementation of ERP systems, if your data is not right you will not get the maximum value for your money. Accurate data will give you and the client valuable insights. She has a special way of connecting with people on a human level – a lot of technical jargon is used and that can intimidate non-technical people. She can simplify concepts so that everyone in the room can understand the information shared. As a woman in the technical space, you are expected to work from the bottom up. Laura believes in telling your story and knowing that you belong, but most importantly being your authentic self. Being able to leverage off the Deloitte global network Laura is always up to speed with analytics trends. DA is a very innovative field and encourages one to evolve, but you need to be willing to try things that are outside of your comfort zone and give yourself the benefit of the doubt.

SENIOR MANAGER | DATA ANALYTICS

Deloitte Southern Africa | Johannesburg

Madonna joined Deloitte 10 years ago as a Junior Consultant in Data Analytics (DA). Her main focus is Operational Risk Analytics and Descriptive Insights. The best part of her job is that she gets to work remotely with clients all over Africa. Madonna enjoys being able to engage with the clients and build effective, meaningful relationships.  She loves being able to understand what the data is doing, by taking a raw piece of information and analysing it to find patterns, trends, and business insights. She believes that when you have a problem to speak up and be honest, and she prides herself in often being the person to do just that when not everyone can.

In analytics, you need to make the right connections with people that will be able to help, support and give you feedback. Coding is like learning a language, always go for it and ask for help and support. It is up to you to make the best of what you are given. Madonna studied Business Science Finance and she is now a Senior Manager in Data Analytics – determination does pay off. With new trends in analytics, you need to learn as much as you can with every project, there is always an opportunity to do something different yet relevant.

ASSISTANT MANAGER | DATA ANALYTICS

Deloitte Southern Africa | Johannesburg

Nontobeko Lekuleni is an Assistant Manager in the Risk Advisory service line within Deloitte. She started as a junior consultant in 2017 in Deloitte’s graduate programme - Data Factory. She was trained as a Chemical Engineer in university, so entering the data analytics environment was new to her. She went through various learnings such as understanding what Data Analytics is, coding in SAS and SQL and understanding how to present. She believes these were the building blocks that led her to her career path. She has since developed expertise in Data Management and this year (2022), she obtained her Certified Data Management Professional certification. She is mostly based in Data Management projects including Regulatory reporting projects, such as POPIA compliance, IFRS 9 and IFRS 17. In these projects the team perform gap assessments, develop process maps and data flows, and provide guidance in terms of data governance, analyse data quality and at times, manage master data or metadata, visualise data, among other things.

What Nontobeko loves about her role is that it is not routine, projects can be short, and you get to explore different areas of Data analytics. She gets to work with very intelligent colleagues, and she is always challenged to improve and work more efficiently to deliver quality deliverables. Working in this role is inspiring - the job keeps her on her toes and pushes her to exceed. She feels that she is always learning. She considers herself an analytical and logical thinker and she like to always understand how things should work and that has developed her process mapping skill. As a young woman in analytics, she never disqualifies herself and always takes opportunities that are presented to her. She would tell young women who want to pursue a career in analytics to “do your best, take advice, even if its harsh, and grow!”. She wants to be a leader who makes a lasting impact.

SENIOR CONSULTANT | DATA ANALYTICS

Deloitte Southern Africa | Johannesburg

Porsha Sangweni is a Senior Consultant in Data Analytics (DA) with a focus on SAP particularly around business intelligence. Porsha joined Deloitte in 2019 and is one of the few people that can say Analytics chose her. After studying medicine for 3-years she changed to BCom Law with one of her electives being Computer Science and progressed to study Honors in Information Systems. She joined Deloitte through the Data Factory (Graduate Programme). In her role she does a lot of data warehousing and reporting. When clients give the team their data structure, they make sense of that data and model it into something that makes sense and that the business can use to report and infer to make business decisions. Porsha supports the business suite in consolidating and pulling their data so that they can make business decisions from it using the SAP tool. Within the DA team she leads the people and purpose – diversity and inclusion team, co-leads the DA’s people and purpose communication team and she is the people’s champion within the team to ensure that the team is heard.

Her mom is the person that motivates/drives her to do better in life, she lost her dad and brothers early in life and that forced her to do things herself. Porsha was awarded a scholarship in St Mary’s which was almost unheard of for a female growing up in a family where there is a great male dominance. This has pushed her to reach for her goals. Porsha enjoys talking and listening to people. She believes that a career in analytics requires logic, paying attention to detail, following the systematic process and being able to talk to people to get information.

SENIOR MANAGER | DATA ANALYTICS

Deloitte Southern Africa | Johannesburg

Rovika is a Senior Manager in Data Analytics, focusing on Financial Crime. Working in Financial Crime analytics helping banks to comply and mitigate the risks of money laundering or terrorist financing using analytics and data to uncover gaps with their processes and provide insights. Rovika joined Deloitte as a PA to the Directors in DA (6 Directors for 8 months). She learned coding during her spare time and she taught herself how to visualise data. She moved from PA to Consultant (client facing) in 2012 and in 2021 progressed to Senior Manager. She always says, “A strong Data Analyst is somebody who has the ability to articulate data into business insight and solve a business problem with it.”

Rovika is very passionate about people, she believes in giving people the opportunity to prove themselves. She is also a people and purpose coordinator within the DA team; she drives the connect sessions; enjoys organising the DA events as well as mentoring people. She knows that our business is not run-on big machines that you can oil once a year, but our machines are people, and we need to take care of the people in order to ensure they give their best in their roles. She enjoys bringing people together, and creating a happy environment. Rovika feels she has a great ability to articulate and interpret information. She believes that if you are trying, you are learning and you are evolving. There is a special insight women bring in DA, and they should not be afraid to try. She would like to be known for being a teacher i.e. “Rovika taught me this”, “Rovika shared this knowledge”.

MANAGER | DATA ANALYTICS

Deloitte Southern Africa | Johannesburg

Meet Yolandi Oosthuizen, a Manager in Data Analytics. Yolandi studied mathematics and joined Deloitte in 2014. She and her team help clients with internal audit work where they pull data, run tests relating to control exceptions, visualise, follow up on the exceptions and on what the clients will do moving forward as well as what solutions are they can offer. With the team having access to client’s data, they come up with solutions on how to assist the client. Yolandi enjoys the diverseness of her role which means not doing the same thing every day.

Yolandi believes that you can do anything with the correct data, if you can think of it, you can do it. Staying calm when things are hectic is one of her strengths which really comes in handy in the analytics space as the most important thing is to develop plans and find solutions to assist clients to make decisions. Yolandi feels very privileged to have great leadership and to have been given room for personal development. If you believe in something you need to follow your heart and persevere. She believes that if you have a great attitude then you will be great in analytics. The more diverse your background the more diverse the solutions you will be able to bring to the client. Yolandi would love to be known as someone who was around to assist. Family is very important to her and having an occupation that supports that helps her because she can remain close to her family.