Ezra Announces Appointment of Chief Risk Officer
Ezrathe microcredit fintech that provides “easy and fast” credit solutions through Africa and emerging marketsannounced the appointment of Andrew Goodrich as Chief Risk Officer. This appointment is a key step in Ezra’s ambitious expansion strategy to support financially underserved people in emerging economies.
Bringing with him over 30 years of experience to this role, Andrew will oversee the Data Engineering, Predictive Analytics and Credit/Fraud Risk functions at Ezra, moving forward, ensuring business optimization is achieved through improved standardization and governance of credit risk management. Additionally, he will be responsible for streamlining the effectiveness of these functions across the many markets operated by Ezra.
Andrew, who has spent much of his life in South Africa, will be based in Ezra’s office in Dubai. Prior to joining Ezra, Andrew served as Director of BankTech at MTN Group, Africa’s largest mobile network operator. During his tenure, Andrew was responsible for defining, establishing and driving the BankTech strategy, a new vertical unicorn of credit products within the MTN Group. Andrew also worked as Director of Credit Risk at JUMO, where he established the standardization-focused credit risk, prediction and fraud analytics framework and improved prediction and the value of credit risk to internal and external stakeholders.
Some of Andrew’s other career highlights involve working for a number of start-ups. These include a niche credit risk solutions consultancy, which has successfully helped several start-ups in South Africa, as well as an e-commerce/digital credit provider, and many fintech and finserv companies across Africa and Asia.
In his new role, Andrew will report directly to CEO, Erwan Gelebart, and will be part of the company’s leadership team.
Commenting on his appointment, Andrew Goodrich said: “I’m excited to help drive a financial inclusion agenda with a forward-thinking company like Ezra. My tenure will span the full spectrum of credit risk serving financial credit responsibly, particularly in emerging markets, where we have the opportunity to help our clients access the financial services ladder.
I like to drive a sustainable approach so that we can build long-term relationships with clients, supporting them and providing them with relevant credit products. Overall, risk management is essential to maintain the balance between access to credit and the protection of lenders and consumers. I’m excited to help realize our company’s vision and, together with our partners, leverage alternative credit scoring to make a difference in people’s lives.
Commenting on his appointment, Erwan Gelebert, CEO of Ezra said: “We are delighted to welcome Andrew to the team. With decades of experience in the consumer finance and financial services industry, Andrew will play a vital role in helping to build our presence, particularly in emerging markets where we work with banking, telecoms, wallets mobile and utilities, to help businesses innovate faster and meet the needs of their customers at scale. »
