SANDTON, 22 October 2018 – Grant Locke, Head of OUTvest was awarded the Innovation Award as well as the Embracing Technology Award at a prestigious awards ceremony at the 2018 Excellence Awards held in Sandton last week.
The 2018 Southern Africa Excellence Awards is held annually and billed as the ultimate recognition of customer excellence for customers of Thomson Reuters (recently rebranded as Refinitiv).
The idea behind the awards is to find and celebrate individuals who demonstrate outstanding capabilities in one of six award categories: Innovation, Embracing Technology, Best Partner, Most Impactful Business, Longest Service Customer and the People's Choice Award.
‘What is going to drive the success of Africa’s economies is committed individuals and companies that are contributing to strong and stable financial systems and institutions,’ says Sneha Shah, Managing Director for Africa at Refinitiv.
‘The 2018 Excellence Awards recognise the great work of these individuals and companies who amongst many outstanding nominees were selected, by the independent judges, as the ones producing the most impact for Southern Africa’s financial markets,’ she adds.
The list of nominees included some of the most well-known and respected financial services companies in South Africa, including Discovery, Easy Equities, Investec, Standard Bank and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB).
The judging panel included the CEO of Business Engage, Colleen Larsen; ETF Strategist, Nerina Visser; CEO of Equinox, Colin Iles; as well as the CEO of ICAPTS, Yonatan Rom.
The judges describe Locke as someone who actively embraces technology and industry thought leadership, someone who embraces disruption and proactively drives new ideas.
It’s evident that ‘Locke cares about making investment more important in the lives of consumers and believes the investment industry as a whole has a net positive social impact.
‘OUTvest a revolutionary digital investment product with advice. [As] one of the first Retail Robo Advisors in South Africa, OUTvest has simplified investing. You can create a personal investment plan in a few easy steps, online and without having to know a thing about investing.’
In response, Locke says that ‘Consumers want to trust something, that’s the most important thing…Technology doesn’t change that. Technology just makes it easier for you to serve a consumer and places less burden on them to engage with your platform.’
For more information on the 2018 Southern Africa Excellence Awards, please visit the 2018 Southern African Excellence Awards website or send an email to pressoffice@out.co.za.
