I have been fortunate to work with the Edge Management team on a variety of projects in South Africa over several decades. The team has always proven to be professional, innovative and encapsulates a proactive can-do business ethos in all aspects of their business. When launching the South African National Lottery 2nd License period, the project was immense!
The team had to acquire and establish a 7,000 strong retail network, integrate into existing platforms, develop and train over 20,000 delegates nationally on an accredited course, design and implement a full customized online system for technical and commercial support and all of these were just a few of the achievements delivered on time and effectively within a 5-month time period.
The Lottery operations would not have commenced seamlessly for this transition license without this team. I would go to war with them anytime!

I have enjoyed a business relationship with the current Edge Field Marketing management team and, more specifically, with Andre Grobler and Bilaal Essop, since 2009. My first encounter with the team in 2009 was when Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd rolled out its community banking offering to independent retailers in largely informal areas. These retailers served as outbound distribution points to the bank, akin to the National Lottery’s physical distribution network, with strict probity and compliance thresholds.

A year later, due to the success of the team in having managed the retailer network of the previous Lottery operator, Gidani, the bank embarked on a significant project with Edge to scale its informal retailer network. This involved the recruitment, establishment and management of a network of 8,000 contracted independent retail stores throughout the country and, later, the deployment of 2,000 sales and service ambassadors into selected stores. During this period, I was consulting to the bank and was intimately involved in the conceptualisation and construction of the project, with accountability for the legal and corporate finance aspects of the project. I witnessed first-hand how Edge delivered the project ahead of schedule and under budget due to the extensive experience of the team in managing such projects coupled with an unfailing ethos of “doing things spectacularly”.

Subsequently, I was one of the founding members that created Tyme, a business that provided innovative low-cost banking service and in 2013 the current Edge team was invited to establish a dedicated field marketing entity to service Tyme in South Africa, at which point Tyme became a 50% shareholder in Edge. Tyme was subsequently acquired by The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (the tenth biggest bank in the world) and the Edge team was part of the establishment of the fully licensed bank, TymeBank. I led the process of building TymeBank and then ran the bank for three years as Chief Executive Officer. Later, Edge was spun off from TymeBank, and has since played an absolutely pivotal role in TymeBank becoming one of the fastest growing digital banks in the world, through the management of over a 1,000 sales and service ambassadors in our retail partners.

Throughout this journey, I was intimately involved in the contracting and corporate finance aspects regarding Edge as well as having ultimate executive accountability for the delivery of the infield functions. I can therefore vouch for the integrity, the capability and the professionalism of Edge and can, without hesitation, recommend them for services that require large-scale outbound physical distribution of products.

Group Executive for Growth Projects, responsible for Tyme’s expansion outside of SA.
former Chief Executive Officer of Tyme Bank Ltd in SA.