Shafee Verachia

Shafee Verachia is arguably the quintessential RMB Class Of. His diverse career path, world views, unconventional mind and multitalented skill set fit the bill of what the founder of the Programme, Paul Harris, had in mind when he created the RMB Class Of Programme 25 years ago. Shafee was a student at Penryn College in Mbombela – a school close to Paul Harris. Perhaps it was a seed planted by Paul Harris during his frequent visits to Penryn College that inspired Shafee to pursue a career in corporate and investment banking.

Seeking solutions

It was Shafee’s inquisitive mind and his desire to understand unstructured problem solving that led him to study an Honours Degree in Actuarial Science at Wits University. He has seen the world from many vantage points, ranging from being the SRC President at Wits to being involved in the #FeesMustFall protests.

In 2019 Shafee was selected as a Scholar for the Prestigious Chevening Scholarship to do his Masters at the Bayes Business School in London where he read for an MSc. in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership. His research paper “Determining the role of an AI recommender system for public policy design” was awarded with distinction. During his stay in the UK, he also worked at the Centre of Creativity enabled Artificial Intelligence. The common thread throughout his journey has been his drive to explore problem solving in a multi and trans-disciplinary way.

Shafee is no stranger to the FirstRand Group having spent the first four years of his career at FNB where he used his analytics skills to build origination scorecards in Dynamic Decisions. He also worked in Specialised Finance focusing on trade and guarantees under the leadership of Robert Hutchinson-Keip.

His diverse nature and insatiable curiosity led him to the Wits Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) where he researched “The future of work and its impact on society”, including co-authoring a piece on “Decoding Algorithmic Control” that was translated into 15 languages.

View from National Treasury

One of the highlights of Shafee’s career so far has been the time he spent at National Treasury, working in the Office of the Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr David Masondo, as Parliamentary and Cabinet Officer.

Between Shafee’s time at FNB and his experience serving at National Treasury he has gained a deep and rigorous understanding of the financial ecosystem. To come full circle he is readying himself to understand the inner mechanics of corporate and investment banking.

Building the future

Shafee is full of praise for the bank’s current ‘Why not both?’ brand campaign. He believes that it is not just about making profits and meeting investor demands. A bank also has a responsibility to the environment and to the communities in which it operates.

Shafee believes in our collective power to shake up systems and build better ones: “We are able to do both and how we do both is through a little bit of imagination, a little bit of creativity and I dare say a little bit of madness.”. He is drawn towards disruptive ideas: “You can’t use the ideas of yesterday to solve the problems of today,” he adds. His first rotation will be in Group Treasury, allowing to develop an understanding of how the bank creates value for its stakeholders.

When he is not seeking solutions to the world’s problems, Shafee is an avid sports fan and reader. He played provincial cricket in high school and draws great inspiration from high performance sports, thinking and planning. Unfortunately the teams he supports include the Proteas, Manchester United and Orlando Pirates, often explaining his sad face on a Monday morning.

From his activism and student leadership days, to retail banking, business schools, National Treasury, politics and sport. For now, a new vantage point awaits as he is joins the RMB Class Of Programme.