Bradwin Roper is the kind of guy that masters and excels in everything. Starting out as an engineer, he worked his way into finance where FNB appointed him to the position of CEO for Sales and Service by age 29 and then CEO of FNB Lesotho by age 34. At MTN, he was their Chief Financial Services Officer before being promoted to the position of CEO of MTN’s Financial Technology company, Fintech. Essentially, he excelled in engineering, finance and technology. To understand his drive for success, you first have to look at his mom, Patricia.
Patricia might not have had much growing up, but her mom, a domestic worker, had taught her the value of hard work. Raising her three children in a small flat in Eldorado Park and working as a personal assistant, she wasn’t able to give her kids the life that she’d wanted to, so she decided she’d do something about it.
With sheer drive and discipline, she started by getting a degree in Industrial Psychology and Business Economics, worked her way to becoming the head of human resources like Philips and Siemens and eventually started her own company.
Being the son of Patricia, Bradwin emulated his mother’s discipline and drive, performing well at school, securing scholarships to SA’s top high schools, finished his matric as both the top achiever and the Head Boy, registered for Chemical Engineering at the University of Cape Town and graduated with honours and on the Dean’s Merit list.
His first job was as an engineering intern, working his way to a position where he could learn everything about finance, unintentionally setting himself to become a finance CEO by age 29.
Growing a reputation as an engineer with a mind for finance, he moved over to ABSA as a National Manager, joined FNB as a departmental head and worked his way to his positions as CEO.
What is clear is that he was so good at his job that, despite having no professional background in IT, he was asked by FNB to launch and become the CEO of FNB’s Mobile Network Operator, FNB Connect. Was he any good at it?
Under his leadership, FNB Connect grew to 1 million customers and won the international ‘Digital Mobile Virtual Network Operator of the Year’ award, competing against 500 virtual mobile operators in over 80 countries. So, yes, he was pretty good at it. In fact, he was so good at it that his next executive roles was at mobile operator, MTN.
Currently, he is the Executive Chief of Payments and Partnerships at JUMO, an online financial services company that caters to 31 million customers with assets of more than R150 billion.
Given that he is only 41, Bradwin still has many more years of mastering many more professions and excelling in many more companies, maybe, even his own. He is, after all, the son of Patricia.
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