When Brett Tromp announced in March 2022 that he and his family were relocating to the Lone Star State, it was a blow to the SAICA community, to which he had contributed for many years.
The former chief financial officer for Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurer since 2007, had bee n with the company for almost two decades. A proud Joburger, he has always loved the city he grew up in. From a young age he had a keen interest in business, which started to develop when he took accounting as a high school subject. After the keen sportsman completed school at Northcliff High, he was offered a sport bursary at St Stithians College and completed a post-matric year there.
‘I’d been interested for a long while in qualifying as a chartered accountant, because it gives you a keen understanding of how finance drives organisations. I wanted to have the tools to make evidence-based decisions, and the combination of management and technical skills also appealed to me,’ Brett says. ‘I didn’t know all that much about becoming a CA(SA), but my parents supported and guided me, and I did know that CAs(SA) were well paid.’
He was accepted at the University of Johannesburg and admits that he was not one of those CAs(SA) who can claim to have passed their qualifying exams the first time. But that didn’t bother him. He moved to Wits University to complete his qualification and then joined KPMG to do his articles.
In a 2021 post on LinkedIn, aimed at those who did not pass their APPC exams, he wrote: ‘I eventually moved from the 57% [those who failed] to the 43% [those who passed] and the qualification has opened so many doors for me … To you, the 57% who are hurting, don’t let failure steal your dreams. Remember, a bad exam doesn’t define you, but your character does.’
After his articles, he was seconded as one of only two people that year to KPMG in the US, along with his wife Candice, also a CA(SA), for a period of six months, during which he had the opportunity to work on large accounts. On their return, Brett was introduced to Discovery through various contacts and the rest, as they say, is history. He joined Discovery Health in 2003 as a contractor in group finance. By 2007 he was appointed as CFO. In 2013, he added director of Discovery Third Party Recovery Services to his CV, and by 2014 he was both CFO of Discovery Health and Head of Discovery SRX Pharmacy and took on several other senior leadership roles in the organisation.
Brett is sincere and enthusiastic. If you ask him about the highlights of his career at Discovery Health, he will tell you that he’s motivated by lighting a spark inside of others and motivating them to do better and achieve more. ‘The best parts of my work are when I am aware of how people on my team are growing, learning and becoming the best they can be. When you validate and appreciate others, they feel safe to be more authentic, and expand on their own identity and talents more fully.’
Relocating to Austin
Brett kept in touch with close friend Clinton Phillips who left South Africa in 2002 and has since become the founder and CEO of Medici, a bold initiative that is seeking to change the face of healthcare in America and establish the country as a leading healthcare innovator.
When Brett was offered the opportunity to become Medici’s CFO, it was an offer he could not refuse. ‘Clinton had been asking me to join him, but the timing never felt right. But this time, I felt that God was calling me and as a committed Christian, I needed to know that and I was ready for the move,’ he says.
Texas is renowned for its the top-rated colleges, great weather, and an abundance of outdoor activities. A city rapidly rising in popularity as a place to live and visit, Austin also has a fantastic culture and friendly locals. It’s known as the Live Music Capital of the World for having the most live music venues per capita. Austin also has a large and diverse Christian community, which has helped Brett and his family to integrate more easily and to get to know people with whom they have a lot in common. He says that the combination of a job, a community and a number of South African friends in the city has made the immigration experience easier for him and his family than it is usually for people who leave the country of their birth.
Brett feels privileged to have lived in South Africa and is at pains to be clear that this is an amazing country with the best people in the world. ‘It’s just incredibly exciting to seek out new experiences and ways of doing things,’ he says. ‘And this part of the US has an appeal all of its own; it’s really true that everything’s bigger in Texas, especially the pickup trucks.’
He says that many people thought he had ruined his two boys’ promising cricket careers by moving to the US, but his son Matt has signed his first professional cricket contract with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the first worldwide under-19 franchise competition. Players were selected from all over the world, and Matt became the first ever US-based youth cricket player to receive a contract.
Both sons have been awarded scholarships to attend college and have been welcomed for introducing a different culture and perspective to their fellow students. His daughter, who is still in high school, has adapted well to the move and is enjoying all the experiences that a city like Austin has to offer teens.
Brett has noticed one key aspect of life in the US that is very different from living in South Africa – the absence of the scarcity mentality, where people see life as a finite pie, so that if one person takes a big piece, that leaves less for everyone else. ‘Because the population is so much bigger and the country has a highly developed mixed-market economy, along with a significant skills shortage, there is so much opportunity for ambitious people.’
An impressive start-up
Medici is a virtual-first multi-speciality health system that integrates primary, speciality and behavioural care with labs, imaging, urgent care, physical therapy and surgery. The company is a new kind of health delivery system with providers incentivised to keep employees healthy. This enables employers to offer a world-class health system to employees, improving health and wellbeing and significantly reducing healthcare costs. It delivers concierge navigation, physician care, surgery, imaging and lab work with one phone number and has quickly become the largest virtual interconnected healthcare system in Texas.
‘It’s fascinating to work for a company that is seeking to transform healthcare in the US,’ says Brett. ‘The cost of healthcare, the fact that most citizens are covered by a combination of private insurance and various federal and state programmes, and the difficulty of securing an appointment with a “primary care provider” make America a health-care outlier in the developed world, even though it spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world. The system is clunky and cumbersome and in need of change, and we have the opportunity to blaze a new trail for effective healthcare based on digital technologies.’
Looking back at SAICA
Brett heaps praise on the SAICA and the CA(SA) qualification which, he says, remains world-class and opens doors to a wide range of career opportunities.
‘As members of the accounting profession, we are extremely fortunate that SAICA is recognised globally as one of the world’s leading accounting institutes,’ he says. ‘I have not come across anything significantly different when it comes to accounting standards, methodologies and business expertise. CAs(SA) can work anywhere in the world. I am considering doing the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam, the US version of the CA(SA) designation, but only because of US certification considerations.’
Now more than ever, he says, South Africa needs incorruptible individuals who are committed to upholding the highest standards of ethics and professional excellence in the delivery of quality accountancy skills.
‘Given the ethical challenges facing the South African public sector, CAs(SA) have a vital role to play in bringing back people’s trust of government and the public sector and transforming it into a people-centred and people-driven public service which is characterised by equity, quality, timeousness and a strong code of ethics. These are people who support the development of the South African economy and the society as a whole.’
Young CAs(SA) – Your country needs you
As a long-standing judge of SAICA’s Top 35-under-35 competition, Brett says he always found the judging process inspiring. ‘Every year, the competition left me full of hope about the level of talent that South Africa has. It was always incredible to witness the number of brilliant young leaders and entrepreneurs that the country produces.’
Brett believes the Top-35-under-35 competition is a programme worth celebrating. ‘Every year it identifies achievers who are not only excelling in their professional capacity, but who are also making a meaningful contribution to society.’
‘Young CAs(SA) are able to create positive change and represent the outstanding talent our country and our continent has to offer. They are part of a group of powerful young people, a generation with brilliant minds and with enough passion, perseverance and social understanding to change the world. Making an impact is a big job to take on, and I believe they can do it.’
