Profile: Dr Denisha Jairam-Owthar

It is widely known that CAs(SA) can enter almost any industry or area of business. Dr Denisha Jairam-Owthar, chief director of information technology at Stellenbosch University, is a prime example of how the strategic insight that comes with being in the CA(SA) profession and its related fields can prepare one for any career.

Denisha’s stellar career has seen her winning awards for outstanding achievements and today she is a director on various boards, a mentor to interns and young black women in the ICT sector, and an author of many academic research papers. She was also named best CIO in the public sector in 2020.

Her first role was that of internal auditor for an insurance company. From there, she moved to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) as a business intelligence analyst. Within two years she was appointed senior manager of finance, risk and performance management, providing support to the office of the CFO of SARS.

‘It was at SARS that I learnt how important it is for an organisation to have intelligence,’ she says. ‘Audit enforcement at SARS guarantees accuracy, reliability, and sustainable revenue generation, especially when you are dealing with an involuntary tax base of taxpayers.’

It was also at that time that she became involved in the development of the SARS eFiling system, an exciting and innovative project that has gone on to become one of South Africa’s success stories. Her interest lay in assessing the initiative from a risk perspective, and that was when she began to develop a deep interest in the technology field.

That spurred her on to do an MBA in information technology, followed by a PhD. When she graduated in 2016, she was the youngest person to have achieved a doctor of business leadership in ICT in Unisa’s history.

Not one to sit still for too long, she decided it was time to move on ‘from the river into the ocean’, as she says. She joined ABSA in 2011 in a national business support role. A year later she was appointed ABSA bank’s ICT head of management information and business intelligence. This role involved the development, management and improvement of reporting that would facilitate the recognition and understanding of performance, key trends, patterns and behaviours across the bank.

‘The move from tax into banking was a major one,’ Denisha says. ‘As fate would have it, the then COO of ABSA believed in me and encouraged me to move into a technology role. The concept of increasing automation and efficiency with technology caught my attention. I decided that I wanted to take on the responsibility because I was at a point in my career where I needed to be uncomfortable. Discomfort is a catalyst for growth. It forces you to stretch yourself. This certainly is a principle I believed in; with growth comes discomfort, it is the law of nature.’

Her job turned out to be a major challenge, as there were several issues with the bank’s automation drive. Hundreds of customers were being locked out of their accounts and they were very angry. ‘I was determined to resolve these issues and we set out on an end-to-end automation project that reduced the lockout rate by more than 80%,’ she says.

Denisha was then promoted to head of data analytics and optimisation for Africa, as well as fraud risk management, a role that she says kept her on her toes as fraud attacks cause enormous damage to banks. These roles taught her the criticality of having foresight and insight in any organisation.

In 2014, after getting married, she decided it was time to take on a more home-based role. The timing was opportune as the Development Bank of Southern Africa reached out to her and asked her to join the organisation as ICT head of shared services. What was meant to be a support function quickly changed as she took on the responsibility for the digital transformation of the bank in order to streamline and enhance the data used to make critical infrastructure development decisions.

Just as she completed that initiative, she joined the City of Johannesburg to take on a challenge that required her skills set in implementing an ERP system, a project that the City had battled with for five years. In her new role as CIO she oversaw the successful implementation of a complex solution within a period of just 19 months.

In January 2022, she made another ‘sea’ change in her career, this time turning to the word of academia and becoming chief director of information technology at Stellenbosch University.

‘I could not resist the challenge of such a role in higher education,’ she says. ‘Technology has the potential to revolutionise educational processes. Digital transformation is central to enhancing the student experience, supporting student progress, and improving the quality of teaching and learning methods. Because universities have become common ransomware targets, my focus is also on preventing cyberattacks and implementing strong cybersecurity measures.’

Denisha credits her strong financial background for empowering her to think both as a CIO and a CFO. ‘I am not just a “techie CIO” …’ she says, ‘I genuinely understand crucial different facets of any business with a strong background in finance, auditing, taxation, managerial accounting and financial accounting; and that, coupled with heightened end-to-end technology knowledge via my qualifications NS skills and experience in IT, is what makes my skills set so niche.’ She affirms that it is also increasingly advantageous to be a CIO in different industries, as you come in with a fresh perspective each time, having the sharpened principles of technology that are the same in every single industry. ‘My impact as a CIO then becomes wider, deeper and all-encompassing as a CIO’ she says.

She believes that technology is omnipresent for today’s students and that universities have to bring their systems in line with student expectations and enhance their experience. ‘Young people have grown up in a technological world. They are able to manage many aspects of their personal lives through their mobile phone or laptop, and this needs to apply to their university experiences too,’ she explains.

‘My goal is to turn Stellenbosch University into the most digitally up-to-date university in the country and on the continent. Integrating our systems will improve efficiency and enable us to gain economies of scale.’ And she is already on the trajectory to implement digital transformation, as Stellenbosch University will be one of the first universities in the country of its complexity and size, to enable their end-to-end financial systems on the cloud. She is leading this initiative with the CFO, and with the oversight of the COO of the university. ‘Other prestigious and comparable universities around the country and continent will be learning from us at Stellenbosch University in this critical cloud journey. This will allow us to offer better experiences for students and staff and adopt more of the technologies that will enable them further in the 4IR,’ says Denisha.

Author
Monique Verduyn