Andrew Ramotlou

Andrew has vast experience in commodity trading, risk management and general business management with a decade’s experience at the South African subsidiary of Cargill, one of the World’s largest food and agricultural trading corporation. In his first year understudying the South African agricultural commodities market, he was responsible for inventory management at external silo’s and relationship management with silo operators. He was soon promoted to Treasury Accountant where he was responsible for the company’s cash flow management which involved borrowing and investing in the money market with local and international banks as well as budgeting and statutory reporting. Andrew was also responsible for daily foreign exchange hedges and payment instructions for commodity imports and exports. He worked closely with the South African Reserve Bank for exchange control approvals and for quarterly reports of all cross-border foreign currency transactions. During his time as Treasury Accountant, Andrew worked closely with the commodity traders. His responsibilities of settling margin calls for positions on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and CME Group Inc. together with approval of traders positions and profit and loss resulted in him developing a keen interest in commodity trading. This led to a move to the commodities desk where he was responsible for the corn cashbook. In this role, he was responsible for buying commodities directly from farmers and silo operators and selling to some of the largest food producers in Africa. As a result of his extensive knowledge of Commodity Trading and Risk Management, Cargill offered him an opportunity to lead an Agile Project Team to implementing a trading system in South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Kenya. After the implementation of the trading system at Cargill, Andrew was headhunted to join the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. His primary role at the JSE is managing the daily trading operations and provide industry knowledge, insight and support to stakeholders on all technology and operational aspects of trading across all JSE markets - Equities, Commodity Derivatives, Equities Derivatives and Fixed Income & Currencies. At the JSE, Andrew serves on the commodities advisory committee. Andrew is also a trading advisor on the African Exchange Linkage Project which is aimed at addressing the lack of liquidity and promoting information sharing in the African Capital Market. Here, he continues to expand his network of trading professionals spread across major exchanges in Africa including Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE), The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX), Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM).

Andrew holds a National Diploma in Credit Management from Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria, South Africa, majoring in Credit Management, Financial Accounting, Business Management and Commercial Law. In addition he also holds various industry qualifications, served on a commodity advisory committee and is also part of the African Exchange Linkage Project.

Andrew is a Soccer enthusiast and he plays the corporate soccer league at least once a week and occasionally does half marathons. Andrew spends most of his spare time teaching business skills to small business owners in his local community.