Francois Grobler
Head of Decision Analytics

Francois Grobler Biography
Francois joined Experian in 2022 to head up the Decision Analytics division in Africa. Before Experian, he was at HomeChoice for 6 years as Credit Risk Director, responsible for fraud prevention, data science, credit risk and collections in retail credit and financial services. Prior to HomeChoice, he was a key member in establishing and building the JD Consumer Finance division within JD Group. He was appointed to the JD Consumer Finance board in March 2013 as Chief Risk Officer and Executive Director. He has gained extensive experience over a 25-year period in the local and international banking and retail industries. Francois has a B.Com degree, a B.Com (Hons) in Economics and a B.Com (Hons) in Investment Management from Rand Afrikaans University and also completed the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Global Executive Development Programme, cum laude, through the University of Pretoria. Estelle Ackerman
Head of Analytics, Experian Africa

Estelle Ackerman Biography
Estelle Ackerman moved into the Head of Analytics role at Experian after four years as a Global Consultant where she helped clients to harness the power of Experian’s solutions across data, analytics, and software to empower them to meet their strategic objectives in an ever-changing landscape. Coming from an economic background, she gained over 10 years of working experience in the Retail Banking industry which helped her build a strong analytics and credit strategy background across the customer’s credit lifecycle. It is her passion to use her experience and skills to make a positive impact and to stay authentic doing it. Chris Swanepoel
Analytics Consultant

Chris Swanepoel Biography
Chris Swanepoel is a senior analyst at Experian Africa with an honours degree in Business Mathematics and Informatics. He has been working in the credit industry for the last 9 years in all areas of the credit lifecycle. His main area of expertise lies in business intelligence and custom analytics solutions. He also has strong knowledge in the risk model development space. Lauren Esterhuizen
Analytics Manager

Lauren Esterhuizen Biography
Lauren Esterhuizen is part of the leadership team in the Decision Analytics division at Experian Africa. She has a bachelor's degree in Financial Mathematics and has been working in the credit bureau industry for over 12 years. She leads a strong team of analysts and together they are optimising their existing products and developing new ones. Lauren has widespread knowledge in model building, intricate analytics, and consulting across the different industries. Lauren has trained numerous external analytics teams from the basics of scorecard building to the more complicated models - using our analytics tool Paragon Modeller. Lauren’s recent focus has been on building Generic Bureau Machine Learning models and is transferring her in-depth knowledge of traditional model building to the new Machine Learning world. Tshepo Engelbrecht
Scoring Analyst

Tshepo Engelbrecht Biography
Driven by a passion for data and problem-solving, Tshepo pursued a degree in Economics and Finance, followed by an Honours degree in Financial Analysis and Portfolio Management from the University of Cape Town. He brings experience from various areas of the financial sector, including investment, banking, and retail credit. Tshepo currently serves as a Scoring Analyst at Experian, where he specializes in predictive modelling and data-driven decisioning across the credit lifecycle, supporting initiatives in Originations, Customer Management, and Collections.
Marie du Toit
Senior Scoring Analyst

Marie du Toit Biography
Marie’s passion for mathematics and statistics inspired her to pursue a degree in Business Mathematics and Informatics. She earned her Master’s degree from North-West University in 2018. With six years at Experian, Marie now serves as a Senior Scoring Analyst. In this role, she leads model development across the full customer life cycle - including Originations, Customer Management, Affordability, and Collections - working with a wide range of product types.