Today we are joined by Michael Jordaan, the rockstar banker turned venture capitalist. Where he discusses his upbringing, and how he fell in love with banking which led to him to the top position at First National Bank, and how he quit it all to join his family full-time in a farm down in Stellenbosch, where he makes wine and invest in startups.
Michael matriculated from Paul Roos Gymnasium, Stellenbosch in 1985. He completed his undergrad degree in Law, M.Comm (Economics), and Ph.D (Banking Supervision) at Stellenbosch University. He’s had a very interesting career in banking from being a management trainee with Deutsche Bank in Hamburg and Frankfurt.
He came back home where he joined RMB where his career accelerated. He held different CEO positions from being the CEO of Origin Bank, to being the CEO of FNB HomeLoans, CEO of eBucks, CEO of FNB Customer Solutions, to finally landing the big job of being the CEO of First National Bank which he held for 10 years.
During his tenure, FNB was named the “World's Most Innovative Bank" in the 2012 Global Banking Innovations Awards, which used to be held in Washington, DC before Covid times. In 2013 he was the Sunday Times Business Leader Award winner and in 2014 was awarded the CNBC All Africa Business Leader of the Year Award.
In 2014 he founded a one man shop venture capital firm Montegray Capital, a name inspired by the mountains of Stellenbosch. He went on to co-found a new digital-only bank called Bank Zero, which doesn’t operate on the same archaic rails as traditional SA banks. Other investments under Montegray include the 5G Telecoms’s business Rain, the Montessori/Cambridge school Newberry House, Bos Ice Tea, a quant-driven investment management firm NMRQL Research etc.
We hope you enjoy this podcast as much as we did making it!