Pricing
Thorisho Phasha
Data Science | Machine Learning | Model Development
Johannesburg
Summary
An out of the box thinker who is passionate about problem solving and using analytics to inform business decisions and strategies. An experienced Senior Data and Analytics Manager with expertise in pricing, risk management, and model development. Skilled in utilizing advanced Mathematical, Actuarial and Statistical techniques to optimize financial models, risk models and manage data-driven decision-making processes. Proficient in Python, SAS, and SQL, with a strong understanding of quantitative finance concepts. Demonstrated leadership qualities and ability to manage teams effectively.
Overview
10
10
years of professional experience
2
2
Languages
Work History
Manager: Data Analytics
Nedbank Group
01.2025 - Current
- Develop and execute the GIA data science strategy aligned with business goals.
- Lead the design and deployment of machine learning models and advanced analytics solutions.
- Oversee data governance, quality, and compliance with privacy regulations.
- Translate complex data insights into actionable business recommendations.
- Mentor and manage a team of data scientists, analysts, and engineers.
- Collaborate with product, marketing, finance, and operations to support data initiatives.
- Stay current with emerging technologies and trends in AI, ML, and big data.
- Present findings to executive leadership and stakeholders in clear, compelling formats
Senior Quantitative Analyst
Nedbank Group
12.2021 - 12.2024
- Develop and maintain best practice models and assessment strategies in line with regulations (where applicable) in order to facilitate world class risk management and/or attainment of strategic objectives
- Implement the financial crime analytics strategy across Group Risk
- Build and establish a discipline of exceptional financial crime analytics, enabling stakeholders at making Nedbank world class at tackling financial crime
- Use advanced analytics tools (such as machine learning, statistical techniques) to produce sustainable solutions to problems that the business needs to address
- Design, develop and implement data and analytics products that enable internal stakeholders to comply (i.e
- Improve compliance rate) to regulatory requirements and the bank's policies
- Build algorithms and design experiments to merge, manage, interrogate, and extract financial crime data to create data and / or analytics products (tailored reports, dashboards) to colleagues, peers, customers or the wider organisation
- Work with stakeholders across the bank to identify opportunities for leveraging Nedbank's data to drive risk management solutions that address financial crime challenges within the organisation
- Work with stakeholders, to build and implement the most appropriate models that provide actionable insights on banks financial crime risk landscape, optimise decision making to response to risks posed by financial crime incidents
- Anticipate the occurrence of financial crime incidents
- Mitigate the impact of financial crime incidents
- Maximise the automation of financial crime analytics across the modelling cycle, leveraging existing infrastructure and resources
- Assist Financial crime and operational risk analytics to create and maintain optimal data pipeline architecture that integrates use cases (project), prototyping and production of data and analytics products
- Build the capability required for optimal extraction, transformation, and loading of data from a wide variety of data sources.
Quantitative Analyst
First National Bank - FNB
07.2019 - 11.2021
- Build and run prediction models for cost, revenue and related drivers
- Create automation across data platforms to enable timely delivery of insights
- Continuous development of algorithms
- Data enrichment using machine learning in order to find new insights in data mining using state-of-the-art methods
- Cognitive automation
- Enhancing data collection procedures to include information that is relevant for building analytic systems
- Natural language processing
- Processing, cleansing, and verifying the integrity of data used for analysis
- Creating automated anomaly detection systems and constant tracking of its performance.
Business Analysis Manager
PG Group (Pty) Ltd
05.2018 - 06.2019
- SSRS reporting building and trouble shooting
- SQL reporting building and trouble shooting
- Excel and VBA reporting building and trouble shooting
- Vendor understanding - reporting building and trouble shooting and data maintenance
- MS Access VBA
- Run & interpret daily & monthly financial and operational reports
- Develop and implement data collection systems and other strategies that optimise statistical efficiency and data quality
- Data Validation, analyse large data sets, draw your own inferences and present them successfully to management
- Acquire data from primary or secondary data sources to develop and maintain databases/data systems
- Identify, analyse, and interpret trends or patterns in complex data sets
- Work closely with management to prioritise business and information needs
- Locate and define new process improvement opportunities.
Analytical Data Mining Analyst
Barloworld Limited
01.2016 - 04.2018
- Enhanced internal controls, ensuring accurate financial reporting and minimizing risk exposure.
- Participated in budgeting processes, providing input on expected revenues based on historical patterns and market conditions.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to identify opportunities for growth and optimization.
- Increased revenue by identifying and rectifying discrepancies in billing and pricing.
- Initiated comprehensive account assessments to check viability, stability, and profitability of business operations.
- Performed ad-hoc analyses as requested by senior management to support data-driven decision making in matters related to revenues generation.
- Optimized data access and storage to improve performance of analytics systems.
- Developed custom algorithms to optimize data mining, increasing the effectiveness of analytical insights.
- Implemented robust quality control measures to minimize errors and improve the reliability of analytical outputs.
- Created dashboards to monitor and track key performance indicators.
- Conducted thorough competitor analyses, identifying gaps in market share and opportunities for growth.
- Developed and maintained data warehouses and data marts to support business operations.
- Assisted with creating data cubes and OLAP models to improve data analysis.
- Integrated multiple sources of disparate data into cohesive datasets using ETL processes, improving overall analytic capabilities.
- Tested data prediction algorithms based on historical data.
- Developed complex dashboard and reporting tools to track business performance metrics.
- Used statistical methods to analyze data and generate useful business reports.
Education
MBA - Master of Business Administration - MBA
University of Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa 04.2001 - 2026
Bachelor of Science With Honours (BScHons) - Mathematical Sciences
University of The Witwatersrand - Wits
04.2001 - 2015
Bachelor of Science - Mathematics And Computational & Applied Mathematic
University of The Witwatersrand - Wits
04.2001 - 2014
Skills
Team leadership
Strategic planning
Decision-making
SQL databases
Power BI tools
Supervised learning
Python programming
Unsupervised learning
Awards
- Best Grade 12 Mathematics Learner in Greater Sekhukhune district, Limpopo province.
- Wits University Entrance Scholarship Award.
- Most Outstanding Project/Initiative by House Committee.
Accomplishments
- Modified and improved existing databases to reduce processing time and improve accuracy by 95%.
- Supervised team of 8 staff members.
- Group Risk Striver
- Group Risk Analytics Acheiver
Interests
Programming
Problem Solving
Model Development
Data Science
Leadership
Languages
- Recipient of the IDC Scholarship through the Dinaledi Schools initiative, awarded for achieving top matric results in the district. Demonstrated exceptional academic performance and a commitment to excellence in STEM education.
- Honored with the Top District Mathematics Award in the Greater Sekhukhune region, recognizing outstanding achievement in one of the most competitive subjects at matric level.
- Made history at my school (Ngwanamala High School) by becoming the first Head Boy appointed in Grade 10, reflecting early leadership maturity and an unwavering dedication to student representation.
- Reached the Provincial Level in Chess, showcasing strategic thinking, concentration, and a passion for intellectual competition beyond the classroom.
Software
Python
SAS
SQL
PowerBI
Denodo
Timeline
Manager: Data Analytics
Nedbank Group
01.2025 - Current
Senior Quantitative Analyst
Nedbank Group
12.2021 - 12.2024
Quantitative Analyst
First National Bank - FNB
07.2019 - 11.2021
Business Analysis Manager
PG Group (Pty) Ltd
05.2018 - 06.2019
Analytical Data Mining Analyst
Barloworld Limited
01.2016 - 04.2018
MBA - Master of Business Administration - MBA
University of Johannesburg
04.2001 - 2026
Bachelor of Science With Honours (BScHons) - Mathematical Sciences
University of The Witwatersrand - Wits
04.2001 - 2015
Bachelor of Science - Mathematics And Computational & Applied Mathematic
University of The Witwatersrand - Wits
04.2001 - 2014
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