Karen will take the lead on scaling our global operating model, with a focus on enhancing client management and support.
On her promotion Karen comments: “Over the course of my career, I’ve been on a mission to improve KYC and onboarding through automating manual processes, streamlining disjointed workflows and elevating the overall client experience. Continuing this journey as the democratisation of the private markets moves investor onboarding up the agenda, is a natural next step.”
According to Tim Andrews, CEO of IDR – “As we take on bigger clients, win larger mandates and extend our international footprint, we’re challenging and changing how we operate. Building a strong bench of leaders is one strand of this. A second is levelling up our operating model with a focus on 24/7 coverage, fortifying our controls framework and really embedding our one #IDRTeam culture across the 10 countries in which we now have a presence.”
Karen’s stellar background in transforming and professionalising client onboarding processes across global financial institutions paired with her leadership skills and ability to effect change makes her a perfect fit against these objectives. She’s already had a big impact on our business, and I’m delighted to welcome her to our Executive team.”
Karen joined IDR’s Cape Town office in January 2023 after moving back to South Africa from London, where she lived for 22 years. More than 20 of these years, were spent in Financial Crime Operations at corporate and investment banking FI’s, fulfilling increasingly senior roles at RBS, Investec Bank plc and MUFG before moving to global business process manager, eClerx.
“Having worked in the AML/KYC industry since long before it was ever defined as Onboarding or KYC, joining IDR has felt like a homecoming. IDR’s vision for a centralised private markets investor onboarding hub is closely aligned with my own experiences and I’m looking forward to implementing my learnings from the past 20 years to bring the very best onboarding practices to the private markets. I’m thrilled to take on this new challenge as we continue to connect the private markets around the globe,” Karen concludes.
