BANKSETA Women’s Development Programme - 2007 Candidate Profile Name: Marlize Schwär Current Title: Head of Credit Bank: Mercantile Bank Ltd Academic Credentials: Marlize Schwär graduated from Pretoria University with a B.Comm (Economics) degree in 1990. She obtained her post graduate B.Comm (Economics) (honours) degree in 1991 with Cum Laude. Distinctions were obtained in Macro Economics, Research Methodology, International Economics, Development Economics, Methodology of Economics and Political Economics. She continued her post-graduate studies on a part time basis at UNISA and obtained a Masters of Business Leadership (MBL) degree in 1997. Her thesis was entitled “Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in the Banking Industry”. An important part of this degree was a group field study of Colgate Palmolive in which strategic recommendations were made for the company. From 2000 to 2004 she completed Accountancy, Taxation and Auditing up to third year level to enhance her financial subject knowledge. Current Work Description: Marlize is Head of Credit at Mercantile Bank. Her responsibilities include the management of credit granting for the bank as a whole. She develops credit procedures and systems to manage credit risk effectively. Besides managing the Early Warning process she is also responsible for updating all manuals pertaining to credit. She manages the Property Finance section in the bank where all building and development bonds are granted and paid out. Research and training pertaining to Credit also fall under her ambit. Business Credentials and Skills: Marlize’s qualifications and experience combine financial analysis, strategy, and general management. She uses these to successfully implement sound credit policies and procedures to grow assets and minimise risk for the organisation. She did a research project on the printing industry focussing on granting credit to this industry. She contributes to the organisation as a whole by assessing credit risks within the other divisions’ products. She has excellent people skills and managed to improve the relationship between Credit and Sales where turnaround times improved to within agreed service level agreements. She has a passion for training and is always involved in some training initiative to improve skills and knowledge. Personal and Professional Learning Objectives: My objectives for this programme are to: Improve my intra- and interpersonal knowledge and relationships. Do research on the Small /Medium Enterprises (SME) businesses to improve credit granting to this sector. Broaden business leadership, strategy and management skills. Increase networking within the banking industry and Bankseta. Broaden business and banking knowledge as a result of the international experience in China. Personal Information: Marlize is married with two daughters Maike (10) and Tasmin (7). She is a keen gardener, golfer and does ballroom dancing in her free time.