About
Every seat at the platform table.
Adriaan Mostert · Divisional Executive, Head of Front-Office Transformation, STANLIB Asset Management · Cape Town
The claim
Most people who run platform transformations have seen them from one seat. I have sat in all of them: wrote the code, supported the users, owned the product, ran the platform as a service, and now I buy and implement them as the accountable executive. The rest of this page is the evidence.
- 27 years in financial services
- 5 seats held since 1998
- 1 major platform landed in production
Act 1 · Wrote the code · 1998 to 2007
Act one, wrote the code
What this seat taught me: systems are promises you make to the people who use them.
Systems analyst and developer Attio Corporation Mar 1998 to Dec 1998
Software analysis and design Investec Asset Management Jan 1999 to Dec 2004
Operational support, front office Investec Asset Management Jan 2005 to Feb 2007
Data integration Allan Gray Mar 2007 to Oct 2007
Act 2 · Supported the users · 2007 to 2013
Act two, supported the users
What this seat taught me: what users actually do with a platform is the truth of it.
Head of Southern African support, thinkFolio thinkFolio Nov 2007 to Dec 2013
Act 3 · Owned the product · 2014 to 2018
Act three, owned the product
What this seat taught me: every feature is a trade-off somebody else has to live with.
Product analysis and design director, thinkFolio, product specialist EMEA Markit Jan 2014 to Jun 2018
Act 4 · Ran it as a service · 2018 to 2023
Act four, ran it as a service
What this seat taught me: running a platform as a service is where you learn what reliability actually costs.
Head of thinkFolio managed services IHS Markit Jul 2018 to Nov 2020
Director, head of cloud services, operations and platform IHS Markit Nov 2020 to Mar 2021
Executive director, head of cloud services, operations and platform IHS Markit Mar 2021 to Mar 2022
Head of cloud services, operations and platform S&P Global Market Intelligence Mar 2022 to Sep 2023
Act 5 · Implements it · 2023 to now
Act five, implements it
The seat where the other four pay off.
Divisional Executive, Head of Front-Office Transformation STANLIB Oct 2023 to present
Capabilities, wired to proof
No skill bars, no percentages. Four claims, each backed by seats at the table and by work you can inspect. Judge me on the work, not the adjectives.
Platforms and operating models
Replacing core investment platforms and designing the operating model around them: front office, middle office, and the service providers in between.
backed by seats 3, 4, 5
Delivery and governance under pressure
Multi-year programmes under board and executive-committee governance, holding the commercial line and the delivery line together across vendors and partners.
backed by seats 4, 5 · the build
Engineering and cloud roots
Formally trained in software development; built and ran cloud platform operations on AWS. I read code, schemas and architecture directly, then turn the trade-off into a decision an executive can stand behind.
backed by seats 1, 4
AI adoption, practically
Not theory: an AI operating system built, run daily, and documented on this site, alongside a firm-level adoption agenda with guardrails.
backed by seat 5 · the system
The whole person
Work does not define my life; my life shapes how I work. Four things I do because I care about them, and what each one brings to the table.
Advocacy
Thirteen years on children's rights. A formal complaint to the South African Human Rights Commission, lodged with Sonke Gender Justice and children's rights advocate Carol Bower, fed the national process that ended with the Constitutional Court ruling corporal punishment in the home unconstitutional.
Brings: conviction with staying power. Long fights do not scare me.Building
Silent partner in a boutique Cape Town residential development business: three homes designed, built and delivered, with a personal property portfolio alongside. Strategy, budget oversight and design integrity, while the operators operate.
Brings: capital discipline, and trusting capable people with the day-to-day.Stewardship
Chair of a sectional-title body corporate on Thesen Island, Knysna: governance, insurance strategy, maintenance planning and owner transparency, in a role nobody pays you to care about.
Brings: governance as an instinct, not a compliance exercise.Motion
Cycling for fitness, boating when the water allows, and producing FulGaz virtual rides that showcase the Cape: filmed, edited and published as a craft of its own.
Brings: discipline, and making things well for their own sake.
Contact
For an advisory conversation, or to compare notes on AI operating models and knowledge systems.