After playing a pivotal role in scaling and strengthening fintech company e4 through a period of significant growth as its CFO, Adri Führi decided to take a break. Now, the finance leader is back – in a new role and with renewed vigor.
After a 15-month break from the corporate world, seasoned finance leader Adri Führi has returned to the world of finance, stepping into her new role as group chief financial officer at EFT Corporation.
A qualified chartered accountant, her 25-year career spans banking, financial services, insurance and technology. She spent over 12 years at Standard Bank South Africa, gaining extensive experience across African markets. Her most recent role was as CFO at fintech software-as-a-service company e4, where she steered the organisation through a period of significant growth.
After seven years at e4, Adri decided it was time for a change. “I thought it would be nice to take a break because I’d been at the company for seven years and it was time for a new challenge. I had, together with my team, implemented a number of initiatives over the seven years, including finance strategy, re-aligning teams, systems and processes. I also supported the sale of the e4 group as CFO,” she says.
Having seen the business through ownership changes and a complex post-deal transition, Adri felt the moment was right to pause. “I just thought I needed a new challenge, but first I want to take a break. During the sale of the e4 Group I agreed with my husband that we will go to Turkey on holiday when the deal was concluded and that kept me going at a very challenging time. At the start of my break we escaped to Turkey and we had an amazing holiday for our 20-year anniversary,” she says.
The trip was a two-week getaway whereafter she also went to Portugal to visit a close friend. As a mother of a teenage daughter, it was then time to return. “During my break my mother fell ill and I was able to support both her and my father, an opportunity for which I will be forever grateful,” she says.
Time to reconnect
She explains that the 15-month break was beneficial, especially on a personal level and this is where she also realised that professionals commit so much to their roles and to their companies that there’s a lot of themselves and their family that get left behind.
“So it was also a good time just to reconnect again with my husband and my daughter and think about how I would do things differently when I start working again,” she says.
For Adri, the hiatus became a reset, personally and professionally. It was also a time to reconnect with her teenage daughter. “My daughter came home from school one day and I was talking to her about a number of things that she was involved in, and she said, mom, you’ve got to start working again because you are getting up in my business and I don’t like it. We’ve walked a journey since then,” she jokes.
Although the adjustment was not easy at first, Adri says it strengthened their bond and she was able to find ways to reconnect that is acceptable to her daughter as well. “It is important for me to not to make the same mistakes and not lose that connection again as I get back into the workforce. And it's also been great to spend time with my husband. We’re still together. We're about to celebrate our 21-year anniversary. That’s an achievement,” she says.
Returning with perspective
When Adri decided to return to the workforce, the job search proved eye-opening. She recalls that she had reached a point where she wondered if she would ever work again.
But, her experience navigating the modern job market reflected a new era of recruitment.
“The job market is very different to eight years ago and it’s been so challenging because companies, recruitment agencies and even executive search companies follow very AI-driven processes. I don’t know how effective it is at executive level, because you will find that after a day, more than a 100 people have clicked apply for a CFO position on a recruitment platform.”
The call that changed things came from an executive search company in London. The discussion made her realise that it was such a great opportunity because she already has experience in the rest of Africa through Standard Bank. She has banking experience, fintech experience and is also able to deliver effectively in working environments with high growth trajectories.
Adri officially joined EFT Corporation on 1 September. The transition, she says, has been smooth thanks to support from her predecessor. She explains that he has been very supportive and has provided her with a well-balanced handover process.
Adri describes herself as an intentional yet instinctive professional. “I have been very intentional in my career. I always tell people I never had a plan. What was important to me is when I engage in a role that I am challenged by and excited by the role” she says.
A new mindset
Her approach to leadership has been shaped by breadth and variety. She sees her experience and resulting competencies as being unique.
She adds that EFT’s operating context fits her strengths. “It is a fintech environment and in these types of organisations, there are many moving parts on an ongoing basis.”
Adri believes in two key principles: fit for purpose and return on investment, especially since her leadership philosophy centres on collaboration. “We’re not a bank. We don’t have the balance sheet or the resources of the bank so we have to creatively think about the things that are really important, whilst still being able to professionally support clients in the financial services industry.”
“In a high-growth medium size corporate environment, working together is important because it’s usually quite flat structured. Resources are involved in multiple functional areas. It is so important to understand everyone’s strengths because growth happens whether support teams are involved or not.”
Adri’s first months at EFT Corporation have focused on building relationships, having one-on-one with her colleagues, with the senior managers, with her team members and just getting to know people. Finding out where they come from, what’s their skill set, what’s important to them, is critical for her.
Her collaboration with Group MD Mike Smits has set the tone. “It is both positive and challenging reporting to the previous CFO. He currently lives in London and I am in Johannesburg, but we have daily sessions, whether he is in London or visiting South Africa. We are working together as a team.”
Lessons learnt
For Adri, mutual respect lies at the heart of effective collaboration. She believes that true teamwork begins with understanding how best to work together. “It is about identifying each other’s strengths and weaknesses and creating a complete circle of complementary skills. That’s how you achieve the best results for the group,” she says.
Her previous experiences, she says, continue to inform her leadership. “All of these businesses were in the financial services sector.”
“Collaboration is key. That is something that I learnt when I was involved in the securitisation space in Standard Bank because we wouldn’t have been able to deliver what we delivered without collaboration between various divisions and departments. Another learning is that I have to allocate some of my mental and physical time to my family as well. That’s also been a key learning for me and I need to continuously keep this top of mind for myself as I start on this new journey,” she adds.
For Adri, dealing with pressure is about mindfulness and intention. and she believes that it's also about carving out time when not as busy, to spend that quality time with the family.
“Mindfulness is very important because sometimes you’re physically present, but you’re thinking about work," she says.
Reflecting on her journey, Adri cites an early role as formative and her most pivotal role. It was around the year 2000 when she worked for bluebean.com, which was part of Standard Bank and an e-commerce online credit card offering where she worked with a visionary.
Building relationships
At EFT Corporation, she sees an opportunity to align finance strategy with broader business goals, including ESG.”
Asked about the qualities required of CFOs in high-growth, fast-evolving African fintechs, Adri emphasises relationships and learning. “You need to build relationships and understand the jurisdictions that you’re working in, what is similar and different to what you know”
Balancing leadership and motherhood has also shaped her outlook. “As a woman and a mother, even though your husbands might not place you under pressure, I think you place yourself under pressure.”
Her advice is rooted in acceptance. Specifically, she can’t change the fact that she is a woman and that she has to make choices and live with those choices. Her focus now is to take what she has learnt during her break and continue to be mindful and intentional.
