Santam Re & International’s newly appointed CFO Kush Padia is racking up a number of career milestones - from being the first CA in his family to reaching his goal of becoming a CFO just shy of turning 31. Now he is focused on making his mark at the globally recognised reinsurer.
Kush Padia’s passion for numbers dates back to when he was a little boy, guided by early influences from his grandfather, who was a business owner. At the time, Kush didn’t quite realise what his grandfather was doing.
“He was teaching me accounting. I only really figured that out many years later, on reflection,” says Kush, CFO for Santam Re & International and the first chartered accountant in his family.
“It comes as no surprise that my passion for numbers and the stories that they tell came from back then, so it was something that I’ve always been interested in.” Through his schooling and his tertiary studies Kush resolved that he would be not only a CA, but a CFO by the age of 30. “I always wanted to be the best CA and CFO that I could be,” he adds.
Kush was appointed as the CFO of Brolink one month before his 31st birthday, “I’m taking that as a win,” he jokes.
Kush spent a lot of time developing his team and technical skills, putting these to practice as he networked and built relationships across diverse industries to open doors that ultimately landed him where he is today.
Understanding both sectors
“Over the course of my career, I’ve always wanted to have an understanding of two very important sectors: the first one being short-term insurance and the second one being transactional banking. My reasoning for this was the financial landscape at the time - there were short-term insurance companies that had interests in banks, and banks that had interest in short-term insurance,” he explains. “Someone who understands both sectors could leverage their experience to drive growth and innovation across these disciplines. This appealed to me given there were not many CAs with this experience at that time.”
“Over the course of my career, I’ve always resonated with the premise of short-term insurance – to help people rebuild their lives after a loss event, which could have destroyed a lifetime of hard work. Transactional banking, similarly, gives people access to a bank account, which opens a world of opportunities as they have a secure store of value and a means to transact in our economy,” he explains.
“Fundamentally, both sectors serve to protect and enable people to build their future and grow their wealth for future generations – something I am truly passionate about. I’m very lucky to have served at FNB across the insurance and transactional banking portfolios, at Mutual and Federal, which is where I was first exposed to short-term insurance, and Brolink which is a subsidiary of Santam. I was also trained at EY, of which I hold many fond memories and maintain good relationships. I believe all these experiences have shaped me into who I am today and has allowed me to take on my current role at Santam Re & International.”
Kush has held several senior financial leadership positions in South Africa’s insurance and financial services industries. Prior to joining Santam Re & International he served as CFO and executive director of FirstRand Short-Term Insurance, as well as joint CFO of FNB’s insurance pillar. He holds a BCom, and BCom (Hons) in accounting from the University of Johannesburg.
In terms of projects that stretched his analytical mind, Kush says landing the IFRS 17 accounting standard for the FirstRand Short-Term Insurance Limited business was a big one.
An enriching experience
“The project was massive and involved working with people from across the FirstRand Group to ensure that the solution not only fit the requirements of the insurance businesses but met the disclosure standard expected by the FirstRand Group’s reporting framework. We supported all the non-life businesses under the purview of the FNB insurance pillar, which included an insurer based outside of South Africa, with a core team of highly motivated people which saw the project through to successful completion. Seeing those results in the FirstRand Limited annual report for the year ended 30 June 2024 was a key moment for me,” he recalls.
Kush joined Santam Re & International in January and speaks highly of the broader Santam group.
“It is really a great business. We’ve got so many motivated and invested people, it’s been amazing collaborating with my colleagues. The Santam Re & International business has dealings across the Santam Group, and writes third-party inwards treaty business worldwide – seeing the impact that we have across our client base has been an enriching experience and I’m looking forward to building stronger relationships with my colleagues and our cedents,” he adds. “We have also recently returned from a strategy breakaway session and it’s great to see that our exco is aligned with the business’ vision and is clear on the steps we need to take to achieve our goals.”
The reinsurance space is a new one for Kush.
“Over the course of my career in short-term insurance I’ve been with non-life insurers or their intermediaries – these are companies that deal directly with the policyholder, being either an individual or business looking to insure their non-life risk. Reinsurance is quite different in that it is insurance for insurance companies.”
“The best way to understand this is by way of an example – let’s say you own a home worth R10m, and you approach your insurance company for building’s comprehensive cover. In this example, your insurance company’s risk appetite is no single loss within this class more than R5m. In the normal course of business, your insurer would be unable to underwrite you, but with reinsurance they can ‘sell’ a portion of this risk to the reinsurer in exchange for a premium. In this way, the existence of reinsurance has opened up the capacity of the cedent – your insurance company – to underwrite a risk it would have otherwise not been able to accept.”
“It’s very interesting being on the other side of the table because most, if not all, non-life insurance companies use reinsurance as a core part of their risk mitigation strategy. I now find myself representing the reinsurer in these discussions, and considering what our own risk mitigation strategies are as they relate to the lines we sign with our cedents. It’s not a skill that you would very often find in the marketplace, particularly a South-African based reinsurer underwriting globally so that was a core part of this role that appealed to me,” he adds.
“The contribution that I want to make is to ensure that we are an operationally excellent, diversified, and globally recognised reinsurer operating out of South Africa with best in class reporting at the appropriate level. This allows us to be selective about where we sign our lines and will involve the use of AI and other automation tools to supplement our technical underwriting, pricing and actuarial skills,” he explains.
“The benefit is that we are part of the Santam Group, the largest non-life insurance business in South Africa, who are fully invested in the success of the Santam Re & International business as a core part of the Group’s refreshed FutureFit 2030 strategy. We also have the benefit of Sanlam, the largest non-banking financial services group on the African continent, and their strategic investments into global markets which we are leveraging for growth. On the whole, I am excited by the prospects for Santam Re & International and the part I get to play in achieving these goals.”
Giving meaning to work
If he were not a CA, Kush would probably have been involved in some form of medicine, he says.
“I have this conversation often with my eight-year-old son. He asks, dad what do you do, and I tell him I’m an accountant. ‘But I know how to count, so what are you doing?’ Like, why is that anything special,” he chuckles. “It’s more than just accounting, you get involved in things like IT, HR, procurement, operations, claims and lots of different things. I tell him that accounting is the training that gives you an understanding of how businesses operate – it’s up to you to take that insight and make the changes needed to move the needle, to really win in your sector.”
When he is not at the office, he is with his family. “I’ve got two amazing, beautiful, naughty children, I love them to bits.”
He is a keen golfer, but it’s a mixed bag. “I enjoy playing golf, but I’m not particularly good at it. Until recently I was a competitive clay target shooter but unfortunately, I don’t have much time for that anymore.”
He also loves podcasts and listening to audiobooks. “I listen to a lot of golf podcasts, such as Hack It Out and The Rough Cut. From a business perspective I enjoy the Moneyweb podcasts, as well as TED Business and The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett. A colleague recently recommended that I try the Lex Fridman podcast, so I’m about to give that one a go,” he says.
“I also enjoy reading. The one book that really stuck with me was The Culture Code, it speaks a lot about how fostering the right organisational culture is not only a strategic advantage, but how it can give meaning and purpose to work. I’ve implemented these principles into my teams and have seen the benefits. I’m privileged to lead others and it’s a responsibility I take to heart.”
