From a poor household with 13 siblings to CEO of a top South African bank

Fani Titi was set to become a farmer, but changed direction and now leads the South African and British banking giant Investec.

Titi grew up in the Free State with his thirteen siblings in sixties. At the age of 12, when he was about to finish grade six, he was supposed to permanently enter the farming labour system. 

A series of events saw his family relocate to Qwa Qwa, a former Bantustan on the Eastern side of the Free State, where he continued his schooling. 

“That was a change in direction that changed my fate. Otherwise, I would still be on a farm, probably driving a tractor,” said Titi. 

“I escaped that particular fate, the farm labour system, but I took lessons from that experience that were imprinted on my mind.” 

“I hated poverty because I had lived in abject poverty, hated the deprivation of dignity, and I also hated a life of insignificance.” 

Due to his academic potential, he was awarded a scholarship to attend school. He then studied Mathematics at the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape. 

He received a scholarship from the University of California, Berkeley, in the USA, where he continued his Mathematics studies.

He has admitted that this period overseas was difficult due to the significant cultural differences he experienced in the United States. 

“From then on, the extent of my success was largely dependent on the application of the desire to dream and to build big,” he said.

He returned to South Africa and worked as a teacher for a few years before moving into the business world.

He worked at Rand Merchant Bank and the Development Bank of South Africa and received an MBA from the Wits Business School. 

He was the founding executive chairman of the private investment group Kagiso Trust Investments Limited, now Kagiso Tiso Holdings.

Due to his experience working in the private equity arena, he became an Investec client. 

Following a successful working relationship that lasted many years, Titi became Investec’s chairman. He also chaired the boards of Armscor, Kumba Iron Ore, and AECI.

Fani Titi becoming Investec CEO

Titi’s relationship with Investec has spanned over twenty years. He became an Investec Bank Limited board member in July 2002 and then chaired its board in June 2007. 

He also served as a board member of Investec Limited and Investec plc since January 2004 and was a non-executive chairman of Investec Limited and Investec plc from November 2011.

Investec Limited and Investec PLC are separate legal entities within the Investec Group. 

Investec Limited controls the Southern African and Mauritian businesses, while Investec plc controls the non-Southern African operations. 

He also served as a member of the Investec Bank plc board from August 2011 and was its chairman from August 2014. He joined the board of Investec Asset Management in November 2013. 

In October 2018, Fani acted as the Joint CEO of the Investec Group alongside Hendrik du Toit. “I took the full-time executive job at 56 after having retired at 46, which was way too young,” said Titi.

“I had come to a point where I wanted to re-engage. I was looking to go into the private equity world, which is where I came from, when the opportunity to lead Investec came up.” 

Titi would solely take the helm of the Investec Group after Investec Asset Management became separately listed as Ninety One on 16 March 2020, with Du Toit acting as CEO.

Investec has performed well over the last years, with its headline earnings attributable to ordinary shareholders rising from R3.9 billion in the 2019/20 financial year to R7.2 billion in FY23/24.

The group’s share price has also increased by roughly 185% over the last five years, and its market cap is now at R100 billion.

Outside of Investec, Titi is one of only two South African CEOs, alongside JSE CEO Leila Fourie, to sit on the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres established the alliance in October 2019, which looks for ways to unlock essential funding for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.