Before joining Mercantile, he worked for the Standard Bank group for nine years in various positions, including as Provincial Director: Western Cape, and Chief Operating Officer of Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited. Karl spent two years in Accra, Ghana and loved working through all the challenges facing a small bank. However, Karl’s passion has always been with entrepreneurs and when an opportunity arose to join Mercantile Bank in 2010, he jumped at it. Mercantile is the only bank in South Africa that has entrepreneurs as its only segment focus and, because of its relationship banking model and innovative products and services in the Small and Medium Enterprise segment, it has been rated number 1 in Service for Business and Commercial Banking in South Africa three years in a row. Karl was appointed as CEO in 2013 and was appointed to the Board of the Banking Association of South Africa in 2014.