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The Redwood Team

Karl Westvig | Andrew Goodrich | Peter Versfeld | Charlie Teuteberg-Kirk

Karl Westvig
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman

Karl graduated from UCT in 1992 with an Honours degree in Business Science (Statistics and Operations Research). He then went on to work in a number of industries, including market research, retail consumer finance and general consumer finance, holding positions such as Strategy Manager for Foschini Group Credit Services (1994-1997) and General Manager - Customer and Risk for Direct Axis (1997-1999).

Karl co-founded the well-known consumer finance business RCS Group in 1999, where he served as CEO until December 2008. Under his guidance, the RCS Group grew to 800 staff, 600 000 customers, and a product suite including direct personal loans, general-purpose cards, home loans, vehicle finance, insurance and private label cards. RCS Group is now the leading provider of independent credit services to retailers in southern Africa, including Botswana and Namibia, with a total book under management of R2.6bn.

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Andrew Goodrich
Chief Executive Officer

Andrew has over 15 years of credit risk management, operational and executive management experience, gained in the clothing retail, catalogue retail, banking and consultancy sectors in both Africa and the Middle East. His experience covers an array of consumer credit products, including personal loans, bank credit cards, mortgage loans, private label cards and bank debit cards.

Andrew worked as Consumer Credit Risk Manager - Credit Cards, Personal Loans & Mortgage Loans at Riyad Bank in Saudi Arabia from 1997, until he took on the position of Senior Consultant (Middle East) at PIC Solutions in 2004. From 2005 to 2006 he served as Credit Risk & Operations Director for HomeChoice (Pty) Ltd and FinChoice (Pty) Ltd, before moving to the Metropolitan Holdings Personal Loans & Bank Debit Cards subsidiary, where he held the position of Chief Operating Officer until 2009.

Andrew has been involved in multiple TRIAD implementations, both hosted and net-sourced, as well as numerous application, behavioural and attrition scorecard developments and implementations. He has also played a role in new business start-ups, such as the Woolworths Private Label Card and Metropolitan's banking subsidiary, and spent time on both the Project Board for the launch of Saudi Arabia's Credit Bureau, and MasterCard's Global EMV Board.

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Peter Versfeld
Chief Information Officer

After obtaining his BSc degree in Computer Science, Peter started his career as a computer operator at a data processing bureau. From there he progressed through the information technology ranks of programmer, systems analyst, application development manager, project manager, account executive and systems manager, before finally being appointed as Chief Information Officer for Woolworths Financial Services, who offer in-store cards, loans and a Visa credit card.

Peter has more than 17 years' experience in credit management, which has included setting up the complete architecture and infrastructure for managing customer accounts and loans, as well as taking responsibility for the corporate data warehouse and analytics function.

Amongst other things, Peter's work has involved mainframe application integration, customer relationship management software, interfaces to credit bureaus and banks, and contact centre technology such as computer telephony integration, automated call distribution, workforce management, campaign management and interactive voice recognition.

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Charlie Teuteberg-Kirk
Company Secretary

After graduating from Stellenbosch University with a BA (Law) LLB, and being admitted as an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa (Western Cape Provincial Division), Charlie practised as an attorney for 10 years. She then spent 13 years in the corporate world, which began with her joining a leading national retailer and financial services provider as Group Legal Advisor and Group Compliance Officer.

In 2008, Charlie decided to open her own practice, specialising in the National Credit Act, the Consumer Protection Act, privacy and related legislation affecting the retail, credit, financial services, marketing and insurance industries.

Over the years, Charlie has served on various committees and focus groups pertaining to legislation affecting the industry, including the Direct Marketing Association, committees serving at the National Credit Regulator, and legislative working groups for the Department of Trade and Industry and the credit industry as a whole.

Together with Advocate Alwyn Möller, she has been contracted by a leading publisher of legal reference works to write a comprehensive combined commentary on the National Credit Act and the Consumer Protection Act.

Charlie also drafted Parliamentary submissions on the National Credit Act on behalf of the Credit Provider Association, and she has served as representative on the Business Unity South Africa committee at Nedlac, for the negotiation process relating to the NCA. She continues to serve on this committee for the purposes of the Consumer Protection Act.

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