Data Analytics Veteran Joins Qarar as Chief Operating Officer

Qarar, the region’s leading decision analytics company, has appointed Nico van der Westhuizen as its new Chief Operating Officer. Based in Dubai, he will be responsible for driving strategic development, delivery excellence and partnerships for Qarar. With increasing demand for software and advisory services in the advanced analytics space, Qarar has increased its commitment and focus to offer clients more opportunities to implement advanced analytical solutions to support better decision making capabilities.

With over 20 years of experience in organisational decisioning enablement through data analytics across various industries, Nico joins Qarar from Barclays Africa, where he led the group’s Capital & Risk Information Services organisation. His professional expertise has been acquired across Europe, North America, the United Kingdom and his continent of birth Africa. At Experian, Nico led the global consulting practise and his responsibilities included expanding the company’s global consulting acceleration programme and other strategic planning initiatives within decision analytics. Nico has a B.Sc. Engineering (Mechanical & Mathematics) degree from the University of Potchefstroom, South Africa.

Nico van der Westhuizen, Chief Operating Officer of Qarar, commented: “I am thrilled to be taking on this new opportunity. In addition to joining a forward looking and innovative organisation like Qarar, it is with great excitement that I move my career to the MENA region. I look forward to building on the strong foundation of a mature product suite focusing on delivery excellence for a loyal and growing client base across the region. Our focus is to empower users so that businesses can capture opportunities, better anticipate risks, and react faster to regulatory and other risk related challenges.” 

Zaid Kamhawi, CEO of Qarar, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Nico to the Qarar team. He is a proven leader in his field, and his expertise in the area of credit risk and decision analytics will be crucial in expanding our footprint in the region. This reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering in-depth technology and market knowledge in the fields of credit risk, advanced analytics and decisioning software within the MENA region. We are pursuing a strategy of growth that is underpinned by our existing relationships with major GCC financial institutions and the growing demand for automation, governance, and compliance in the market.”