Fabianus takes the helm at RFS

Staff reporter - Marthinuz Fabianus has been confirmed as the new managing director of Retirement Fund Solutions (RFS) after a period of shadowing Tilman Friedrich as deputy managing director.

Friedrich, the former managing director, has become the chairman of the company.

The appointments became effective on 1 July.

Fabianus joined RFS in 2001. He graduated from Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) with a diploma in commerce and bachelors in business management.

He completed a senior management development programme at University of Stellenbosch and various short courses, including a macro-economic policy course at the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Turin, Italy.

Fabianus serves as trustee on the board of the Benchmark Retirement Fund. Earlier this year he rejoined the board of the Retirement Funds Institute of Namibia, where he served as president from 2005 to 2006. He also served as a commissioner on the Social Security Commission from 2015 to 2017.

Humble beginnings

Fabianus’ ascent into his role as managing director stretches back to 1994.

At the time, he was appointed as a filing and delivery clerk to the now defunct pension fund administrator UPA by Friedrich. After three months, Fabianus approached Friedrich and asked for greater challenges. Friedrich appointed him as a trainee a week later and told him that his progress would depend on his personal development through studies.

In 1999 UPA was sold to Alexander Forbes. Friedrich resigned and formed RFS. Fabianus, who had risen to the rank of associate consultant, resigned shortly afterwards to take the position of marketing manager in Old Mutual’s employee benefits division. He resigned from this role in 2001, to rejoin Friedrich at RFS. His upward path began as administration manager, followed by alternate director, shareholder, director of client services and, recently, deputy managing director.

Vision

Speaking about his vision for RFS, Fabianus says he will strive to attain the status of the company becoming a household name in the Namibian market, and that he will work tirelessly to pass on a healthy competitive business for the future generation of the company’s shareholders.

RFS is currently the leading Namibian-owned pension fund administrator. It administers the pension funds of over 60 Namibian very large to medium-sized entities and over 100 small employer groups in the form of private funds under the umbrella fund, Benchmark Retirement Fund.

Explaining his focus for the coming years, Fabianus said the four aspects which he will home in on are visibility of the company, key relationships building, dynamic stakeholder engagement and driving the company's strategic actions and goals.

Taking the lead

At the ceremonial handover on 1 July, Friedrich advised Fabianus to deliberately maintain a fine balance of making his mark on the organisation, but not trying to emulate him nor anyone else, nor trying to deliberately be different.

In his role as chairman, Friedrich will no longer assume operational responsibility, but will act as technical adviser by supporting Fabianus and the organisation generally in technical matters and strategy. He will sit on various internal committees, on the death claims and finance sub-committees and the board of the Benchmark Retirement Fund.