AJ McErick

Appointed to the Board of Directors of Stepping Stone International, a leading NGO focused on empowering orphaned and vulnerable youth in Botswana through education, psychosocial support, and leadership development. In my capacity as Vice Chairperson, I support the strategic oversight and governance of the organization, with a particular focus on driving digital transformation across its core programs

Appointed to lead Bank Gaborone’s digital transformation agenda, with a mandate to drive innovation, enhance customer experience, and expand access to banking services through next-generation digital and payment solutions. Reporting to the Executive Committee, my role is at the nexus of strategy, technology, and financial inclusion. Develop and execute the bank’s Digital Banking and Payments Strategy, aligned with growth, customer-centricity, and operational efficiency. Oversee digital platforms, including mobile banking, internet banking, USSD, digital wallets, card services, and e-channels. Lead the commercialization of digital products, including agency banking, a local payment gateway, and value-added fintech services. Strengthen API and fintech integrations to support open banking, cross-border remittances, instant payments, and digital lending. Optimize the digital onboarding journey, transaction flows, and customer touchpoints to reduce friction and increase usage. Implement data-driven decision-making, leveraging analytics to monitor KPIs such as channel usage, transaction volume, customer acquisition, and cost reduction. Ensure full compliance with Bank of Botswana regulations, including local data residency, digital KYC, and cybersecurity standards. Mentor and lead a cross-functional team while fostering a culture of innovation, agility, and excellence.

Led high-priority digital initiatives under executive mandate, with a focus on developing next generation financial solutions in a confidential and agile environment. Oversaw the end-to-end delivery of strategic innovation projects, designed to future proof the bank’s digital capabilities and enhance customer experience.

Business Strategy and Planning: Develop and execute a comprehensive business development strategy aligned with the company's goals and objectives. Analyze market trends, competitor activities, and industry developments to identify potential opportunities and threats. Lead Generation and Prospecting: Proactively identify and pursue new business opportunities through market research, networking, and relationship building. Build and maintain a robust sales pipeline through targeted lead generation and qualification. Client Relationship Management: Cultivate and maintain strong relationships with existing clients, ensuring satisfaction and identifying opportunities for upselling or cross-selling. Act as the primary point of contact for key clients, addressing their needs and concerns in a timely and effective manner. Proposal Development and Negotiation: Collaborate with the technical and project management teams to develop compelling proposals that address client requirements. Lead negotiations with clients, ensuring mutually beneficial agreements and successful contract closures. Team Leadership: Manage and mentor a high-performing business development team, providing guidance, support, and ongoing training. Foster a collaborative and results-driven culture within the business development team. Market Expansion: Explore and enter new markets, both domestic and international, to diversify the company's client portfolio. Establish and nurture strategic partnerships with key stakeholders in the industry.

This portfolio focuses on guaranteeing coherence and centralization of the supportive activities provided to Orange Customers and other departments (Customer Experience, Quality Assurance, and Training) and ensuring availability of front office access via call center and premium service quality through quality and consistent responses, giving Orange Customers unsurpassed customer experience -Responsible for the design of Customer Engagement and Quality department Strategy, which was mapped in the global Orange Botswana Strategy. 2020 strategy is focused on digitalization and customer journey improvement. -Managing the Customer Relationship Playbook (Customer Service manual and standards) and evaluating customer engagement service review reports for the Business to Business and Business to customer account. This increased retention by 19% In 2019 -Part of the Orange Botswana Quality Assurance team, responsible for evaluating and reengineering close to 53 internal processes and aligning them to the customer needs as dictated by the customer journeys and touchpoints. -Managing and reporting on the monthly customer survey (Telco NPS) in conjunction with Melben Research Company. Maintaining an NPS of 7 and above out of 10. -Part of the Digitalization program which is responsible for Automating Orange Botswana Processes, updating the Orange Yame APP, Creating CRM 360 platform that manages all Orange Botswana customer systems. -Following ITIL, I was responsible for designing and reviewing SLAs with Orange suppliers and the creation of OLA’s (Operational Level Agreements).

This portfolio focuses on making sure that the customers of MTN Business receive the best customer experience and that their services are delivered according to standard and on costs. It also deals with customer relationship management and evaluation. -Creation of customer-centric processes that have optimized MTN’s order process by 86% -Take part in product development and packaging sessions. Responsible for creating marketing briefs for marketing consultants in relation to new products -Production of the customer service report that captures all services that have been ordered for the month, -Creation of MTN Service Level Agreements and Operational Level Agreements and managing service delivery according to them. This is done under the guidance of ITIL Service Management. -Implementation of risk management according to ISO 31000 and following COSO framework. -Managing Remedy which is responsible for incident logging, change management, report production, and dashboard presentation. -Responsible for the Top 30 customer’s service review meeting which evaluates the quality of service customers are having and identifying areas of improvement and upselling. These also include managing of Key relationships of these accounts. -Creation and managing the customer onboarding process. -Managed the Knowledge-based system for customer queries and solutions. -Managed the quarterly customer survey and produced the Customer Feedback report with improvements recommendations.

Overall assurance for business systems, projects, and processes ensuring they continue to meet strategic objectives and enable effective and efficient service delivery to all customers and stakeholders -Leading and managing business systems annual performance and forward works program, liaising with the business to maximize and continuously improve the business benefits from all business systems. -Key strategic contact person for business interface ensuring stakeholder objectives are met and strong working relationships maintained. -Leading and managing the development of training competency IT frameworks and ensuring they are delivering current and future skill and knowledge requirements. -Implementation of business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan. -Overall responsibility for the delivery of information management ensuring appropriate data governance and information analysis. -Corporate complaint management, responsible for the corporate customer advocacy and hardship function, ensuring effective complaint management, timely resolution, and that customer rights are maintained. -Project, system, process management by ensuring the underpinning business systems and structures meet strategic objectives. -Carrying out duties in accordance with the quality policy, safety principles, corporate values, and strategies. -Development of IT Strategy, operational standards, and their implementation to enable the overall business strategy. -Managing the corporate customer Experience portfolio.

-Analyse the structure of a business, how it uses technology and what its goals are -Identify problems within a business, including through using data modeling techniques -persuade internal and external stakeholders of the benefits of new technology or strategies -Capturing Business requirements and producing system requirements -Designing of software mock-ups -Designing of Software Prototypes -Production of Initiation Documents