We take our responsibility as a business seriously, and through Sigma Connected CSR projects, we are committed to supporting our environment, our people, and connecting with the communities in which we operate across the UK, South Africa and Australia.
All our employees are given the opportunity to apply for a grant from the Sigma Connected Community Foundation to support a local not-for-profit organisation within their communities. We have a quarterly budget of £3,000 which is shared between the suitable applications received each quarter.
Additionally, all employees can make a personal £2 donation directly from their salaries to our nominated charity. We are currently supporting Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
We believe there is a different way to do things, including how and who we recruit. Working with support agencies we look to disadvantaged communities or cohorts, both in the UK and South Africa, to identify high potential talent and support them into the workplace through specific training and dedicated support.
In South Africa we partner with Shadow Careers to provide permanent employment opportunities for the unemployed youth. Currently over 60% of our new hires have come from disadvantaged backgrounds and communities in the Western Cape. All delegates are fully equipped and embedded in the Sigma culture before they complete their 12-week work readiness programme through job shadowing.
In the UK we work with four different partners to enable the long-term unemployed into the workplace – People Plus, Back to Work, BMET and Seetec – and 55% of our employees join us through one of these organisations. Candidates receive interview guidance and skills training before they join the Sigma training programme to give them the confidence and support to enter the workplace again.
Providing alternatives for individuals who can’t afford university fees, we hire apprentices. This programme, in association with Birmingham Metropolitan College, enables people to train on the job.
In partnership with Suited for Success, we help people return to work in the UK by offering employment skills workshops and assisting with application advice.
By helping unemployed men and women with the interview process, and providing suitable clothing, we are able to give them the confidence they need to make a positive first impression.
In partnership with environmental charity Treedom, for each new member of the Sigma Connected team, we are giving a tree to farmers in Tanzania, Ecuador and Madagascar, with the aim of helping them with food and shelter while helping us become carbon neutral.
As part of this initiative, new Sigma Connected employees in the UK, SA and Australia are given a virtual tree to plant in the Sigma Forest. The gift recipient of each tree receives a clear account of the project activities from the beginning and is regularly updated on what is achieved thanks to their commitment.
With a diverse workforce in three countries, we want to ensure that everyone in our team has a voice, with a no-blame culture ensuring we are able to progress together.
Committed to gender diversity, we strive to provide an inclusive environment from the top down where women feel understood and respected as professionals and individuals.
We have launched a global initiative, Sigma Women, which ensures the promotion of gender equality.
Regional Managing Director, Australia
Jason has over 25 years’ of driving strategic, transformational change across diversified businesses and sectors. He has joined Sigma Connected to use his leadership skills to establish the business in Australia.
With an aptitude for building and sustaining trust-based, shared-value partnerships, Jason brings a depth of service offering, experience of driving high performance teams and a flexible approach to adapt to changing client requirements to our Australian business.
Regional Managing Director, South Africa
David is a multi-award-winning leader with a proven track record of success with several FTSE 50 and challenger brands in both B2B and B2C markets. David has over 20 year’s experience within both the UK and offshore locations and has built a reputation for business turnaround and recovery. David is responsible for our South Africa operations effectiveness around delivery and performance.
IT Operations Manager
Nigel has over 20 year’s IT Management experience in white label global outsourcing, supporting locations in Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific and South America.
Experienced in global deployment and management of global telephony and multimedia solutions for major global brands.
Nigel has extensive experience in shaping and delivering high-performing digital landscapes. Utilising a diverse and innovative mix of technology, Nigel executes critical initiatives to create state of the art solutions that enhance productivity, economic prosperity and competitiveness for our clients.
Business Development Director, South Africa
Nompumelelo has vast experience in the business development space, having held various positions in organisations such as the ADvTECH Group, Pearson, Outsurance and Private Property.
She holds a qualification from the IMM (International Marketing Management) Graduate School.
Nompumelelo is an experienced business development specialist focused on business success through forward thinking and innovative leadership.
During her career, Nompumelelo has successfully driven growth in sales while creating and managing highly effective teams, with a proven track record in building a high-performance culture.
The last 5 years of her working experience have been in the property sector, where one of her responsibilities was to grow and manage B2B relationships as well as key strategic partnerships.
In this role, Nompumelelo will take responsibility for driving the sales and account management functions of the business, as well as developing and managing the strategic partnerships for the business.
Director of EDC
Candice has 23 years’ experience in Debt Collections/Customer Service on domestic and international clients.
She was previously employed by Norman Bisset and Associates, Woolworths Financial Services and Barclaycard Offshore Collections.
Candice has an excellent understanding of the Debt Collections Act, POPI, NCA, GDPR, DPA, PCI and regulated legislation.
She has a proven track record of success in managing client relationships, project management for new clients, system migrations and telephony setups.
High level ability in people management including leading, motivating and developing direct reports and customer-facing employees
Since joining Sigma, Candice has not only managed operational areas but also training and development, supplier management, back-office areas, project management as well as business development and marketing
Candice has a passion for giving back to the community and previously managed Sigma’s Socio-economic committee, she enjoys outdoor activities and spending time with her family.
Head of People, South Africa
A qualified and experienced Talent Acquisition, Attraction and HR Practitioner, with over 10 years’ experience in the Services and BPO industry.
Ayesha is responsible for the strategic direction of the People function and managing the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the recruitment and HR outputs.
Aeysha has managed the recruitment and talent attraction strategy and end to end function in Webhelp for over 5 years. She has worked in the services industry supporting clients such as Discovery, Allan Gray, Carphone Warehouse, Capfin and Tenacity with Recruitment and HR.
Since joining Sigma just over 13 months ago, Aeysha has transformed the recruitment process and geared the team to recruit quality candidates at scale. As a business we have seen the impact of getting the right candidates have a positive influence on the brand, performance and annualised attrition.
She is a mother of 2, a HR Cum Laude Graduate, an avid kick boxer and part time hiker.
Head of Implementation and Optimisation, South Africa
Almeroe is a business management and operations professional offering 25+ years’ experience leading and managing business set-ups and operations, with unique strengths in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation, credit, collections and business process improvement. He specialises in enabling business process and innovation through effective use of technology.
Almeroe has owned and managed businesses in several industries, primarily financial services, in South Africa and in the USA (where he spent almost 10 years).
Since his engagement with the group 10 years ago, Almeroe conceptualised and implemented a fully-fledged, paperless personal finance business in 2011.
He also established and served as COO of the SmartMobile cellular network as an on-biller of South African network operators (2013) and implemented the SmartMobile MVNO offering in 2015.
Almeroe executed the implementation and management of the group’s speech analytics capabilities.
He is also a proud father of 3, part time coffee connoisseur and full-time wine enthusiast.
Chief Operations Officer, South Africa
Richard is responsible for the day-to-day management of BPO operations within the Sigma Connected, South Africa. Richard has held the role of CEO for iSmart (Pty) Ltd since June 2020, and worked within the Digicall Group, mostly in an operational capacity since 2011.
Before joining the Group, Richard was responsible for Sales and Quality Operations for Carphone Warehouse Direct Sales at CCI in Durban and spent 7 years in the retail industry with Carphone Warehouse in the UK before coming to South Africa.
He helped to design and build the operational capacity within iSmart to launch its SmartMobile MVNO product, which activated more than 200,000 customers within South Africa.
Richard has led contact centre teams operating in sales, customer service, collections, call quality and logistics processes for 10 years.
Richard has a combined total of over 15 years operational management of various teams in the retail and contact centre industries, and briefly led the Carphone Warehouse Retail Employee Forum, chairing representation for over 10,000 employees.
He holds a Master’s qualification in International Business and Languages, from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
Former World Record Holder, All-Ireland Chess Champion, and occasional mountain jogger.
Chief Financial Officer, South Africa
Justus hails from Stellenbosch where he attended Paul Roos Gym and the University of Stellenbosch. He articled with PwC in Cape Town and qualified as a CA(SA) in 2000.
An intended 2-year secondment to London with PwC turned into a 5-year stint, where Justus largely focused on multi-national technology clients. While in the UK, Justus worked closely with the US firm, and this led to him joining PwC in New York City as a Senior Manager in 2006. After 2 years in New York and 8 years away from home, Justus decided to return to South Africa where he joined the Digicall Group in 2009.
Justus oversees financial reporting and risk for all Cape Town based businesses, including Sigma Connected.
He is responsible for Sigma’s SA real estate strategy, including the negotiation of leases of 3 properties in 2021.
Justus is a member of the Sigma Group Executive
Makes the best Tuna Ceviche in Cape Town
Managing Director, South Africa
A multi-award-winning leader with a proven track record of success with several FTSE 50 and challenger brands in both B2B and B2C markets. David has over 20 years experience within both the UK and offshore locations and has built a reputation for business turnaround and recovery.
Winner of 7 national service awards and accreditations (including ECCSA for social services and national customer service of the year award) David is a Mentor for the ‘Future Leaders – Mentoring Network’.
Since joining the Sigma Group, David strategically implemented a road map to enhance the SA Operations effectiveness around delivery and performance. He led the SA Operations to an overall green scorecard across all international and domestic accounts
Together with the leadership team we have grown the business and welcomed 7 new clients and grew the FTE headcount by an additional circa 1000 FTE across Cape Town
David is a 2x Battle Beam Champion, a pro Stairmaster and is known for his “Dad jokes”.
Chief Financial Officer, South Africa
Justus qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2000 after which he spent 5 years in the UK at PwC largely focusing on multi-national technology companies. He then went on to work for PwC in New York City, returning to his native South Africa in 2008.
Justus joined the Digicall Group in 2009 and since moved up the ranks within the group and taken on financial responsibility for Sigma Connected South Africa.
Justus overseas all the financial reporting for Sigma’s Cape Town business as well as having responsibility for all Sigma’s South African real estate.
Chief Technology Officer
With over 20 years’ experience in IT across a range of industries, from start-ups to large enterprises, Ian’s roles have spanned all aspects of technology, architecture and strategy. Ian comes with a degree in Physics and Electronics and a PhD in semiconductor technology.
He specialises in enabling business process and innovation through effective use of technology. He also has a strong technical background including security, networking, infrastructure operations, datacentre design and software development.
Chief Commercial Officer
Ben has 20 years’ experience in Board Director and NED roles across Retail Utilities and BPO across both large corporate and private companies.
Prior to joining Sigma in 2019 Ben was trouble shooting in the Energy sector, supporting turn around and new start ups.
Within the Sigma Connected Group Ben has day to day responsibility for Sales, Marketing, Client Services and PMO across the entire Sigma Connected Group which include the UK, South Africa and Australia.
Chief Operational Officer
With more than 20 years of industry experience, including 12 as a Senior Manager, Mike is ultimately responsible for Sigma’s operational development and strategy, including technical infrastructure, operational teams, contact solution / dialler, IT risk management, MI production, process automation and physical growth.
Mike is a founding member of Sigma. Prior to this Mike founded consumer trace business Regent Recoveries and was a Senior Manager within leading debt recovery law firm HL Solicitors.
Chief Executive Officer
Gary is a founding member of Sigma since setting up the business with Mike Harfield in 2011. Gary has been the CEO for 3 years and takes the lead with external relationships and investor strategy.
Gary has over 25 years’ experience running large contact centres across the UK and in South Africa with a specialism in early arrears and debt collection. Over the last 14 years he has worked with the majority of the Energy Big 6. Gary remains very active with all Sigma’s client engagements and continues to lead on new business opportunities for the group.
Please share your location to continue.
Check our help guide for more info.