CONGRATULATIONS TO CANDICE JACKSON, WINNER OF THE 2020 YOUNG PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR AWARD FROM THE ISACA SOUTH AFRICA AWARDS

The ISACA South Africa Awards are the highest honours bestowed by the Chapter on individuals in the appreciation of their active roles in the field of technology, information and cyber security, governance, risk and innovation in South Africa.

MORE ABOUT CANDICE JACKSON

Candice Jackson joined Mobius Consulting as a young Senior Consultant 5 years ago from KPMG. Since the time she joined Mobius Consulting, she has had a passion for solving problems and thinking innovatively. At the time when Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) was a very new topic, she pioneered the thinking in this area. This was done firstly by building a TPRM framework that was very practical. Clients were battling with how to identify their Third Parties that posed a risk to them and how they can determine this in a very efficient and effective manner.  This further led to the thinking in the automation of the solution which is now a well-known product (Triplicity) in the Industry which is now part of the Phinity Risk Solutions offering (Phinity is a member of the Mobius Group). 

CANDICE’S INNOVATIVE AND PRACTICAL APPROACH TO INFORMATION RISK MANAGEMENT

The practical TPRM framework that Candice and the team pioneered has been tried and tested at several clients across multiple industries and further tweaked and refined to ensure it is as effective as possible. As part of this, Candice helped clients and Third Parties change their behaviour towards TPRM and how this problem can be solved in a far more efficient manner and has led to cost savings at clients. 

Clients that have used the framework have realised that they can use TPRM to drive various risk initiatives as well as achieve cost savings. At a time when Third Parties and Relationship Managers were resistant to being assessed, she quickly understood that training and change management were key to the success of this process and provided training and change management to client’s relationship managers and their Third Parties.  

A PEOPLE-FIRST PROCESS

Third Parties realised that by participating in the Third Party Risk Management process, they can identify and control weaknesses that they hadn’t identified before and drive remediation efforts which help improve their service offering, image and ‘perceived trust’ to their clients. 

Candice quickly understood that any process or capability with technology needs to be supported by people and changing behaviours was key to this. 

Candice never stops to think about how this service can be improved and even today she is leading the charge on improving how risks to Third Parties can be assessed, managed and mitigated in multiple different ways whether it is from a Privacy perspective, Information perspective or broader compliance perspective. She has also been showing clients that if they don’t have the capability in-house, there are various options by either training and building capability in-house or allowing clients to think of a model where a portion can be outsourced and risks can still be identified, mitigated and managed in a very efficient and effective manner utilising technology.

Candice’s lead in this service has led to multiple sales and opportunities at Mobius Consulting, which in turn lead to additional revenue that has been realised especially this year. This is seen to be a very strategic service line and hot topic in 2020 and we have seen multiple clients engaging with Mobius in TPRM initiatives. 

INFORMATION PRIVACY SERVICE LINE LEADER

In addition to TPRM, she has further stepped into the role of the Privacy Service line leader to mature Mobius Consulting’s Privacy service offering. Specifically by leveraging lessons and industry experience, she has and still is identifying improved ways of running Privacy implementation programs at small, medium or large organisations. She naturally used her knowledge in Governance and Third Party Risk Management and has continuously led the innovation in Privacy and how this can be done in a very practical way leveraging existing business capabilities, minimising the burden on business to comply and using technology where it would be most efficient and effective. 

She has spoken in multiple events to educate and train the wider community on Privacy and last year received the Africa CACS Top Speaker Award in 2019. This is testament to Candice’s ability to draw and bring her practical experience and share this with the broader Risk community. 

DRIVEN BY PASSION

For Candice, she was just a young Senior Consultant in her early 20s when she joined Mobius Consulting and there was no need for her to lead the initiatives that she did. However she was a natural young leader that is passionate and continues to train and groom the young consultants at Mobius Consulting. She has coached and helped so many of our consultants at Mobius Consulting and the full team look up to her. 

A FORWARD THINKING ROLE MODEL

As a result of Candice’s ability to innovate and grow markets in TPRM and Privacy, she got promoted to a Managing Consultant within two years at Mobius Consulting and continues to grow our business. She never stops in her forward thinking, innovation and her passion to solve problems. Candice achieved all the above and she is not even 30. She is also a young mother who demonstrates how women can achieve a successful career and an equally wonderful personal life as a wife, mother and daughter without compromises.  She is passionate in everything she does and a role model to not just women but all our consultants at Mobius Consulting. 

In summary, Candice has proven to be a young, innovative, professional leading the thinking in areas that were complex like Privacy and Third Party Risk Management. She continues to drive business growth in multiple industries at Mobius Consulting during this very tough year globally and locally and her efforts are recognised nationally and by all of the Mobius Consulting clients. Candice’s achievement goes over and above the normality of what is required and she remains an absolute asset to the Risk industry and truly deserving of this award.

Learn more about the Mobius Team here.