The People Behind adVenire
adVenire was built by people who have spent their careers at the intersection of practice and education. They have worked in financial markets, governance, and treasury with their academic experience spanning teaching, researching, and curriculum design at university level.
They are not facilitators who read about the work. They have done it and that shapes everything involving how they design their programmes, how they engage in the room, and how they challenge the people they work with to think differently.
They came together because they share a conviction: that professionals in high-stakes environments deserve learning that meets them at the level of their responsibility. Rigorous learning that is not simplified and not generic, but relevant, and built to change how they think.
Niël Oberholzer, PhD – Co-Founder
Niël brings a depth of institutional experience to adVenire that is rare in any learning and development context. Experience gained by having led at the highest levels of both financial markets and higher education, across multiple continents.
His career began at Investec Bank, where he served as Chief Trader and Global Head of Treasury & Structured Finance IT. His role involved overseeing trading, treasury operations, and system innovation at an institutional level. It was here that Niël developed a deep appreciation for the kind of thinking that high-stakes environments demand, not the ability to recall information, but the judgement to act decisively under complexity and uncertainty.
That conviction followed him into academia. As Head of Finance & Investment Management at the University of Johannesburg, and in subsequent leadership roles at the Emirates Institute for Banking and Financial Studies and the American University in the Emirates, Niël built and led programmes designed to do more than inform. They were designed to challenge in order to develop the analytical frameworks, critical thinking, and intellectual confidence that future leaders in finance and banking genuinely need.
For Niël, the classroom and the trading floor have always asked the same question: can you think your way through this? That is the standard he brings to every programme adVenire designs.
“The art and science of asking question is the source of all knowledge.”
Thomas Berger