Emile Matthee

Finance and Investment Advisor

Emile Matthee serves the USAID Southern Africa Trade Hub as Finance and Investment Advisor.

After graduating from Stellenbosch University in 1978, Emile Matthee occupied positions in Public Finance at the Department of Finance in South Africa.

From 1984 to 1988 he served as Attaché Finance at the South African Embassy in Washington DC, and from 1989 to 1993 as Deputy-Director: Macro Economic Policy at the Natural Treasury in Pretoria. In 1994 he assumed responsibility for the export promotion incentives and export reinsurance schemes of the Department of Trade and Industry as Director Financial Assistance Schemes. In this capacity he oversaw the phasing out of demand side incentives and the transformation of incentives to WTO friendly supply side measures.

Towards the end of the 1990's he identified the need for a National Export Credit Agency in South Africa and designed the model for the Export Credit Insurance Corporation (ECIC) which he was instrumental in establishing in 2001. At ECIC he served as Chief Operating Officer and General Manager. He chaired the Credit Insurance Committee of the ECIC since inception until his departure in January 2001. During this period, shareholders' funds at ECIC increased six-fold.