Invigors appoints EMEA finance veteran Bruce Gau to boost regional presence

His most recent role director of sales finance solutions with Huawei, based in China. In this role he was responsible for supporting the structuring and negotiating of sales financing solutions covering project finance, trade finance and vendor finance transactions.

Armed with a Batchelor of Accounting degree and a post graduate Diploma in Banking Law, Gau began his career in 1983 as senior manager corporate finance at Nedbank. In this role he created a bac-office administration system and process to manage the on-going asset-based financing transactions, and was quickly promoted to head of the bank’s domestic asset-based financing team focusing on big ticket transactions.

He held this post for several years until being promoted to relationship manager corporate banking in 1990, and latterly as assistant general manager of Nedbank Africa in 1997. In an effort to extend the bank’s influence and investment in Africa, Gau took over management of an existing team that formulated and implemented project financing solutions. Under his management, the team successfully doubled the bank’s Africa loan book each year for five consecutive years.

After spending 19 years with Nedbank, Gau began working as head of customer financing for sub-Saharan Africa at Ericsson in 2003, where part of his role was to establish a pan-African network of relationships with banks, consultants, suppliers and customers. He held this role until 2009 when he was appointed director of working capital management and then progressed to head of bid and proposal management in 2013. Despite his self-proclaimed lack of experience in this area, he was tasked with re-establishing the existing bid and proposal team which went on to win global awards for best executive summary in a bid/proposal for three consecutive years.

Following this 12-year stint with Ericsson, Gau took up the role of director of customer financing solutions at Huawei in China, in September 2015. In this role he was responsible for the advising, support and training of the company’s sales financing solutions teams on all aspects of project finance, trade finance, export credit and vendor finance transactions. In a similar way to his previous roles, it was also necessary for Gau to establish and maintain a strong relationship with financial institutions, credit insurers and advisory services.

Kieran O’Brien, executive director of Invigors EMEA, added: “Bruce joins us at a time of fundamental changes in the asset and services financing arena. He brings vast experience and a passion in the development of customer financing solutions for our customers. We are delighted to welcome him onto the Invigors/Alta team.”