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Standard Bank Group

Analyst Biography

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Simon Freemantle
Senior Political Economist
South Africa

Career Highlights

Simon Freemantle is a Senior Political Economist in Standard Bank’s global research team. Having joined Standard Bank in 2008 Simon first spent two years working from the bank’s Nairobi office as an East African Economist. In his current role, Simon is the bank’s dedicated South Africa political economist, primarily serving both the local and international corporate and institutional investor communities. For the past seven years (2015 - 2021) Simon has been ranked 1st in South Africa in the Political Analysis category of the Financial Mail’s annual Ranking the Analysts Awards; while in 2010 Simon also led a team which was ranked 1st in the Other African Economies and Markets category. Simon has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Law as well as Honours in International Studies (cum laude), and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Amsterdam. Simon has also completed short courses at the London School of Economics and has given a course on SA’s political economy to an executive MBA class at the Gordon Institute of Business Science. Simon has presented on SA and African political economy topics at Columbia Business School; Oxford University’s African Studies Centre; Chatham House (London); the Council for Foreign Relations (New York); and the New York University Stern School of Business. In September 2015 Simon delivered a talk at TEDx (Stellenbosch) on the rising demographic, urbanization and communication trends in Africa.