Graham Stephen

Graham Stephen is a Chartered Accountant with over two decades of experience across financial services, business development, pricing strategy, optimisation, and valuation. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of bizval, a platform that provides independent, data-driven, and human-led business valuation services. Bizval helps businesses plan for growth, prepare for exits, raise funding, and manage disputes. The platform also supports advisors, fractional CFOs, accountants, and wealth planners by giving them the tools to understand and explain the true value of a business to their clients.

In addition to bizval, Graham is the Founder of Arete Advisors, a firm focused on helping businesses reach their full potential through strategic guidance and financial insight. Prior to launching his own ventures, Graham held several senior executive positions across leading organisations, including ABALOBI ICT4FISHERIES, JUMO.WORLD, AFB, African Bank, and Standard Bank Group. His career reflects deep experience across banking, fintech, and business advisory.

Graham’s achievements have been recognised through several awards. He received the Standard Bank Retail Star Award in both 2005 and 2006. He also placed fourth with honours in the QE1 Exam conducted by SAICA in 2001 and was named the Top Economic Sciences Student at the University of Port Elizabeth in the same year.

He holds a BCom (Rationum) degree with Cum Laude honours from the University of Port Elizabeth, completed between 1996 and 2000. He also earned a BCom (Honours) in Accounting and Business Management with Cum Laude honours during the same period. In 2003, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant (CA SA) with honours through the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA).

Graham Stephen was born in South Africa and went on to become a highly experienced Chartered Accountant and entrepreneur with a strong background in financial services, business development, and valuation. He has dedicated his career to improving the business landscape, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), by helping business owners and professionals understand the true value of their businesses. His work spans across several countries, including South Africa, the USA, the UK, and EMEA.

Graham grew up in South Africa and developed an early interest in business and finance. He pursued his education at the University of Port Elizabeth, where he obtained a BComm (Hons) Cum Laude in Accounting and Business Management. After completing his undergraduate studies, Graham went on to complete his Chartered Accountant (CA(SA)) qualification through the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) in 2003, where he excelled, achieving honours and ranking highly in his exams. He then joined PwC, where he completed his articles and gained practical experience in finance, insurance, and accounting.

Following his articles at PwC, Graham joined Standard Bank Group in 2004, where he took on various roles in pricing, product management, and customer data quality. During his time at Standard Bank, he led significant projects, such as the Retail Pricing Strategy and the Competition Commission enquiry into banking charges. He also headed workstreams on customer data management and CRM during the bank's operating model redesign. Graham’s work at Standard Bank laid a strong foundation for his future ventures by sharpening his skills in pricing strategy, financial optimisation, and business management.

In 2009, Graham transitioned into more senior executive roles. He worked for African Bank, where he held the position of Executive for Electronic Collections and later became involved in pricing and profitability optimisation for the ABIL group. His work focused on creating pricing and provisioning models, which helped the bank optimise its retail credit offering.

In 2013, Graham took on the role of Managing Director for AFB (African Bank Financial Services), where he led the company's loans division. He then joined Jumo (formerly Afb Mobile) in 2014, a mobile financial services company, as Managing Director of Optimisation. During his time at Jumo, he worked on growing the company’s product offerings, making the business more efficient and scalable.

In 2019, Graham took a pivotal step in his career by founding Arete Advisors, a consulting firm focused on helping businesses reach their potential through expert advice and strategic planning. In the same year, Graham also began to focus on his next big venture: bizval. As the CEO and Co-founder of bizval, Graham sought to address the gap in the market for affordable, accurate, and accessible business valuations.

Bizval provides a platform that simplifies business valuations, making them understandable, data-driven, and defensible. The platform is targeted towards entrepreneurs, advisors, accountants, and wealth managers who need reliable business valuations for various purposes, such as preparing for a sale, raising funds, or managing disputes. Bizval helps users make better decisions by providing regular, forward-looking valuations that give a realistic picture of a business's worth.

Since founding bizval, Graham has been actively involved in building the platform, shaping its value proposition, and driving its growth. The company’s unique offering is its proprietary valuation engine, which combines expert knowledge with data-driven insights. Bizval is designed to be an easy-to-use tool that provides not only valuations but also strategic advice, helping business owners manage their growth, prepare for exits, and make informed decisions.

Bizval's key features include:

• Regular valuations that enable businesses to track and manage their growth
• Forward-looking insights that provide a clear picture of a business’s future value
• Data-driven valuations that ensure accuracy and defensibility in key business decisions

Through bizval, Graham has reached a broad range of clients across the globe, including those in the USA, UK, and EMEA. He has helped thousands of business owners, wealth managers, and M&A professionals with their valuation needs, using a blend of human expertise and technology.

As of 2023, Graham Stephen continues to lead bizval and Arete Advisors, focusing on expanding bizval's presence in international markets. He is working on improving the company’s valuation tools and ensuring that more small and medium-sized enterprises have access to accurate, affordable, and reliable business valuations. His role involves not only overseeing the operational aspects of the business but also positioning the company as a key player in the global valuation landscape.

Graham is passionate about empowering business owners with the knowledge they need to make strategic decisions, whether they are preparing for an exit, raising funds, or simply looking to improve their business's value. His dedication to simplifying the valuation process has made him a sought-after expert in the field.

Outside of his professional life, Graham has a keen interest in motorsports. He enjoys spending his free time on racing simulators and is planning a return to motorsport in the near future. Graham’s passion for both business and motorsports demonstrates his commitment to precision, strategy, and performance, qualities that also define his professional work.

Graham Stephen’s career has been defined by his ability to help businesses unlock value through expert financial advice and innovative valuation solutions. Through his work with bizval, he has made business valuations more accessible and understandable for entrepreneurs and advisors worldwide. His commitment to simplifying complex financial processes continues to shape his current and future projects, solidifying his reputation as a leader in the field of business valuations.

Currently, Graham Stephen is focused on expanding the reach and impact of bizval, helping more businesses navigate the complexities of valuation and strategic growth, with a particular focus on SMEs and professional service firms.

Graham Stephen’s vision is to make business valuations simple, accessible, and affordable for all entrepreneurs and advisors. He aims to empower businesses to understand their true value, enabling them to make informed decisions for growth, funding, or exits. By providing regular, data-driven valuations, Graham believes that business owners can better manage their companies and prepare for the future. His goal is to transform how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) approach business valuation, ensuring they have the right tools to maximise their long-term success.

Graham Stephen has received several recognitions for his work in finance and business strategy. Notably, he has been awarded the Standard Bank Retail Star Award in both 2005 and 2006 for his outstanding performance in the banking sector. He also ranked 4th with Honours in the QE1 Exam during his time at PwC. Additionally, he was recognised as the Top Economic Sciences Student at the University of Port Elizabeth. These accolades reflect his dedication to excellence and his significant contributions to the financial and business development industries.