Summary: I am an experienced academic, researcher, and higher education leader currently serving as an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Department in Economics and Finance at the University of the Free State. I hold a PhD in Economics and have established myself as a respected scholar in development, behavioural, and applied economics. With more than two decades of academic experience, I have taught across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and made notable contributions to curriculum development, academic leadership, and research capacity building. My expertise spans economics, development studies, quantitative methods, and business analytics. I have gained notable national and international recognition through prestigious scholarly appointments and collaborations. These include international visiting scholar recognition, participation in global academic networks, teaching in multinational academic programmes, and collaboration with researchers from leading universities across the world. My research has been presented at prominent international conferences and published in reputable peer-reviewed journals, reflecting a sustained and impactful scholarly profile. My supervision spans across honours, master`s, and doctoral levels and I have also contributed towards the development of emerging researchers through workshops, research committees, and higher degree governance structures. I have served in the wider academic community as an external examiner, peer reviewer for leading international journals, and reviewer for national research assessment processes.