How Freddy feels about AIFMRM

At AIFMRM, Freddy Dipudi has flourished. “It’s intense in the best way,” he laughs. “They support you beyond the classroom. Financially, mentally, emotionally.” But it’s not just the personalised approach that he values – it’s the seminars that bridge academia and industry, the Financial Mathematics Team Challenge, and the ways the staff have helped him achieve personal growth during his MFE and PhD.

Freddy is laughing. He opens up the interview by asking the questions, which is not the way things usually go. But he’s keen to talk about hiking, climbing, and where he gets his adrenaline – an essential component to completing a PhD. It takes a moment before he starts discussing mathematics, his academic journey, and his doctorate.

There’s a promise he makes at the beginning of the interview, and he reiterates it throughout: “I’m not just selling AIFMRM,” he says. “Please don’t think I’m just selling it. Because I’m not. This is really how I feel.” Then he begins.

Freddy grew up in North West, in Mabaalstad village in a rural part of the province, a few minutes away from Sun City. He was a naughty kid, he says—an outdoor kid, adventurous; not the kind who obsessed over textbooks. “Where I’m from school is not really a thing,” he reflects. “You find Grade 9 kids dropping out just to stay home and do nothing. Some go into crime, into drugs. It’s a very disadvantaged area.”

But one day something happened to him: he picked up a mathematics textbook and started to work through the problems. “I don’t know what to tell you. But I enjoyed it!”

It was his first experience with what he calls “the language of the universe.” Mathematics, to Freddy, is an art. He says, “Everything can be solved by mathematics. It’s beautiful. It’s rigorous, it’s humbling. A mathematics problem can slay you,” he laughs, as if remembering a time he was stumped by a sum.

In a difficult social environment, mathematics became his safe space, a way for him to build his confidence. After completing his matric at Malefo Senior Secondary School, Freddy moved to Pretoria to study pure maths, where he also completed his Honours in Mathematical Finance. He recalls an intense two-day international mathematics competition in which he participated while in his third year of undergrad, an experience that may have primed him for the Financial Mathematics Team Challenge (FMTC) at AIFMRM. He won the challenge twice, both times as Team Leader – first during his MFE, then two years later, when he returned to AIFMRM to do his PhD after a year in industry.

“The FMTC gave me the chance to work with world-renowned researchers. It helped me understand my limits and expand them. I used it to test different leadership styles too,” he says, explaining how he shifted from doing the “heavy lifting” himself during his MFE to creating an environment where others could shine during his PhD.

Currently in his second year of his doctorate, Freddy is focused on calibrating stochastic local volatility models and the pricing and hedging of fixed income derivatives. Adjunct Professor Tom McWalter and Adjunct Associate Professor Jörg Kienitz are supervising his work. Prompt him for secrets to his process, and he’ll tell you: “The Research Retreat! Beachfront houses, far from the city, no responsibilities except the work you love? Every quant dreams of that!”

And every PhD candidate dreams of the Accelerated Transformation Action Plan Fellowship (ATAP), which Freddy was awarded in 2024. It offers writing retreats, interdisciplinary engagement and mentorship. “The best thing about ATAP . . . is that it introduced me to the best mentor in the world: AIFMRM’s very own Founder and Director, Professor David Taylor!”

Cue a bout of warm, sincere laughter.

“David is brutally honest, which I love. He helps me reflect, be more self-aware, and develop leadership like a muscle – not from books, but from practice. He’s challenged me to lead struggling students and helped me reframe how I see challenges. He doesn't push his view; he helps you figure out yours.”

David is helping Freddy discover his ambitions. He hopes to co-found a fintech or research-driven quant firm someday focused on underdeveloped markets, particularly Africa. “We need private institutions doing impactful research on the continent,” Freddy says. Something else close to his heart is the mentorship of students from backgrounds like his own. “I really want to contribute to society and make a difference.”

As for what’s next? “I just want to finish my PhD without going bald,” he jokes. “And keep building something meaningful.” Somehow, you sense he will.