On Monday, the bank named the head of financial institutions in East and Southern Africa at the IFC as the Group’s Chief Operating Officer.
John Wilson, a Swedish national will oversee operations at the Group level while Bhartesh Shah will head up the Group’s Enterprise Risk Management.
Speaking while making the announcement, Dr James Mwangi, Managing Director and CEO Equity Group Holdings Plc said John’s depth of expertise and understanding of the African financial institutions will be invaluable as the Group takes a leading role in the Africa region.
“John brings international experience and joins a team of highly talented experts who are driving our Equity 3.0 strategy that will see the Group complete digitization and virtualization of the Bank while accelerating our Pan African expansion to 15 countries by 2024…John will help to analyse the economic environment in the various countries the Group is operating in and advise on how to localize its strategy…. John will enhance the execution of strategy and operational oversight of the entire business including the subsidiaries as Mary Wamae Group Executive Director focuses on leadership and governance of the various business lines, while Bhartesh, a career banker, oversees the comprehensive Group enterprise risk management” said Dr. Mwangi.
Mr. Wilson, has had a long and highly successful career in banking and finance. He spent a total of 14 years at the World Bank, where he worked at the IFC (private sector arm of the World Bank Group with over USD 90 Billion in assets) for 11 years and another 3 years at the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development, IBRD (the public sector arm of the World Bank Group).
At IFC, John served as the Global Head of Banking and Chief Banking specialist as well as the Manager in charge of Financial institutions Group for East and Southern Africa.
John is an alumni of the ivy league Princeton University where he graduated with a Masters degree in Public affairs while he also obtained another Masters in Economics from Uppsala University in Sweden.
His appointment in the new role is subject to approval by the Central Bank of Kenya.
