KCB Group has appointed Paul Russo as its new chief executive officer ending the successful nine-year tenure of Joshua Oigara.
“The Board of KCB Group hereby announces that Mr Joshua Oigara will be leaving the Group following the end of his contract. Joshua has led the Group as CEO and MD for nearly ten years,” KCB said in a statement.
Since his appointment to the position in January 2013, Mr Oigara has overseen the company’s growth cementing its position as Kenya’s second-largest profitable lender as well as expanding its presence into neighbouring Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
Master’s degree
The incoming CEO, Mr Russo, has been serving as the managing director of KCB’s subsidiary National Bank of Kenya (NBK) as well as the Group’s regional business director where he was tasked with the oversight and direction of KCB’s international businesses and subsidiaries.
A holder of a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Strathmore Business School and a Bachelor of Business Management from Moi University, Mr Russo’s appointment comes barely three years after he was picked to steer the transition at NBK following its acquisition by KCB.
Before his appointment to head NBK, Mr Russo served as KCB’s head of human resources.
He has also previously served at Barclays, now Absa, and audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
He is expected to utilise his vast experience at KCB to continue the lender’s growth trajectory under Mr Oigara, who more than tripled the bank’s asset value from Sh390 billion in 2012 to Sh1.22 trillion last year.
The bank’s net profit also more than doubled from Sh14.3 billion in 2013 to Sh34.2 billion last year, which was also a sharp increase from a net profit of Sh19.6 billion a year earlier.
“The Board congratulates Paul for the appointment and is confident that he will ably steer the Group’s future growth ambitions,” said KCB.
The appointment comes barely months after KCB extended Mr Oigara’s contract by a year to December to allow it time to search for a suitable successor.
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