Equity Bank has appointed John Wilson as the new Group Chief Operating Officer to oversee operations at the Group level while the Bhartesh Shah will lead the Group’s Enterprise Risk Management, who was the acting COO after Polycarp Igathe left the group.
Dr James Mwangi, Managing Director and CEO Equity Group Holdings Plc said, “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. His 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 Wilson, a Swedish national, 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. At the IBRD, he served as private sector specialist and investment officer.
He has also spent part of his career life working with the banking sector in Sweden for over 12 years during which he held various senior positions in Swedbank, ending as the Managing Director, Head of Investment Banking Kaupthing Bank. Earlier in his career, he spent 5 years at McKinsey during which he accumulated a wealth of experience at senior management level.
His appointment in the new role is subject to approval by the Central Bank of Kenya.
