African Bank on Thursday announced the appointment of Basani Maluleke as its new chief executive effective 1 April 2018 to succeed Brian Riley, who is retiring. She will be the first black woman to head a commercial bank in South Africa.
Maluleke, an attorney, holds a BCom LLB degree from the University of Cape Town as well as an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.
She has over 10 years of financial services working experience and has also worked for Edward Nathan Friedland, FirstRand’s RMB division as well as in various FNB divisions. More recently, she was an executive director of Transcend Capital, a corporate finance business specialising in black economic empowerment ownership.
Louis von Zeuner, African Bank chairman, said the board welcomed the formal appointment of Maluleke following a successful induction process since July 2017.
“Basani has been an integral part of executing African Bank’s turnaround strategy since her appointment as a non-executive in July 2015 and subsequent transition to Group Executive for Operations on 3 July 2017. We look forward to working with her in her capacity as CEO,” von Zeuner said.
Maluleke said she was encouraged by the progress African Bank had made to reposition itself as a competitive retail bank.
“Our executive team is supported and challenged by an independent and diversely skilled board, a culture which bodes well for building solid checks and balances across the business,” she said.
– African News Agency (ANA)
