Equity Bank, a financial services provider headquartered in Nairobi, has announced the appointment of the new COO (Chief Operating Officer), John Wilson, who was a former manager at the World Bank’s private sector firm International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Bhartesh Shah, the ex-Chief Operating Officer, has been promoted to the position of the Group’s director for digitisation, virtualisation, analytics, and artificial intelligence.
The appointment of the new COO is subject to Central Bank of Kenya’s approval.
As the new COO, Wilson will oversee Equity Bank Kenya’s operations at the group level, including the operations of its subsidiaries.
James Mwangi, Managing Director and CEO of Equity Group reportedly stated that the depth of expertise and understanding possessed by Wilson on African financial institutions will be of great help as the group takes a leading role in the African region.
There have been a few number of exits in Equity bank recently including that of Polycarp Igathe, Managing Director of Equity Bank and Jack Nigare, Managing Director for the bank’s subsidiary Finserve.
Equity bank witnessed an increase in its net profit by 9 percent to Sh12 billion as the loans given by the bank expanded by 17 percent to Sh320.9 billion.
Equity Bank’s COO Wilson is an alumni of Princeton University, United States. He graduated from Princeton with a Masters in Public Affairs and was appointed as the Manager in charge of new investments in financial institutions at World Bank’s IFC.
Wilson, who is a Swedish national, has a work experience of fourteen years in World Bank and has also spent five years with McKinsey.