Managing Director

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

My Career Development Portal : Wherever you are in your career, we are here for you. Design your future. Discover leading-edge guidance, tools and support to unlock your potential. You are Absa. You are possibility.

Job Summary

Provide strategic ARO Country guidance to the ARO Country strategy as it manifests in the various segments, products, and channels. Guide the execution of that strategy in alignment with the identified specific strategies for ARO Country. Ensure that Absa has a single point of contact for regulators within the country, whilst facilitating and coordinating cross-cluster working across all product and functional areas

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

My Career Development Portal : Wherever you are in your career, we are here for you. Design your future. Discover leading-edge guidance, tools and support to unlock your potential. You are Absa. You are possibility.

Job Summary

Provide strategic ARO Country guidance to the ARO Country strategy as it manifests in the various segments, products, and channels. Guide the execution of that strategy in alignment with the identified specific strategies for ARO Country. Ensure that Absa has a single point of contact for regulators within the country, whilst facilitating and coordinating cross-cluster working across all product and functional areas

Job Description

Accountability: Strategy Formulation and Execution
• Identify strategic role players and stakeholders and engage all stakeholders, role players and industry forums to understand changes to strategy, regulations, and markets.
• Set and communicate a long-term strategy that clearly articulates strategic targets and metrics to align the delivery of the agreed strategy against the ARO Country strategic objectives and targets and shareholder expectations.
• Translate the broad ARO Country strategy to drive the alignment of and integration of strategy across the value chain.
• Set and oversee the execution of the business strategy, with enablement capability across the business unit. Accountability: Customer Primacy
• Provide business insights based on market trends, competitor offerings and global best practices as it relates to ARO Country.
• Display, portray, and translate a deep understanding of market shifts and competitive positioning from a capability insights perspective and devise plans that will support prioritisation efforts.
• Build and sustain a culture that aligns with the ARO Country experience to deliver the target customer experience and financial performance.
• Contribute as a key ExCo member to the overall agenda internally and with external stakeholders, ensuring that the ARO Country agenda is appropriately managed and reported to all requisite stakeholders, in particular the Group ExCo.
• Manage regulatory and compliance issues and manage appropriate relationships to ensure the business is concluded in accordance with local regulations and Absa governance standards. Accountability: Sustainable Growth
• Influence, integrate and guide but also meet the country’s growth ambitions.
• Through delivery and execution, perform an active role with the mandate to increase ARO Country’s overall contribution to Group performance.
• Partner with executive bodies (ExCo’s, product owners and strategy functions) internally to align on strategic objectives. Translate objectives into delivery pipeline requirements to ensure appropriate insights and that adequate business ownership and buy-in are created to realise the overall strategy. Accountability: Client-Driven Innovation and Growth
• Stay abreast of industry trends and role players and ensure that ARO Country is well-positioned to provide competitive and industry-leading products and services.
• Provide input into the overall ARO Country experience.
• Strategically influence the development of products and services that meet or exceed customer needs and expectations, creating stakeholder value. Accountability: Leading Talent
• Accountable for enabling people and culture aligned to brand value.
• Determine and analyse attestation, training, and development needs for direct reports, and ensure that these requirements are met.
• Act as a second-level escalation point for all grievances raised in the functional area.
• Ensure that poor performance is addressed, and relevant corrective actions are implemented.
• Ensure appropriate reward and recognition practices for all employees within the team.
• Lead an effective leadership team capable of delivering the strategy and achieving the financial goals.
• In partnership with product and functional leads, ensure effective selection, development, deployment and retention of world-class talent throughout the franchise.
• Provide clear direction and effective communication on strategic goals, translating and prioritising them into business and performance measures. Accountability: Operational Effectiveness
• Drive the development and tracking of tactical plans and scorecards and take corrective actions where required.
• Orchestrate the necessary process to facilitate regular strategic alignment between Group, and ARO Country and cascaded to the individual businesses.
• Drive strategic reporting requirements.
• Define ARO Country projects, track and manage the process, and understand trends and dynamics.
• Provide leadership in engagements with regulatory bodies and represent ARO Country in key industry associations and forums where applicable.
• Use insights and knowledge gained from high-level reports and analyse complex comparative information to create scenarios to direct strategic intent.
• Grow the overall Absa franchise through ensuring the development, execution and Board approval of relevant product strategies whilst protecting and enhancing the franchise’s profile and reputation with all internal and external stakeholders.
• Provide the Board with timely, relevant, and complete reports on the implementation and execution of business strategy.
• Provide a primary point of contact for regulatory external stakeholders (government, central banks, regulators, investors, etc.) and the media.
• Lead and influence on behalf of the franchise, local political, legal, and regulatory bodies to protect and enhance the Absa brands.
• Lead and champion employee engagement, citizenship, diversity and inclusion and other Group or Africa-wide agendas across the franchise.
• Drive the development of the franchise’s organisation and execution capabilities to ensure the attainment of short- and long-term stretch goals.
• Champion change and ensure that it delivers the envisaged business benefits whilst minimising any negative aspects upon customers, staff and the business.
• Pursue own development to increase personal effectiveness.
• In partnership with product and functional leads, deliver the required financial performance across all parts of the franchise.
• Manage and optimise the country balance sheet ensuring both quality and efficiency.
• Use external networks and in partnership with product areas, drive business introduction/origination and development.
• Facilitate cross-cluster collaboration with all parts of the Group, providing effective coordination and prioritisation of cross-country issues.
• Manage and drive the performance of the franchise leadership team (“CMC”) against key financial, sales, customer service and operational targets.
• Attract, deepen, and retain customers across all chosen segments.
• Lead the TCF agenda.
• Ensure that the franchise is effectively positioned in the external market through all relevant media channels. Accountability:Good Governance, Risk and Compliance
• Drive the development and implementation of integrated corporate governance and compliance frameworks throughout the department.
• Influence the implementation of effective internal controls system and corporate governance in the functional area of accountability.
• Chair/participate in local governance and control committees.
• Effectively manage reputational risks and enhance Absa’s reputation in the community.
• Manage all franchise reputational risks.
• Implement effective Group governance and controls ensuring compliance with all regulatory requirements.
• Manage all regulatory relationships.
• Ensure the Absa risk framework is implemented.
• Ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, enterprise-wide risk management framework and internal Absa policies and policy standards.
• Understand and manage risks and risk events (incidents) relevant to the role. Accountability:Data Monetisation
• Consider the explicit use of data and its inherent value to explore opportunities, plan and guide all decisions for execution.
• Use data to obtain a quantifiable economic benefit for the area of accountability, leveraging internal or indirect capacity to make measurable business performance improvements and inform decisions accordingly. Accountability:Digital Adoption
• Deliberately seek opportunities to digitise, automate and implement solutions for customer primacy, innovation, and operational effectiveness.
• Utilise resources and encourage the use of new technology (software products, apps, websites, etc.) to their fullest potential, and derive maximum value from a digital process or solution.

Education

Master's Degree: Business Administration

About Us

Truly African

We are a diversified standalone African financial services group, delivering an integrated set of products and services across personal and business banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth, investment management and insurance.

Absa Group Limited is listed on the JSE and is one of Africa’s largest diversified financial services groups with a presence in 12 countries across the continent and around 41 000 employees.

We own majority stakes in banks in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, the Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania (ABSA Bank in Tanzania and National Bank of Commerce), Uganda and Zambia. We also have representative offices in Namibia and Nigeria, as well as insurance operations in Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.