KCB Group has appointed Paul Russo as the new chief executive officer. Mr. Russo will replace Joshua Oigara who has exited the bank after a tenure that lasted for nine years.
His appointment will come to effect on May 25, 2022. Russo has been heading KCB Group’s subsidiary, National Bank of Kenya (NBK) as chief executive officer. “The appointment follows a competitive run selection process that kicked off in March 2022,” the bank said in a statement.
Russo served as group head of human resources at KCB before being appointed to run NBK in 2019 after it was acquired by KCB. He previously worked at Barclays (now Absa).
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Russo holds an MBA from Strathmore University’s Business School and a Bachelor of Business Management from Moi University. He also holds a Senior Executive Progress for Africa Certificate from the Harvard Business School and a Higher Diploma in Human Resource Management from the Institute of Human Resources Kenya.
Russo’s predecessor, Oigara, had been expected to leave the lender at the end of this year following a contract extension.
Originally, Oigara had said he would retire at the end of his second term that was in December last year after being first appointed to the position in January 2013.
At 37 years when he was appointed to the top job, Oigara was the youngest leader of a publicly-traded bank. He was poached from Bamburi Cement in November 2011 as chief financial officer, before his elevation to replace Martin Oduor-Otieno as chief executive officer.
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Oigara joins a small club of chief executive officers who have served nearly a decade. The club includes the chief executive of DTB Group’s Nasim Devji (20 years), Co-operative Bank’s Gideon Muriuki (20), Equity Group’s James Mwangi (17) and Crown Paints’ Rakesh Rao (16).
