Mary Wangari Wamae has been appointed by Equity Bank Group as the Group Executive Director in charge of the Group’s subsidquiaries. She will oversee the management of the Group’s banking subsidiaries in DRC Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and South Sudan.
She has worked at Equity for 14 years starting out as the Head of Legal Services in 2014 when the banking institution was still a building society. She was later promoted to Company Secretary and Head of Legal Services in 2005. In 2008, she was appointed to the Director of Corporate Strategy, Legal Services and Company Secretary position before being appointed, in 2012, to the Group Company Secretary, Director of Corporate Strategy and Legal Services position.
Wamae is credited with leading important initiaves at the banking group including:
- Conversion from Equity Building Society to a commercial bank in 2004
- Listing on Nairobi Stock Exchange in 2006
- Private capital raising of US$185 million new equity by Helios EB Investors in 2007 to become anchor strategic shareholder
- Setup of greenfield operations in Tanzania, South Sudan and Rwanda as well as the acquisition of existing banking operations in Uganda and more recently Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
- Listings on Uganda Securities Exchange (2009) and Rwanda Stock Exchange (2015).
- Setting up the legal and secretarial division of the bank.
Her previous position has been split into two roles: Group Director of Legal Services & Company Secretary, which has been taken up by Mrs. Christine Akinyi Browne and Group Director of Strategy, Strategic Partnerships & Investor Relations, taken up by Mr. Brent Malahay.
Christine Akinyi Browne
Prior to her promotion, Mrs. Christine Akinyi Browne worked as the General Manager for Legal, Corporate Banking at Equity Bank. She is a Chevening Alumna who holds a Master of Laws from UCL – University of London. She joined the bank in 2014 after a six year stint as principal counsel at East African Development Bank. She is an accomplished legal practitioner and has previously worked at The World Bank and the Industrial Promotion Services (K) Limited (IPS).
Brent Malahay
Mr. Brent Malahay has worked at the Group since 2016. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics and a Bachelor of Business Finance from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Mr. Malahay has over 14 years’ experience in financial services with competencies ranging from commercial banking to credit ratings, investment banking and fund management. He has previously held several high-level positions at global financial institutions, notably Standard Bank, Fitch Ratings, J.P. Morgan and Investec Asset Management.
These appointments come hot on the heels of the appointments of Polycarp Igathe as the Group Chief Commercial Officer and Julius Kayoboke as the Group Director in charge of Customer Experience and Product Management.
Equity Group Holdings Plc is a regional financial services provider with a footprint that spans six countries with over 12.2 million customers and an asset base of nearly Kshs 550 billion. With a market value of Kshs 183.9 billion, Equity Group Holdings Plc is now the second largest listed firm in market capitalization at the Nairobi Securities Exchange.