Absa announced the retirement at the end of this year, of two long-standing executive directors and the consequent re-alignment of portfolios on its Executive Committee (Exco).
The boards of directors of Absa Group Limited and Absa Bank Limited announced that Executive Directors Pieter van der Merwe and Charles Erasmus will retire from the Absa Bank Limited board, effective 31 December 2006 after 17 years and 28 years service respectively.
Steve Booysen, Absa CEO says that they will be missed, but that their legacy lives on in the mentorship they have provided to their younger colleagues on the Absa Group Exco: They have both been stalwarts in the top management team, who graciously extended their tenure to help our new generation of top management to settle in during and following the Barclays transaction. Booysen said that both Van der Merwe and Erasmus played a crucial role in the success of Absa over the last few years and that they deserve the esteem in which they are held by their colleagues: They hand over to a new generation steeped in the values they themselves lived to great effect during their long and successful careers.
Absa also announced changes to the portfolio in the Absa Group Executive Committee. Peter Mageza, currently the executive director for Africa and Absa Vehicle and Asset Finance (AVAF) will become the Group Chief Operating Officer with effect from 1 December 2006. His responsibilities will include, inter alia, Information Technology, Administration, Information Management and the property portfolio. His current accountability for Absa Vehicle and Asset Finance will transfer to Louis von Zeuner, who remains the Group executive director with responsibility for all the retail banking activities in the Group. Robert East will take responsibility for the Risk and Compliance portfolio, with effect from 1 December 2006, in addition to the Integration process. With immediate effect, Dominic Bruynseels, Absa group executive director, will take responsibility for the Africa investments of Absa.
Absa Group is actively engaged in a carefully planned process of effecting change in pursuit of its strategy to become the pre-eminent bank in South Africa and the leading bank in Africa. The Groups leadership profile is therefore also changing, as part of this strategic alignment process. I am confident that we have a deep bench of talented top leadership to take Absa to the next level in pursuit of its goals, said Booysen.
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