Gerald Warui replaces Igathe as Equity Bank MD

Equity Group has announced the promotion of its director of operations and customer service, Gerald Warui, in replacement for Polycarp Igathe as the managing director.

Igathe is set to return his former employer, Vivo Energy, where he will take up the newly created post of vice president for sales and marketing in Africa.

“The Equity board has received and accepted Mr Igathe’s resignation letter following his eight-month tenure in the role,” read a statement from the lender, continuing; “To ensure a smooth transition of operations, Mr Igathe will hand over his duties to Mr Warui before his departure at the end of August.”

Warui who has served Equity Bank for 21 years holds an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and is also a Certified Public Accountant CPA (K). He an alumnus of the IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain where he did Advanced Management Programme.

He is a career banker with vast experience spanning over 30 years and heading operations, customer service and HR within the bank.

Equity Group’s chief executive James Mwangi remains in charge of the holding company and provides overall strategic direction and oversight for the Kenyan operation and other subsidiaries. Equity and other Kenyan banking multinationals adopted this structure and operational system to boost management focus of the subsidiaries and their supervision by their parent companies.

Other banks that have started or completed similar operational and management changes include KCB Group, I&M Holdings and NIC Group.

The changes have featured creation of new non-operating holding companies which own the operating subsidiaries, freeing the parent firms to branch out into non-banking businesses including stock brokerage and property investments.