Standard Chartered’s former head of Digital Banking replaces Julius Kipng’etich at Equity Bank

The new appointment comes a few days after Dr Kipng’etich was picked as the new CEO of Uchumi Supermarkets to lead the retail’s turnaround and deliver it from its financial plights. Equity Group Holdings announced the appointment of Mr Shah to the Chief Operations Officer (COO) position today. Prior to the appointment, Mr. Bhartesh was serving at Equity Bank as the Group Director of Operations. The appointment, which takes immediate effect, is geared at enhancing the firm’s capacity to deliver the Equity 3.0 strategy and also seeks to provide the firm’s banking subsidiaries with the necessary globally benchmarked metrics to deliver exceptional banking solutions and services. Speaking when he announced the appointment, Equity Group Holdings, Managing Director, Dr. James Mwangi explained that the Company's board had settled on Mr. Shah to provide strategic leadership, based on his vast international banking experience. “The Board of Directors has expressed appreciation for Mr. Kipng’etich’s service to the Group initially as a non-Executive Director from 2004 and then as Chief Operations Officer from October 2012. In his place, the Board has appointed Mr. Shah to provide strategic leadership in line with our Equity 3.0 growth plans,” Dr. Mwangi explained. “The choice of Bhartesh to this crucial office is also a testimony to our commitment to continue tapping the best available talent to lead our transformative functions,” he added. An MBA graduate of the prestigious, University of Warwick and a holder of a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Banking and Finance from Loughborough University, Mr Shah, a Kenyan citizen, takes over the COO role armed with almost 20 years of global banking experience. Besides his Equity Bank stint, Bhartesh has previously served in senior management positions at Citibank NA, Standard Chartered Bank and Midland Bank (HSBC) across several countries including the United Kingdom, Singapore and Botswana. His expertise spreads across both retail as well as corporate banking, wealth management, digital banking, bancassurance, transaction banking and corporate finance. Some of the positions he has served in include Global Head of Performance Management at Standard Chartered, Singapore; Head of Retail Clients, East Africa at Standard Chartered Bank; CEO Standard Chartered Investment Services Limited, Head of Digital Banking, Africa at Standard Chartered and Vice President at Citi Group. The Equity Group Holdings Board of Directors further paid a tribute to Dr. Kipng’etich, for his service to the Group noting that his strong credentials in leadership in various organisations combined with the deepening of his experience in the vibrant and transformational environment at Equity, now places him in good stead to take on the challenge of turning around another iconic institution.