Absa | Board of Directors

Absa Bank Limited (Absa) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Absa Group. We offer a range of retail, business, corporate and investment banking, as well as wealth management, products and services primarily in South Africa and Africa.

Independent directors

Colin Beggs

Colin Beggs

Colin joined the Board as an independent non-executive director in 2010. He is the chairman of the Group Audit and Compliance Committee and a member of the Group Risk and Capital Management, Directors’ Affairs, Separation Oversight and Board Finance Committees.

Colin is the former senior partner and chief executive officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Southern Africa and retired from that position in June 2009. He was also the chairman of the SAICA board in 2002/3 and was a member of the Accounting Practices Board.

He is also a non-executive director of Sasol Limited, SAB Zenzele Holdings Limited and the Ethics Institute of South Africa.

Qualifications: BCom (Hons); CA (SA)
Mohamed Husain

Mohamed Husain

Mohamed joined the Board as an independent non-executive director in 2008. He was appointed as the lead independent director of both Absa Group and Absa bank with effect June 2018. He is the chairman of the Social and Ethics Committee and is a member of the Group Audit and Compliance, Group Remuneration, Directors’ Affairs and Separation Oversight Committees.

Mohamed has been an attorney for 30 years, during which time he has represented a diverse range of state, institutional and individual clients in all areas of corporate practice. He is a past president of the London-based Commonwealth Lawyers Association and of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces. He is a past chairman of the Attorneys Insurance Indemnity Fund. Mohamed was a founder member and councillor of the Law Society of South Africa and he currently serves on its audit and risk committees and chairs the remuneration committee. He has also served as judge of the High Court of South Africa.

Mohamed serves as director of Knowles Husain Lindsay Incorporated and KLH Investments Proprietary Limited and is the non-executive chairman of Andulela Investment Holdings Limited.

Qualifications: BProc.
Paul O'Flaherty

Paul O'Flaherty

Paul joined the Board as an independent non-executive director in February 2016. He is the chairman of the Group Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Group Audit and Compliance, Group Risk and Capital Management, Separation Oversight and the Directors' Affairs Committees. Paul also joined the Board Finance Committee in April 2018.

Paul started his career in auditing and became a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers South Africa before spending time in the construction industry in Africa and in the Middle East. He first served as chief financial officer and deputy chief executive officer of Group Five Limited and then chief financial officer of Al Naboodah Construction Group LLC. From 2010 to 2013, he was the finance director and group executive for Group Capital of Eskom Holdings (SOC) Limited. Paul was the chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal South Africa Limited from July 2014 to February 2016.

He was recently the chief executive officer of Al Haboodah Group Enterprises LLC. He is a non-executive director of enX Group Limited.

Qualifications: BCom; BAcc (Hons); CA (SA).
Wendy Lucas-Bull (Group Chairman)

Wendy Lucas-Bull (Group chairman)

Wendy joined the Board as an independent non-executive director and chairman in 2013. She is also chairman of the Absa Group and Absa Financial Services board. Wendy is the chairman of the Directors’ Affairs Committee and the Separation Oversight Committee, and she is also a member of the Board Finance, Group Risk and Capital Management, Group Remuneration, Credit Concentration Risk, Social and Ethics and Information Technology Committees. She is a permanent attendee of the Group Audit and Compliance Committee.

Wendy is one of the founders of the Peotona Group. She was previously chief executive of FirstRand Limited’s retail businesses and prior to that, an executive director of Rand Merchant Bank Holdings. Her former non-executive directorships include those at Barclays PLC, Anglo American Platinum Limited, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Alexander Forbes, Eskom, Nedbank, Telkom, Aveng (deputy chairman), Lafarge Industries (chairman), the South African Financial Markets Advisory Board, Discovery Holdings, Dimension Data PLC and the Momentum Group. She was also a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Black Economic Empowerment.

Qualifications: BSc
René van Wyk

René van Wyk

René joined the Board as an independent non-executive director in 2017. He is the chairman of the Group Risk and Capital Management Committee, Credit Concentration Risk Committee, a member of the Director’s Affairs Committee, Separation Oversight Committee and Group Audit and Compliance Committee.

René is the former registrar of Banks and was head of Banking Supervision of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). He retired from that position in May 2016. Prior to that, René was with the Nedbank Group of companies from 1993 to 2011, where he occupied various positions in the risk field, notably executive director responsible for risk at Nedcor Investment Bank, and CEO of Imperial Bank (a subsidiary of Nedbank). In his earlier years, he joined KPMG and progressed to partner in the financial services group.

Qualifications: BCom; BCompt (Hons); CA (SA)

Executive directors

Jason Quinn

Jason Quinn

Jason is the group financial director and he joined the Board and Executive Committee in September 2016. He is the chairman of the Models Committee and a member of the Group Risk and Capital Management, Credit Concentration Risk, Information Technology and Separation Oversight Committees.

Before joining the Group, he was a partner at Ernst & Young Inc. Jason joined the Group in 2008 as the financial controller and was appointed as the head of finance in 2014 after holding several senior finance positions.

Jason is a director of Absa Financial Services Limited, Woolworths Financial Services (Pty) Limited and is an employer-appointed trustee of the Absa Pension Fund.

Qualifications: B Acc (Hons); CA (SA)
Maria Ramos

Maria Ramos

Maria is the chief executive officer and joined the Board as an executive director in 2009. She is a member of the Group Risk and Capital Management, Credit Concentration Risk, Social and Ethics, Information Technology, Models, and Separation Oversight Committees.

Maria was previously the director general of the National Treasury and in January 2004, she was appointed as the group chief executive officer of Transnet Limited. Maria joined Absa as group chief executive officer in March 2009.

Maria is a non-executive director of Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA. She is also a member of the International Business Council Executive Committee, Business Leadership South Africa and the Banking Association of South Africa.

Qualifications: Institute of Bankers’ Diploma (CAIB); BCom (Hons); MSc (Economics).