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

Alex Darko

Alex Darko

Alex joined the board as an independent non-executive director in 2014 and is a member of the Group Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC), Directors’ Affairs Committee (DAC), Separation Oversight Committee (SC), chairman of the Group Remuneration Committee (RemCo) and of the Information Technology Committee (ITC). Alex was appointed as an independent non-executive director of Absa Bank Limited with effect from 15 May 2019.

Alex held a number of senior positions at Dun & Bradstreet, including director of UK shared services, director of finance at Dun & Bradstreet Europe Ltd and head of accounting re-engineering. He later moved back to Ghana and worked for Ashanti Goldfields in a number of senior roles. Alex was vice-president, knowledge and information at AngloGold Ashanti from 2005 to 2010.

Alex is a director at Nkululeko Leadership Consulting where he advises organisations on leadership, culture, strategy and change management.

Qualifications: MSc (MIS); Fellow of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA).
Colin Beggs

Colin Beggs

Colin joined the board as an independent director in 2010. He is the chairman of the Group Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC) and is a member of the Group Risk and Capital Management Committee (GRCMC), Directors’ Affairs Committee (DAC), Separation Oversight Committee (SC) and Board Finance Committee (BFC).

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).
Mark Merson

Mark Merson

Mark joined the board in January 2014 as a non-executive director and became an independent non-executive director with effect from October 2017. With effect from 1 February 2019, Mark is the chairman of the Group Risk and Capital Management Committee (GRCMC), Group Credit Risk Committee (GCRC) and the Board Finance Committee (BFC). Mark was appointed as an independent non-executive director of Absa Bank Limited with effect from 15 May 2019.

Mark is a graduate of Oxford University, a chartered accountant and was previously a partner in the financial services consulting practice of Arthur Andersen and Deloitte. From 2003 through 2016, he served Barclays PLC in a variety of roles including group financial controller, head of investor relations, chief financial officer for the Corporate and Investment Bank and latterly deputy group finance director. Mark is also a director of Veritum Partners Limited, which offers advice on market interaction to European banks.

Mark is also Chairman of Absa Securities UK Limited.

Qualifications: ACA; MA (Hons).
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 33 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.
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

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)
René van Wyk

René van Wyk

René became the Chief Executive Officer on 1 March 2019.

René joined the board as an independent non-executive director in 2017 and became an executive director on 1 February 2019. He is a member of the Group Risk and Capital Management Committee (GRCMC), Group Credit Risk Committee (GCRC), Separation Oversight Committee (SC), Models Committee (MC) and Information Technology Committee (ITC). René is the former registrar of Banks and head of banking supervision of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and 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 became a partner in the financial services group.

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