The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group has designated Paul Russo as the new Chief Executive Officer.
Russo is a human resources management consultant who helped KCB acquire National Bank of Kenya (NBK) in 2019.
He was the Group’s head of human resources before being named CEO of NBK in 2019, following KCB’s takeover. He has also worked with Barclays now Absa and PwC, an auditing firm.
“He is therefore the right person for the job and will take the Group to the next level in its growth ambitions to become the undisputed regional leader,” KCB Group Chairman Andrew Kairu said.
Russo succeeds Joshua Oigara, the second-largest lender by assets, whose term ends in December.
The lender discreetly extended Oigara’s term by a year in March to allow it to find a successor.
Russo has spent the last eight years at KCB managing significant strategic responsibilities, most recently overseeing the regional businesses (KCB’s Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and South Sudan, as well as KCB Capital and KCB Bancassurance Intermediary) and the National Bank of Kenya.
However, the purported insinuation that Russo is pitting Juja Coffee Exporters Ltd and Lamu Ginneries Ltd against the late Mombasa industrialist Tahir Sheikh Said, who last year wanted the new KCB president and two other senior officials arrested for breaching a court order is standing in his way.
Russo and other bank employees are accused of disobeying court orders that temporarily barred the lender from advertising for sale and tampering with a block of land in Lamu.
