Andrew Wambari Kairu is the new chairman of KCB Group board of directors taking over from Ngeny Biwott who has held the position since 2013. Prior to this, Kairu served as an independent non-executive director at KCB Plc and KCB Bank Kenya. People abreast with the financial sector say the value of his skills will absolutely get him ahead as the new chairman, though you might not know it by looking at him. He is currently a non-executive director at Dalberg research and a member of the Audit Committee of Commonwealth Secretariat, London.
Mr Kairu has also worked at the Ghana International Bank in London where he held the positions of the chief operating officer and executive director. He worked for the institution for over 10 years. Other interesting banks he has worked for include Commercial Bank of Africa, Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank. An interesting twist, though, is the fact that, during his stint at the three banks, he was the head of emerging markets (financial institution) business in London.
Mr Kairu will be bringing his over 30 years’ expertise and knowledge in the banking sector to the group, which is in hand with its transformation journey into the future. In fact, according to Joshua Oigara, KCB Group chief executive and managing director, his leadership is a boost to the lender, and hence growth agenda into the future is looking up.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Nairobi. He also holds a Corporate Governance Certification on Board’s Effectiveness from Harvard Business School and an executive development qualification from Wharton Business.
According to Joseph Kania, KCB Group secretary, Mr Kairu has outstanding interpersonal and leadership skills from managing key senior level stakeholder relationships and driving performance against international best practices in risk management, corporate governance and compliance frameworks.
