Banking News South Africa

African Bank announces two new strategic appointments

African Bank has strengthened capacity in its business-banking division with the appointment of Gary Markson as divisional head: client coverage and business development and Lillian Keetse, head: ecosystems banking.
Source: Supplied.
Source: Supplied.

Both Markson and Keetse will report to Zweli Manyathi, group executive: business banking.

This follows the announcement last month of African Bank’s R1,5bn acquisition of Grindrod Bank.

Markson, who was previously executive head: personal, business banking & fleet, at Bidvest Bank (and prior to that, executive head of coverage, Eastern Cape, at Standard Bank South Africa), is an entrepreneur at heart with a keen business sense and interest in business turnaround strategy.

“His charismatic business leadership style, keen focus on empowering and developing people and proven success in business turnaround will be key in our new banking division,” says Manyathi.

Markson is currently busy with his MBA dissertation from the Management College of SA.

Source: Supplied. Lillian Keetse.
Source: Supplied. Lillian Keetse.
Source: Supplied. Gary Markson.
Source: Supplied. Gary Markson.

Keetse joins African Bank from Edge Growth.

An astute business professional with a decade of experience in the management consulting space, her vast technical experience ranges from business strategy development, portfolio management, client lifecycle management, market research and impact assessment.

“Her experience working on multimillion rand projects within a cross section of industries including financial services, automotive, FMCG, petrochemicals, telecommunications as well as clothing and textiles will be an asset when growing our new business portfolio,” notes Manyathi.

Keetse holds among others, a BCom in finance from the University of Johannesburg and a post-grad in business-incubation management.

“Keetse and Markson will provide the required skill and expertise to help scale and build our new business banking division which is set on making meaningful inroads into this highly competitive business-banking space, specifically targeting small and medium-sized enterprises,” concludes Manyathi.

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