ON THE SPOT:
Chairman Thulani Gcabashe explains why Standard Bank used to have two CEOs
Business Day speaks to Standard Bank chairman Thulani Gcabashe about a move that many regard as overdue
Standard Bank bit the bullet this week and finally named Sim Tshabalala sole CEO after four years of sharing top spot with Ben Kruger. Business Day spoke to Standard chairman Thulani Gcabashe about a move that many regard as overdue. There’s still a view, especially among a lot of black professionals, that Standard Bank wasn’t brave enough to appoint a sole black CEO from the start. How do you address that perception? That’s far from it. I was on the board at the time, so I can speak with first-hand knowledge. You’ve got to recall where we were: we’d been building up as an emerging-markets bank, buying up companies in Russia, Turkey, etc, and we’d come to realise the impact of the post-financial crisis world [wasn’t] conducive to us trying to be an emerging markets bank. We needed to focus on Africa, [which] was a big part of our business anyway. Now, the complexity of that transition was quite massive. Add to it the fact that we were putting in a totally new core banking system for...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.