EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
FirstRand bags MMI’s rising star Mary Vilakazi
FirstRand has appointed its first female executive director, snapping up MMI’s deputy CEO, Mary Vilakazi in a move that puts her in the running for the banking group’s top job and adds to MMI’s leadership woes. FirstRand said on Tuesday that group CEO Johan Burger would be retiring at the end of March, to be succeeded by his deputy, Allan Pullinger, who had been with the group since 1998. Vilakazi has been appointed chief operating officer from July 1 and is the first female executive to join the bank’s board. She will also be the only female on the executive committee, which includes the heads of its major businesses and is mostly white. Barclays Africa is the only big-four bank with a female CEO, Maria Ramos, and although Wendy Lucas-Bull led FNB between 1999 and 2004 she was not an executive director. Vilakazi had been appointed chief operating officer, rather than deputy CEO, to avoid signalling that "she will ultimately succeed Allan", said FirstRand co-founder and departing ch...
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