- Absa board chair Wendy Lucas-Bull will retire in March 2022.
- She says she is proud of a lot of major milestones that happened under her watch.
- But it was also under her tenure that Absa fumbled its CEO succession planning and parted ways with its first black CEO.
Wendy Lucas-Bull has announced that she will retire as the chairperson of the Absa board in 2022, after being in that role for nine years. Lucas-Bull said she will reach the maximum allowed years of her tenure in March 2022.
"This is my last AGM. I've been on this board for over eight years and would have completed my SARB-maximum of nine years by the end of March 2022 when I will retire," she announced during the bank's annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday morning.
She said the process of appointing her successor was already at an advanced stage, but Absa could not announce who the new chair will be yet.
Lucas-Bull said she was grateful to have led Absa through some of its major milestones, including buying most of Barclays' Africa operations which, at R18.3 billion, was the largest acquisition ever on the continent by an African bank at the time.
Lucas-Bull was also the chair of the board when Absa split from Barclays and the adoption of Absa's strategy as a standalone group. Absa has now finalised the Barclays separation and R1 billion under budget.
"The separation was a major focus for the board and the group over the past few years and came with as many risks as opportunities," said Lucas-Bull.
Leaving on a low note?
However, the biggest development under her watch that is still fresh in many people's minds is not very positive. Absa lost its first black CEO, Daniel Mminele, only a year into his role. Lucas-Bull said the bank and Mminele parted ways "by mutual consent". She said both parties did their best to find common ground without success.
"Although mutual, this decision to part ways was difficult and not taken lightly or in haste," said Lucas-Bull. "The board has the highest regard for Daniel, and we wish him success in the future," she added.
Lucas-Bull said Absa interim CEO Jason Quinn has the full mandate to lead the group for now. However, she did not indicate how far the board was in the process of trying to find Mminele's permanent successor.
With Quinn in the acting CEO position, he left the CFO position occupied on an interim basis too, by Punki Modise. So, the two key executive positions are occupied by interim leaders, which left some shareholders concerned that Absa was not on top of its succession planning game as its board repeatedly stated.
Absa was also criticised for not having a succession plan when it went outside to look for Maria Ramos's successor, and was forced to wait for Mminele to finish a six-month cooling-off period when he left the SA Reserve Bank.
But Lucas-Bull told shareholders that the board wanted to go through the board process to finalise the appointment of a permanent successor.
"The reason for not having an immediate announcement [about a permanent CEO] was that in the first instance, we were not expecting to have to agree to part ways with Daniel. It wasn't a planned thing," she said.
Lucas-Bull added that it was "clearly" important to have an appropriate process to consider a permanent CEO appointment.