Absa Group Limited (AGL) appoints Daniel Mminele as Group Chief Executive

• Mminele to start on 15 January 2020
• A “forward-thinking” leader that will drive Absa’s long-term growth

Absa Group Limited (AGL) today announced the appointment of Aaron Daniel Mminele as Group Chief Executive of Absa Group, effective from 15 January 2020. Mminele will be taking over from René van Wyk, who has been leading the bank on an interim basis since Maria Ramos’ retirement in February 2019.

“We are delighted to welcome Daniel to the Absa family. He brings with him a deep understanding of the financial services industry both in South Africa and abroad,” said Wendy Lucas-Bull, Chairman of the Absa Group Board. “His unique skills set and global perspective make him a suitable leader to drive our bank’s focus on long-term growth that is digitally-led across our markets.

Absa launched its strategy in March 2018, which focused on regaining market share in core businesses. We then reconfigured our operating model and made changes to our Executive Committee to set up the business for implementation of the strategy.

“In terms of his starting point, Daniel will want to assess where we are in implementing that strategy and asses how he can play a role in strengthening the team’s ability to continue on that journey. As a leader, he will make his own assessment of what is required but he has a complete open mandate as the Group CE to lead this organisation,” said Lucas-Bull.

Mminele spent more than 20 years at the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), where he rose through the ranks to be a Deputy Governor and a member of key committees such as the Monetary Policy Committee and Financial Stability Committee. His other main responsibilities at the SARB included financial markets and international economic relations and policy.

He has represented South Africa in a number of international forums such as the G20, BRICS and the International Monetary Fund. He was also a regular participant in National Treasury’s international investor roadshows to promote South Africa.

“I am delighted to be joining the Absa group. I look forward to being part of and leading the exciting journey that Absa has embarked upon to fully establish itself as an African financial services group with deep roots across the continent and a global reach.” 

Before joining the SARB, Mminele worked as a banker. After completing a Diploma in Banking at Sparkasse Paderborn in Germany in 1987, he spent eight years in various roles at the Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, at its Düsseldorf and London offices. He continued his studies while in the UK and obtained various certificates from the UK’s Chartered Institute of Bankers.

He came back to South Africa in 1995, then spent about two years each at Commerzbank, working as a customer relations manager in corporate banking, and at African Merchant Bank, as a project and structured finance specialist, in Johannesburg.

“We are really looking forward to Daniel joining the Absa Group and to his leadership in driving our strategy and guiding this organisation into the future,” said Lucas-Bull.

“We are also thankful to René for the job that he has done, especially overseeing the progress we made in our separation from Barclays PLC and the key milestones we achieved in 2019,” she added.

Van Wyk will step down as Chief Executive on 14 January 2020, but remain with the Group as an executive director for handover purposes until 31 January 2020.  He will rejoin Absa Group and Absa Bank’s boards as a non-executive director, following a six-month cooling-off period.

Who is Aaron Daniel Mminele

Aaron Daniel Mminele is the incoming CEO of Absa Group Limited, a Johannesburg- headquartered financial services company that has operations in 10 other African countries and representative offices in Namibia, Nigeria and London. Absa is one of the big five banks in South Africa and is listed on the JSE.
Daniel spent two decades at the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), and was a Deputy Governor and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee at the time of his departure.
As Deputy Governor of the SARB, he was responsible for overseeing a number of departments such as Financial Markets, International Economic Relations and Policy, National Payments System, Financial Surveillance as well as the Human Resources and Operations Cluster.
His key responsibilities – prior to becoming a deputy governor – was as Head of the Financial Markets Department and as Executive General Manager: Markets, which included responsibility for the foreign exchange desk, managing the forward book, reserves management, correspondent banking, financial markets research, and monetary policy implementation.
He had membership of several SARB committees including the Prudential Committee, Risk Management, Financial Stability, and chairing the Reserve Management Committee and IT Investment Committee.
Before joining the SARB, Daniel worked as a banker for 12 years.
After completing a Diploma in Banking at Sparkasse Paderborn in Germany in 1987, he worked at Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale for eight years split between the bank’s offices in Düsseldorf and London. His various roles included work as a loans officer in the in the international finance department, a corporate credit risk analyst before becoming an assistant manager for specialized finance focusing on project finance and public private partnerships) by the time he left in 1995.
Daniel furthered his studies with the City Polytechnic of London/Guidhall University in association with Chartered Institute of Bankers, and obtained a number of certificates from the Institute of Bankers in the UK.

Daniel came back to South Africa in 1995 and spent two years at Commerzbank Johannesburg as Customer Relations Manager for Corporate Banking and another two years at African Merchant Bank as Deputy Divisional Head of Special Projects, responsible for Infrastructure & Project Finance.
Born in Phalaborwa, Limpopo on 28 March 1965, Daniel is a father of two children and speaks three languages, Sepedi, English and German. In 2018, German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded Daniel with the Great Order of Merit for his work in furthering German-South African relations.
In 2019 Daniel was the recipient of the Lifetime Achiever Award from the Association of Black Securities and Investment Proffessionals (ABSIP).