Mminele is "looking forward to leading the exciting journey that Absa has embarked on".
On Monday 6 January, Absa announced the appointment of Aaron Daniel Mminele as its new group CEO with effect from 15 January 2020.
He will be taking over from René van Wyk who has been acting in the role since Maria Ramos’s retirement in February 2019. Van Wyk will step down as CEO on 14 January but remain with the group as an executive director for handover purposes until 31 January. He will rejoin Absa Group and Absa Bank’s boards as a non-executive director, following a six-month cooling-off period.
About his appointment, Mminele said:
“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 regain its rightful place in the South African market as well as to fully establish itself as an independent African financial services group with deep roots in South Africa.”
Prior to taking the helm at Absa, 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.
He left the Reserve Bank in June last year, and the market widely presumed that he was in a six-month cooling-off period prior to taking over at Absa.
Read more: Reports say that Absa board has approved Daniel Mminele appointment as CEO
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 roadshow to promote South Africa.
Before joining the SARB, Mminele was a banker. After completing a diploma in banking at Sparkasse Paderborn in Germany in 1987, he spent eight years in various roles at the Wesdeutsche 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 returned 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.
