How four leaders got the CEO job before turning 40

For Equity Group’s James Mwangi and Co-operative Bank of Kenya’s Gideon Muriuki, it was a case of shareholders and the board seeing them as a way out of the adversity that these institutions were facing at that time.

For Stanbic Bank’s Joshua Oigara and Centum Investment’s James Mworia, it was about being at the right place at the right time and riding on the power of mentorship to win the hearts of board members and shareholders through results.

And, just like the biblical James, Joshua and Gideon, Kenya’s corporate chronicles about old heads resting on young shoulders cannot miss out on these four.

James Mwangi

On a chilly morning in early 1993, three bankers sat in the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) governor's office, making a desperate plea to stave off the closure of Equity Building Society (EBS), which had limped into its ninth year of operation under the weight of insolvency.

The CBK's decision to chain the doors of the insolvent savings and loans society came after a complaint by one of the three major deposit holders in the society that it was using customer deposits to fund operations, having long exhausted headroom in its capital.

The two founders of Equity, chairman Peter Munga and the managing director John Mwangi Kagema, now deceased, had brought along 31-year-old James Mwangi to plead their case with then CBK governor Eric Kotut.

The younger Mwangi, who like Munga hailed from Kangema in Murang'a, had been making a name for himself in banking circles, having risen to become the group financial controller at Trade Bank. He also happened to be one of the top three depositors in Equity.

In a conversation with Harvard Business School professor, Ranjay Gulati, on his Deep Purpose podcast, Mr Mwangi, now the CEO of Equity Group, recalled that the CBK governor had a tough condition for the renewal of Equity's licence: Mr Mwangi had to be at the centre of Equity's restructuring efforts or for the slumping building society to be shut.

Read: The day CBK governor almost shut down Equity

"The governor pushed his writing pad to me and told me to write my resignation. He then picked up his phone and called my managing director at Trade Bank over to the CBK, and told him that 'I have poached James to revive EBS...replace him as your group financial controller'. That was a very simple conversation that ended with me joining Equity," said Mr Mwangi.

He would subsequently join Equity as the building society's finance and strategy director, before eventually taking over as the CEO in 2004 upon the retirement of Mr Kagema. It was a case of the bulding society’s adversity conspiring with Mr Mwangi’s hard work and boldness.

“I was only 28 and without money but I enjoyed the trust of gifted people,” Mr Mwangi said in a recent interview with the Business Daily.

The move from Trade Bank, which would itself be shut down by the CBK before the end of 1993, came with a deep financial pain. From earning Sh360,000 per month at Trade Bank, Mr Mwangi’s pay fell to Sh60,000 at Equity, much to the disappointment of his wife.

"My wife was troubled, I was newly wedded and we had just got our firstborn son. Then here I was, coming from a humble background where I didn't have a financial support system, and we were dependent on this salary," said Mr Mwangi.

He guided Equity to list on Nairobi Securities Exchange by introduction in 2006 and has led the bank into the most valuable bank on the bourse at Sh166.98 billion.

The lender has for the past four years been the most profitable in the country, more than doubling its earnings in the past decade to close last year with a net profit of Sh41.98 billion and distributing Sh15.1 billion to shareholders.

Mr Mwangi, who owns 3.39 percent direct and indirect stake in Equity, earned Sh511.89 million from Equity’s dividend distribution for the year ended December 2023, coming in the period his monthly pay averaged Sh13.24 million.

Read: No, thank you: Why Equity CEO declined bonus millions

Gideon Muriuki

Co-operative Bank of Kenya had endured years of losses under the helm of Erastus Mureithi, who assumed the role of CEO in May 1989. This loss-making streak and dividend drought stirred up investors for a revolt that forced out Mr Mureithi in March 2001.

One of the rising stars in the banking sector was Gideon Muriuki who had started his career in 1989 as a graduate trainee at Barclays Bank of Kenya, almost the exact time when Mr Mureithi became the Co-op Bank CEO.

Mr Muriuki would join Standard Chartered Bank in 1992 and marry two years later. His star was rising but things were not looking up at Co-op Bank. Yet, in 1996, he made the bold decision to join Co-op as a senior corporate manager then became director of corporate and institutional banking three years later.

When Mr Mureithi exited in 2001, the board turned to Mr Muriuki as the new CEO, receiving the endorsement of shareholders to get the bank from losses and position the lender for growth.

Mr Mureithi’s exit left more questions after the Kenya Revenue Authority letter dated April 4, 2001 stated that an audit for the years 1998-2000 had uncovered some unpaid taxes on his benefits. It became Mr Muriuki’s role to not only end the bank’s loss-making streak but also fix governance issues.

He went on to preside over a remarkable turnaround in the history of the bank, riding on the “Soaring Eagle” transformation agenda. He moved the bank from a massive loss position of Sh2.3 billion in 2001 and an asset book of around Sh24 billion to one of the largest banks in the region.

“Despite a legacy of formidable challenges, including huge levels non-performing loans, weak management controls and fierce competition in the industry, Dr Muriuki progressively steered the bank out of near-collapse to achieve record profitability,” reads the citation by Africa International University, which in 2012 conferred him a honorary doctorate.

In 2003, the bank declared a dividend, marking a significant landmark that ended a dividend drought that had lasted the previous seven years. Since then, it has been a consistent dividend payer.

The lender is now the third largest on profitability and with an asset base of more than Sh750 billion as at end of September 2024 when nine-month profit grew 4.4 percent to Sh19.2 billion.

The lender gave shareholders Sh1.50 per share dividend amounting to Sh8.8 billion on the back of net profit for the financial year ended December 2023, hitting Sh23.2 billion — being nearly three times the Sh8 billion net earnings a decade earlier.

Mr Muriuki led the bank to list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2008 through an initial public offer. The bank is now valued at Sh81.55 billion, making it the fifth most valuable company.

Joshua Oigara

Joshua Oigara, the CEO of Stanbic Bank Kenya and South Sudan, is a contrarian but he is a realist too, even though he loves scary ambitions also.

He set out to become a CEO even before he knew much about what was expected of a holder of such a position. He achieved it at age 37 when in 2013, he replaced Martin Oduor-Otieno as the CEO at KCB Group, making him the youngest chief executive officer of a Nairobi bourse listed firm at that time.

Mr Oigara joined KCB in 2011 as the chief finance officer, in what was his first assignment in the banking sector.

KCB board, when explaining to shareholders why the lender had been entrusted with Mr Oigara, described him as a “highly qualified and experienced finance executive who has been able to articulate the bank’s business strategy and gain an in-depth understanding of its operations over the period.”

The exit of Mr Oduor was alongside that of several other key executives as the bank rolled out a reorganisation to cut reporting layers and boost efficiency. The process, which involved trimming down the bank’s top executives to seven from 22, came after KCB hired McKinsey to lead the restructuring.

Mr Oigara was seen as the best fit to not only keep costs in check but also calm down the team and stir up growth of the lender. Surprisingly, one of the people he really looked up to was Mr Oduor.

In the same year he became CEO, Mr Oigara was among the outstanding men who made the Top 40 Under 40 list, having been nominated when he was still the chief finance officer.

“What is important for me is when you set an ambition that keeps you worried, scared, excited and awake. Initially, I did not know why I wanted to become a CEO. I cannot tell you the reason,” Mr Oigara said in a past interview with Business Daily.

Read: Joshua Oigara: My biggest career mistakes

He left KCB in 2022, having led the bank in expanding in Kenya and beyond and growing profits by 74 percent to Sh34.21 billion in his last full year in 2021 and tripping dividends to Sh9.64 billion. The earnings were more than double the Sh14.3 billion a decade earlier.

“Only now I see why I had that ambition—to enable progress and create an impact in others’ lives. And that is what I am doing. At Stanbic Bank Kenya, today we are a top seven bank and my ambition is to break into top three.”

James Mworia

Talk of capitalising on half chances and James Mworia’s name will be there. A trained lawyer, he rose from an intern to a high-flying chief executive at Centum Investments.

His journey began when he joined Centum in 2001 as a 23-year-old intern whose role was to file documents.

Seven years later, he was appointed CEO, earning the blessings of the company’s founder, Chris Kirubi. He replaced the experienced Peter Mwangi, who resigned. Mr Mworia was only 30.

In various past interviews, he says he always had "a CEO's mind" and knew the lower position was a stepping-stone to greater fortunes. He explained that many people fail because "they don't give themselves permission to succeed."

"When opportunity comes knocking on your door, it does not come written 'my big break'. It might come as a small job or a small introduction. My approach to life is that anything I have today, that is the best I have and that is the opportunity I take," he said in an entrepreneurship boot camp in Nairobi in 2015.

Starting out as an intern in a filing room, Mr Mworia said he never despised that job as being below his capacity; instead, he saw an opportunity to learn about the business.

Several months down the road, Centum was raising capital and the then CEO decided to administer a quiz about the company. Mr Mworia said in a past interview, he scored the highest marks because he had been reading a lot about the company and that is how he became the investment manager.

In the CEO role, he went on to grow the company through a string of acquisitions. He hailed the growth of the company to the space the board gives the management team.

He consistently guided Centum as a profitable firm save for the years ended March 2021 and 2022. His strategy of cutting down on debt and growing promising ventures such as the real estate subsidiary has helped return the company to profits.

Read: How Centum’s top deal maker makes his pick

Mr Mworia in 2012 made it to the list of Top 40 Under 40 Men by this newspaper, joining Mr Oigara to toast to the achievement as young leaders of listed companies.

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