Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) on Thursday the 23rd of May 2019, appointed former Nation Media Group (NMG) CEO Linus Gitahi as chairperson of its board.
Business Daily says the appointment, was announced to the Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) shareholders at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) listed firm’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), and is geared towards accelerating growth and corporate governance reforms.
Mr. Linus Gitahi, who had been serving as a non-executive Director on the DTB Board, taking over the mantle of leadership from outgoing chairperson Abdul Samji.
Mr. Abdul Samji, has served in that capacity for the last nine years.
The appointment of Mr Gitahi is tailored towards ensuring that the bank grows its asset base from the current figure of 378 billion Kenyan Shillings.
The plan relies heavily on the lender’s vision to realise its digital transformation strategy.
Speaking after his appointment, Mr. Gitahi made it known that his major target will be to position Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) as one of Africa’s leading financial institutions.
Mr. Gitahi said that “To achieve this, we will build on and leverage digital solutions, as well as embrace data-driven analytics, to effectively respond to evolving customer needs and aspirations,”.
Gitahi who is also a Fellow of the Kenya Institute of Management, stated that he will be looking to build on Samji’s successes, sentiments which were also echoed by CEO Nasim Devji.
Nasim Devji said; “This requires us to continuously pursue an aggressive and expansive financial inclusion agenda, targeting a broad spectrum of customer segment from large corporates, SMEs, micro- enterprises, salaried employees and high net worth individuals among others.”.
Devji further said she is looking forward to Mr Gitahi’s leadership in actualising the DTB’s growth agenda, adding that “He understands this organisation and has the expertise to take DTB to greater heights and deliver value to shareholders”.
She also expressed her gratitude to the outgoing chairman; Mr Samji, saying: “His diligent leadership ensured we remained committed to the company mission, and saw us grow from a mid-level bank to a Tier 1 bank in East Africa”.
Mr Gitahi, who was first appointed to the Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) Board in April 2017, also serves as the Executive Chairman of Tropikal Brands (Africa) Limited, Chairman of Oxygène Marketing Communications Limited and is a Trustee of the Management University of Africa as well.
In addition, he is also an independent Board director of Simba Corp, Outspan Hospital and Medical College as well as Allianz Insurance (K) Limited.
Mr. Linus Gitahi who is currently pursuing his doctorate studies at the United States International University-Africa (USIU-A), also holds a B. Com (Hons) in Accounting from the University of Nairobi, a Diploma in Management from the Kenya Institute of Management and an MBA from the USIU-A.
He also previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Nation Media Group.
Before that, he was the Group Chief Executive Officer for West Africa for GlaxoSmithKline after having held diverse management positions with them.
