Finserve board members
DR. PATRICK UWIZEYE
Non-Executive Chairman
Meet Dr. Uwizeye our chairman who holds an impressive personal and professional qualifications. He earned a Degree of Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) and a Masters of Science (MSc) in Strategic Planning from the Edinburgh Business School Heriot-Watt University, UK; an MBA in Financial Management from the University of Hull, UK; Masters in Communications Management (MCM) from Coventry University, UK. He is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a member of both Institutes of CPA Kenya and Rwanda, a Certified Member of the Institute of Risk Management (CMIRM), UK; and Associate Member of Kenya Institute of Management.
Dr. Uwizeye has over 28 years of working experience as business management professional at senior level positions. He has worked with MTN Rwanda in various positions including Chief Finance Officer (CFO), and the General Manager in charge of Business Risk Management. He also worked in Kenya with AACC in Nairobi, and held the senior positions of the Director of Finance and Administration and the Chief Accountant. Currently, Dr. Uwizeye is the Managing Director of BPU Consulting Ltd, the company he founded.
DR. JAMES MWANGI, CBS
Non-Executive Director
Meet Dr.James Mwangi who holds five honorary doctorate degrees in recognition of his positive impact to the Kenyan society. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and is a Certified Public Accountant. He has been honoured thrice with National Presidential Awards: The First Class Chief of the Order of the Burning Spear (CBS), the Moran of the Burning Spear (MBS) and Head of State Commendation (HSC).
On the global front, he has won several awards including the G8 Global Vision Award, 2007. He was named among the Top 50 Emerging Market Business Leaders and the 20 most influential people in Africa in 2011; the World Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in 2012; the Forbes Africa Person of the Year in 2012 and was recently named in the Bloomberg 50 list of people who defined 2019 globally. He is an honoree of the 2020 Oslo Business for Peace Award, also described as the ‘Nobel Prize for Business’.
On the regional front, James was also recognized as the Africa Investor Awards, CEO of the Year in 2009 and 2015; Innovation Leader of the Year in 2012; African Business Leader of the Year in 2013 and African Banker of the Year in 2010, 2011 and 2017 at the African Banker Awards. He was also named the Banker of the Year during the Banker Africa (East Africa) Awards in 2017 and 2018, and named African CEO of the year by the African Business Leadership 2020 Awards. Locally, he has received the Think Business CEO of the Year award for the last 4 years.
James has served on board and advisory roles at the Global Advisory Council for VISA Inc., the Clinton Global Initiative, The G8 New Alliance For Food Security And Nutrition, US President Barack Obama’s Initiative for Global Development, the G20 Advisory Board of Agriculture and Initiative for Global Development and The Global Agenda Council on New Economic Thinking of the World Economic Forum from 2003-2007. He also served as the Founding Chair of Kenya’s Vision 2030 from inception in 2007 to 2019.
He currently serves on several international bodies as an advisor and was appointed to the Nairobi Advisory Board of Columbia Global Centres. He is a member of the continent-wide PACT initiative, a Board member of the Economic Advisory Board of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), The Mastercard MEA Advisory Board, the Africa Leadership Academy in South Africa, the Global Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. He is also a guest lecturer at Stanford, Columbia, MIT, Harvard, IESE and Lagos Business School where Equity Bank Business Model is a case study. Locally, he is the Chancellor of Meru University College of Science and Technology and the Chairman of the Health Committee of Kenya COVID-19 Fund Board.
MARY WAMAE
Non-Executive Director
Meet Mary Wamae who holds a Master’s degree in Leading Innovation and Change from York St. John University, UK, a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi and a Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law. She is a graduate of Advanced Management Programme (Strathmore - IESE Business School, Barcelona Spain) and Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School.
She is a Certified Public Secretary (Kenya) and member of The Institute of Certified Public Secretaries of Kenya (ICPSK), Law Society of Kenya, Women Corporate Directors and the Kenya Section of International Commission of Jurists. She is a graduate of Advanced Management Programme (Strathmore - IESE Business School, Barcelona Spain) and Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School. She is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Gender and Development and has over 15 years’ experience in private legal practice
BRENT MALAHAY
Non-Executive Director
Meet Brent Malahay who holds a Master’s degree in Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He has over 16 years’ experience in financial services with competencies ranging from commercial banking, credit ratings, investment banking and fund management.
He has previously worked at Standard Bank, Fitch Ratings, J.P. Morgan and Investec Asset Management. Brent has worked at Equity Group since 2016