Standard Bank’s David Munro embarks on a well deserved sabbatical

After 27 years of dedicated and distinguished service to the Standard Bank Group, David Munro has decided to take a well-earned break from corporate life. Currently Standard Bank Group Executive, David will leave the Group in March 2023.

David joined Standard Bank in April 1996 as a Risk Analyst at Standard Bank London Limited. Two years later he returned to South Africa and joined Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank – where he would work for the next 19 years. David worked in Global Markets and Project & Structured Finance before being appointed to lead Corporate and Investment Banking in South Africa, first as Deputy CE and then as Chief Executive, CIB SA. David next led Investment Banking in CIB and became Chief Executive of CIB in 2011.

Under the leadership of David and his team, CIB recovered quickly from the effects of the global financial crisis and continued to grow well, building on and augmenting the Group’s unique combination of deep African expertise, presence in the key international financial centres, and global reputation as Africa’s leading Corporate and Investment Bank. During this period, David also led the re-shaping of the Group’s international operations to support our purpose of driving Africa’s growth more efficiently and effectively. The central element of this was the sale of 60% of Standard Bank Plc to ICBC and the formation of ICBC Standard Bank Plc – a profoundly significant and immensely complex series of corporate and management actions that David led with great precision and unfailing energy.

In 2017, David was appointed as Chief Executive of Liberty Holdings Limited, having ensured the smooth handover of CIB to his successor, Kenny Fihla.  At that time, Liberty was a separately listed, independent long-term insurance and asset management group, owned 54% by the Group. Over the next five years, David and his new team led a strategic programme to re-invigorate the business and to improve its competitiveness.  Then, from 2020, they confronted and successfully managed the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under David’s leadership, Liberty reconnected with its heritage and its purpose and invested in becoming a truly digital and truly human business. 

In early 2022, the Standard Bank Group completed the transaction to acquire the minority shareholding in Liberty, with Liberty de-listing from the JSE and becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the Group on 1 March 2022.  Yuresh Maharaj succeeded David as CE of Liberty, releasing David to lead the work required to integrate Liberty into the Group. This involved the evolution of the Group’s operating model, including the establishment of a new business unit, Insurance and Asset Management, of which Liberty will be an integral part.  The integration work also focused on launching several commercial co-ordination initiatives between Liberty and the Group both in South Africa and in Africa Regions. 

Standard Bank Group Chief Executive, Sim Tshabalala, said “the banking Group had reached a point where both the new Insurance and Asset Management business unit and the commercial co-ordination initiatives had been handed over to the executives who will now lead them.  As a result, the role of an integration executive has come to an end, and David has decided that this was the right moment for him to leave the Group.”  

Yuresh Maharaj will remain the Chief Executive of Liberty. As previously announced, Yuresh will remain primarily accountable to his Board while continuing to report to David until the end of March 2023. In his capacity as a member of the Standard Bank Group Leadership Council (GLC), Yuresh will remain accountable to Sim.

Sim said “David has been – and will remain – a close friend and mentor to many. As I look back on David’s career at the Group, I am really struck by his exceptional leadership skills and achievements – often under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, first during the global financial crisis and its aftermath and then during the pandemic”.

Sim further said “David’s remarkable leadership capacities were fully matched by the depth of his expertise in many aspects of financial services and by the breadth of his strategic vision.  Since 2004, David has been as much a Group executive as a business unit leader, and he has consistently been central to developing and executing the Group’s purpose and strategy.”

David has also made a salutary contribution to business formations and industry bodies, most recently ASISA.

For all these reasons, David is widely recognised as one of South Africa’s most accomplished corporate leaders. We are very fortunate indeed to have been able to draw on his formidable combination of talent, expertise and energy.

Read more:

Visited 877 times, 5 visit(s) today