the Office of the BMF Presidency
August 20, 2024
The Black Management Forum (BMF) of South Africa congratulates Charles Russon on his appointment as Interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for ABSA Bank and ABSA Group. BMF recognises Mr. Russon’s vast and impressive history in the financial services sector and wishes him great success in his new post, however, BMF does see the appointment of Russon as a missed opportunity for ABSA. This could have been an opportunity for ABSA to demonstrate its commitment to the socio-economic transformation agenda and to display total confidence in black talent at the highest level, as a bank that prides itself as an African bank.
ABSA has made great strides in addressing broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) over the years. Just last year, 7% of total ABSA Group shares were allocated to black employees through their Corporate Social Investment (CSI) Trust. The transaction was one of the largest of its kind in recent years and pushed ABSA Group’s B-BBEE threshold to over 25%. At the time, outgoing CEO Arrie Rautenbach expressed the Group’s commitment to the broad-based black economic agenda and while we have seen that commitment in entry-level employment, community development, and training and development, we are yet to see evidence of the B-B-BBEE agenda in senior management despite the vast pool of highly qualified and educated black professionals, and in particular, women.
That being said, the BMF congratulates Yasmin Masithela on her appointment as CEO for ABSA Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB). Masithela will be only the second woman in this position after Anel Bosman and the first black woman to fill this role. She brings a wealth of experience to her new office having served in executive roles at both Eskom and Afro-Centric Investment Group and the
BMF encourages that similar executive-level appointments will be made by ABSA and other financial services sector organisations as we seek to redress the lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion in this key segment of our economy.
