The 47-year-old banker becomes the first woman to be appointed CEO of FirstRand Ltd, one of Africa’s largest financial services groups and one of Africa’s largest lenders by market value, with over 50,000 employees.
FirstRand operates in Africa and the UK, where it owns Aldermore, a UK specialist lender, which includes MotoNovo, a leading vehicle finance business.
Prior to her appointment, Mary Vilakazi was Chief Operating Officer of FirstRand Ltd. She will succeed Alan Pullinger, 57, with effect from 1 April. Mary Vilakazi will be the only female CEO among the top six South African banks.
Mary Vilakazi, 47, joined FirstRand in 2018 as Chief Operating Officer. In this role, she led the bank’s diversification strategies into insurance and investment management. She also provided strategic oversight of regulatory and enterprise risk management activities across the Group.
“The board is delighted to appoint a strong internal candidate to the group CEO role. As one of three FirstRand executive directors, Ms Vilakazi has worked closely with Mr Pullinger on strategy execution and has successfully led a number of key growth and diversification strategies, including the expansion and improving profitability of the broader Africa portfolio and scaling the insurance business,” the banking group says.
Mary Vilakazi, says the group, has in-depth knowledge of the strategies and operations of the underlying business portfolio. She is a member of the Group Strategy Committee, the Executive Committees and Advisory Boards of the operating businesses, as well as the Group Financial Resources Management Committee. She is also Managing Director of the Corporate Centre, a role that requires oversight of the key central functions of risk, compliance, treasury and audit.
Previously, Mary Vilakazi was CFO and Deputy CEO of Momentum Metropolitan Holdings, a South African-based financial services group listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. She was also CFO at Mineral Services Group and audit partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Inc.
Mary Vilakazi holds a degree in accountancy from the University of the Witwatersrand.
