Mr. Hussein Abaza leads strategy and operations at CIB, an institution with more than 7,700 employees serving more than 1.6 million customers, including Egypt’s 500 largest corporations, online and at more than 206 branches, 1,307 ATMs, and 25,993 points of sale nationwide.
Mr. Abaza has been Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director since June 24, 2021, and Chief Executive Officer and a Member of the Board of Directors since March 2017 till June 24, 2021. He also Chairs the Executive Committees (Management and High Lending & Investment Committees). He assumed this position after a six-year run as CEO of Institutional Banking. Prior to this, Mr. Abaza was the Bank’s Chief Operating Officer and, from 2001 to 2010, its Chief Risk Officer, responsible for managing credit, market, and operational risk across CIB.
Mr. Abaza is also a leader of the Bank’s award-winning Investor Relations program; in which capacity he has helped CIB grow from a market capitalization of EGP 10.8 billion in 2008 to EGP 82.3 billion as of July 2021. Under Mr. Abaza’s leadership, the team managed Ripplewood’s 2009 exit from CIB, the entry into the shareholding structure of global emerging markets private equity firm Actis, and the subsequent sale of Actis’s 6.5% stake to Canadian insurance firm Fairfax Financial Holding Ltd. in the Egyptian Exchange’s first block trading transaction. The Bank’s IR program has taken home wins from the Extel / MEIRA poll for five consecutive years, from 2014 to 2018.
In his more than 25 years with CIB, Mr. Abaza has become actively involved in the Bank’s regionally renowned credit training program, providing talented young bankers with the theoretical basis and hands-on experience needed to assess the creditworthiness of organizations across all sectors of the economy.
He brings to CIB a sharp interest in financial markets and non-bank financial services, having served as Head of Research and then Managing Director at EFG Hermes Asset Management from 1995 until his return to CIB in 2001. He called on that experience from 2014 to 2017 as Chairman of Cl Capital, a leading Egyptian investment bank and subsidiary of CIB until the Bank exited its investments.
Mr. Abaza joined CIB after obtaining his BA in Business Administration from AUC. He has pursued post-graduate training and education in Belgium, Switzerland, London, and New York.