January - March 2016 •
The Lion King
• 7
COVER STORY
March 1, 2016 to announce that the
current Deputy Managing Director,
Kennedy Uzoka, will be taking over the
mantle of leadership of the bank from
the current Group Managing Director
and CEO, Phillips Oduoza.
The official change of guards will take
place on August 1, 2016, almost six
months after the official announce-
ment was made, giving enough room
for a transition process to take place.
Uzoka also comes well prepared for
his new position. He has been Deputy
Managing Director in the last six years
and has over two and half decades
of experience in commercial banking,
strategy and business transformation.
Prior to a sabbatical at Harvard, Uzoka
served as Deputy Managing Director,
UBA group and was also the CEO of
UBA Africa, responsible for the Group’s
operations in 18 countries across
Africa. He is most recently leading the
transformation agenda of the Bank.
A multiple awards winner, Uzoka has
also supervised other key areas in
the bank including e-Banking and
Information Technology. He has
supervised the bank’s business in
New York and London in addition
to strategic support groups such as
Human Resources, Legal Advisory
Services, Procurement and Vendor
Management, Corporate Relations
and Marketing, among others.
He has also had direct supervision and
oversight of critical business functions
like Group Treasury and International
Financial Institutions and Transaction
Banking, UBA Pensions Custodian,
Consumer Banking and Cash
Management. He was once Head,
Strategy and Business Transformation
and also Regional Bank Head, South
Bank covering 17 states in Southern
part of Nigeria. Also prior to the merg-
er of legacy Standard Trust Bank (STB)
and United Bank for Africa (UBA), he
was Regional-Director South East,
Vice President Northern Nigeria, Chief
Marketing Officer, Federal Capital
Territory (FCT), Chief Marketing Officer,
Lagos, and Managing Executive
Officer, STB.
Explaining some of the consideration
that resulted in the appointment,
Board Chairman, Tony Elumelu said,
“Kennedy brings an extremely strong
skillset and is ideally positioned to lead
UBA in its next phase of growth. His
10THINGSYOUDON’TKNOW
ABOUT KENNEDY UZOKA
He was best
graduating
student in his
first degree
class
01
He has over
22 years work
experience
02
03
04
05
07
08 09
10
He spent more than 15 years
of his banking career in front
office/marketing roles at
executive levels
His favourite
musical
genre is
Classical
music
He works out
regularly
He is an
avid cyclist
He is humble
Touching
lives positively
makes him
happy
He is happily married
He is a
calligrapher,
pastime
photographer
and a high-end
connoisseur of
watches
06
