Board of Directors

Titre degradé

Directors

Mr Othman BENJELLOUN is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BANK OF AFRICA Group, formerly Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur, which was privatised in 1995, Chairman of O CAPITAL GROUP Holdings, Chairman of Royale Marocaine d’Assurance and Chairman of Medi Telecom Orange.

He has been the Chairman of the Professional Association of Moroccan Banks (GPBM) since 1995 and was Chairman of the Union of North African Banks from 2007 to 2009.

Mr BENJELLOUN is the founder of BMCE Bank Foundation, which has two main aims:

• Education, primarily combating illiteracy by building and managing community schools in rural areas in Morocco and Africa.
• Environmental protection.

Mr BENJELLOUN was appointed as Chancellor of Al Akhawayn University of Ifrane between 1998 and January 2004 by His Majesty the late King Hassan II. In 2007, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by King’s College, London.

Since 1981, he has been an Adviser to the Washington- based Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) that was formerly overseen by Dr Henry Kissinger. In 2013, the CSIS conferred upon him the prestigious title of Honorary Trustee.

Mr BENJELLOUN has received a number of decorations including Officer of the Order of the Throne by His Majesty the late King Hassan II and Commander of the Order of the Polar Star by His Majesty the King of Sweden. Other distinctions include Commander of the National Order of the Republic of Senegal, Commander by Number of the Order of Isabella the Catholic by His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain, Commander of France’s Order of Arts and Letters and, more recently, Commander of the Order of the Grand Star by the Republic of Djibouti.

On 7 April 2010, Mr BENJELLOUN was elevated to the rank of Commander of the Order of the Throne by his Majesty King Mohammed VI.

Born in 1932 in Casablanca, he is a graduate of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Mr BENJELLOUN is married to Dr Leïla MEZIAN BENJELLOUN, an ophthalmologist. They have two children, Dounia and Kamal.

Mr Azeddine GUESSOUS has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Maghrébail since 2004. He also sits on the Boards of a number of companies including RMA, BANK OF AFRICA (ex-BMCE Bank), BOA Group, BANK OF AFRICA Europe (ex-BMCE Bank International Madrid), Sonasid and Imperial Tobacco Morocco.

He is also a director of Al Akhawayn University.

Until recently, he was also a member of the Board of Directors of Al Mada and Lydec.

In 2001, he became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Al Watanya, an insurance company and, in 1995, Caisse Interprofessionnelle Marocaine de Retraite (CIMR). Between 2010 and 2012, Mr GUESSOUS was also Chairman of Risma’s Management Board. Between 1978 and 1994, Mr GUESSOUS held a number of senior government positions including Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism in 1978, Minister responsible for relations with the European Economic Community in 1985 and Morocco’s Ambassador to Spain between 1986 and 1993.

Mr GUESSOUS has been awarded a number of decorations including Officer of the Order of Wissam Reda, Spain’s Order of Civil Merit and Grand Cross, France National Order of Merit, and the medal of knight of the Order of the British Empire.

Mr Lucien MIARA is Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel’s Permanent Representative. He began his career at Crédit Mutuel du Centre in 1973 before moving to Crédit Mutuel Méditerranée in 1978. From 1995 to 2014, he was Chief Executive Officer of Crédit Mutuel Méditerranéen. He then became Chairman of Fédération du Crédit Mutuel Méditerranéen and Caisse Régionale du Crédit Mutuel Méditerranéen.

He is a technology graduate of the University of Nice Alpes Maritime with an elective in corporate administration.

Mr Khalid SAFIR was born 13 December 1967 in Settat, Morocco. After graduating from Paris’ Ecole Polytechnique in 1991 and then Paris’ National School of Statistics and Economic Administration in 1993, Mr Khalid SAFIR began his career at the Office d’Exploitation des Ports as head of the Port of Casablanca’s financial management division. He then joined the Ministry of Finance in 1995 as a research officer before becoming Director of Remuneration and Pensions Payments within the same department in 1998, then Director of Modernisation, Resources and Information Systems at the General Treasury of the Kingdom from 2004 to 2006.

In 2006, His Majesty the King appointed Mr Khalid SAFIR as Governor of the district prefecture of AI-Fida-MersSultan, then Governor of the district prefecture of Casablanca-Anfa in 2009, prior to being appointed, in 2011, Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

On 15 October 2013, Mr Khalid SAFIR was appointed by His Majesty the King as Wali of the Greater Casablanca region and Governor of Casablanca prefecture, then, on 13 October 2015, as Wali of the Casablanca-Settat region and Governor of Casablanca prefecture following changes to prefecture boundaries across the Kingdom.

On 25 June 2017, Mr Khalid SAFIR was appointed by His Majesty the King as Wali, Chief Executive Officer of Local Authorities.

On 13 July 2022, Mr Khalid SAFIR was appointed by His Majesty the King as Chief Executive Officer of Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion.

Mr Hicham EL AMRANI has more than 27 years’ experience of private equity investment, financing, and corporate strategy across a wide range of industries. When FinanceCom, now O CAPITAL GROUP, was founded in 2001, Mr EL AMRANI assumed responsibility for the Technologies & Telecommunications division. Appointed as Director of Strategy & Development between 2005 and 2008, Mr EL AMRANI was subsequently promoted to the post of Deputy Chief Executive Officer in 2008. He then went on to become the holding company’s Chief Executive Officer in June 2010. He was responsible for adopting best practices in steering the performance of the various entities within the holding company’s portfolio.

He also spearheaded a number of M&A deals, LBOs, and restructurings as part of a process of rationalising the holding company’s portfolio and optimising its debt.

In 2009, Mr EL AMRANI coordinated the process that enabled Portugal Télécom and Téléfonica to acquire a stake in Medi Telecom and the sale of a 40% stake in this company to Orange in 2010. He is a Director and standing member of Medi Telecom-Orange’s various governing bodies.

In addition to these roles, Mr EL AMRANI is a Director of BANK OF AFRICA, RMA, O TOWER, CTM, RISMA, Air Arabia Morocco, Finatech, Colliers International Morocco, Brico- Invest and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Air Arabia Morocco, Medi Telecom-Orange, Risma and CTM.

Mr Hicham EL AMRANI is an engineering graduate of Ecole Hassania des Travaux Publics and holds an MBA and a Graduate Certificate in Manufacturing and Service Management from Southern New Hampshire University, Singularity University’s Executive Program and Yale University’s Leadership Executive Program.

Born in 1973, Mr EL AMRANI is married and has two children.

Mr Marc BEAUJEAN is the founder, in 2019, and principal partner of Beaujean & Partners, a firm executing mandates and providing strategic consulting advice in banking and insurance.

From 1993 to 2012, he was a Senior Partner and Director at McKinsey & Co, with responsibility for developing customer relationships in Africa, particularly in retail banking, private banking, investment funds, life insurance and non-life insurance.

From 1997 to 2014, Mr BEAUJEAN was co-founder and non-executive Director at Geneva-based Blue Orchard, now one of the world’s leading institutions in micro-finance. The firm was recently sold to Schroders Asset Management. One of his main responsibilities was strategic thinking and partnerships.

From 2012 to 2018, he was Executive Director at P&V Assurances, Belgium, a systemically important financial institution as defined by the European Central Bank. As Director of Operations, which included overseeing IT and Human Resources, he was responsible for redesigning the group’s core insurance systems and for transformation programmes.

Since 2019, he has been a Director of Broptimize (Belgium), a rapidly-growing start-up which advises businesses on energy optimisation. Since 2021, he has also been a Director of Arab International Bank of Tunisia (BIAT) in Tunis, where he is also Chairman of the Risk Committee and is responsible for the Bank’s strategic task force.

Since 2022, he has been a Director of Enabling Qapital Luxembourg S.A., an investment fund specialising in impact finance and ethical investment. From 2019 to 2021, via his consulting firm, he was advisor to CBP Quilvest (Luxembourg), a Luxembourg-based bank, assuming the role of Chief Operating Officer (2019-2020), as well as Atlantic Financial Croup (Luxembourg) as interim CEO (2021).

Mr BEAUJEAN is also a co-investor in Profinpar, a EUR 40 million fund specialising in financing the growth, transmission, and optimisation of mature SMEs with development potential.

He was also a lecturer at HEC Liège between 2010 and 2020.

Born in 1965, Mr BEAUJEAN holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Liège’s School of Business Administration.

Mr Mohamed KABBAJ is currently Chancellor of the Euromed University of Fez. He formerly served as Minister of Finance and Foreign Investment, overseeing implementation of vital financial reforms that resulted in the modernisation and deregulation of the banking system.

As Minister, he also oversaw the successful privatisation, in 1995, of Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur, which attracted investment from a consortium of Moroccan and foreign institutional and financial investors led by Royale Marocaine d’Assurance.

Mr KABBAJ is a graduate of the prestigious École Française Polytechnique and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. He also has a Diploma in Advanced Studies in Econometrics from the Sorbonne, Paris. He had a long and successful career as head of various departments at the Ministry of Public Works prior to becoming Minister. As such, he represented the contracting authority and the prime contractor for many of Morocco’s infrastructure projects.

From 2000 to 2005, he was Adviser to His Majesty King Mohammed VI, before being appointed Wali of the Greater Casablanca region for nearly 4 years.

Previous socio-professional appointments include two terms of office as Member of Parliament from 1993 to 2003, Chairman of several foundations and associations, including the Spirit of Fez Foundation, Fez-Saiss, the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music and Chairman of Lafarge Holcim Maroc, the Development Committee of the IMF and the World Bank. He was also a Member of Lafarge International Group’s Advisory Board, Coordinator of the Permanent Inter-ministerial Committee of State-owned Enterprises and Chairman of the Watch Committee of State-owned Enterprises as well as Vice-Chancellor of Al Akhawayn University.

Mrs Nezha LAHRICHI holds a State Doctorate in Economics, the first awarded to a woman in Morocco. She began her career in academia and research as Professor of Higher Education, specialising in domestic and international monetary and financial economics. She was concurrently a member of the Centre Marocain de Conjoncture, an economics think tank.

After acting as Advisor to three Prime Ministers with responsibility, in particular, for economic and financial affairs, Mrs LAHRICHI was then entrusted with the first responsibility of heading up Société Marocaine d’Assurance à l’Exportation (SMAEX) as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, a post that enabled her to gain experience of the credit insurance and risk business.

After time spent as a member of parliament, her second responsibility was to chair the National Foreign Trade Council. The latter’s transformation into an observatory was the catalyst for the creation of a business intelligence and strategic planning system.

Mrs LAHRICHI was Director of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT) for two terms of office. She also sat for 10 years on the National Savings and Investment Council (CNME) as well as being a member of the Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion’s supervisory committee as the Prime Minister’s representative.

The majority of her publications, categorised by theme, and her recent articles are available on her website www.nezhalahrichi.com

Prior to launching InVivo Partners Ltd, Mrs Ngozi EDOZIEN served as Managing Director of Actis LLP’s West Africa business, a leading private equity firm specialising in emerging markets. She draws on more than 35 years’ experience in finance, consulting and operational management. Mrs EDOZIEN currently sits on the boards of several listed companies in the UK, South Africa and Nigeria as an independent director, generating value for businesses and clients. She advises African start-ups in a variety of sectors including healthcare, FMCG, financial services and technology.

Mrs EDOZIEN began her professional career in corporate finance, first at Salomon Brothers and then at J.P. Morgan, both in New York. She subsequently left JPM to pursue an MBA at Harvard University. After obtaining her MBA, she worked for McKinsey & Company in London and Paris where she became an Associate Principal. In 1999, she joined Pfizer Inc. in New York, where she was Vice-President, in charge of Strategic Planning and Business Development until 2005 when she was transferred to Nigeria as Pfizer Pharmaceuticals’ Regional Director for East Africa, Anglophone West Africa and Lusophone Africa.

Mrs EDOZIEN holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) (cum laude) degree in Social Studies (Government, Philosophy and Economics) from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, Harvard University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School, Harvard University.

She has done advanced management training in governance and finance at INSEAD, Harvard and other institutions. She was also an Aspen Leadership Institute Fellow and a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization.

(*) The appointment is in the process of being approved by the competent authorities.

Laureen KOUASSI-OLSSON is a highly respected professional in the private equity and financial services industry in Africa. She is one of the continent’s most influential African personalities.

She began her career in London in the Mergers and Acquisitions division of Lehman Brothers, an investment bank. In 2008, following the latter’s collapse, she decided to specialise in responsible finance and refocus on her continent of origin. In 2009, Mrs KOUASSI-OLSSON joined Proparco, a subsidiary of the French Development Agency focused on the private sector, where she was responsible for private equity and debt structuring and execution for African financial institutions.

In 2012, Mrs KOUASSI-OLSSON joined Amethis, a major French private equity firm backed by the Edmond de Rothschild Group specialising in the continent. At Amethis, based in Paris, she was responsible for the fund’s investment strategy in the financial sector covering the entire continent. She was heavily involved in creating long-term value for the fund’s investment holdings and, working closely with the companies in question, helping to determine their local and regional growth strategies – restructuring, diversification and acquisition-led growth. In 2016, Mrs KOUASSI-OLSSON moved to Abidjan to launch Amethis West Africa, a regional fund incorporated in Côte d’Ivoire, with capital raised from local and regional institutions and invested in SMEs in French-speaking West and Central Africa.

On returning to Africa, she quickly became aware of the wealth of the continent’s creative industries. Leveraging her track record in private equity and her close relationship with African designers, in 2020, she founded Birimian Ventures, a financial institution which aims to develop long-term brand equity and global renown for brands which show-case Africa’s creative excellence.

Laureen KOUASSI-OLSSON remains heavily involved in the financial sector and sits as an independent director on the board of several financial institutions in Africa. Franco-Ivorian by nationality, she is an alumna of EM Lyon and Harvard Business School.

(*) The appointment is in the process of being approved by the competent authorities.

Mr BENSOUDA has more than 25 years’ experience across a number of disciplines including asset management, private equity, mergers & acquisitions, and corporate restructuring.

He is currently Director and Chief Executive Officer of O Capital Europe, a company which steers O Capital Group’s overseas asset management and investment advisory operations. Since 2008, Mr BENSOUDA has held a number of positions of responsibility within O Capital Group including that of Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Finatech Group, a systems integrator specialising in digital and energy infrastructure. Prior to this, he was a founding managing partner of Finaventures Advisors in California where he helped set up a technology fund in partnership with TL Ventures, an asset management company. His experience in private equity dates back to 1995 in New York. He began his career at Westinghouse where he worked as an engineer and project leader.

Mr BENSOUDA has a degree in information systems engineering from Boston University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) specialising in finance and entrepreneurship from Babson College, Massachusetts.

Mr BRAHIM BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI Member of the Board and Delegate General Manager BANK OF AFRICA – BMCE Group Mr Brahim BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI is Member of the Board and Delegate General Manager of BANK OF AFRICA. As such, he is Member of the Strategy Task Force, a Board of Directors Committee, responsible for assisting the latter in determining the Group’s medium- and long-term strategy and overseeing implementation of its strategic development plans. He is also a Member of the Chairman’s Committee, the body responsible for steering Group strategy.

As part of BANK OF AFRICA Group’s international strategy, Mr Brahim BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI acted as Chairman of BOA Group Luxembourg from 2015 to 2024, a banking group in which BANK OF AFRICA Group has a stake of over 73%, with operations in almost 20 countries in Africa. He is also Member of the Board of the Group’s European banking subsidiaries.

As far as his other posts are concerned, he is either Chairman or Administrator of a number of Group companies in Morocco in investment banking and specialised financial services.

Within the framework of strategic partnerships with reference shareholders, Mr Brahim BENJELLOUN- TOUIMI is a Member of the Board of Royale Marocaine d’Assurance, an insurance company and of O Capital Group, its holding company.

Reflecting the Group’s commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility, Mr Brahim BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI is an Administrator of BMCE Bank Foundation for Education and Environmental Protection as well as of Othman Benjelloun Foundation.

He also sits on the Board of Proparco, the French development financial institution, as well as on the Board of the Casablanca Stock Exchange.

Born in 1960, Mr Brahim BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI holds a PhD in Money, Finance and Banking from the Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. He began his career in financial markets in France. He joined BANK OF AFRICA in 1990. He is married and has 3 children.

After obtaining a science-based high school diploma with honours in 1993 from Lycée Descartes in Rabat, Mrs Myriem BOUAZZAOUI continued her studies at the University of Paris IX Dauphine, obtaining a Master’s in Management Sciences (Finance) with honours in 1998.

On returning to Morocco in 1999, she joined BANK OF AFRICA Group’s asset management subsidiary as an Equity Portfolio Manager, then as Head of Investment Management.

Whilst working at the company, Mrs BOUAZZAOUI obtained, in 1999, the certificate of financial analyst issued by the French Society of Financial Analysts (SFAF) and then, in 2000, the French Diploma of Accounting and Finance (DECF).

In 2007, she was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the BMCE Capital Gestion Privée subsidiary, which she has managed since it was founded. She also became a Member of BMCE Capital’s Management Board in 2013

At the end of 2018, Mrs Myriem BOUAZZAOUI was appointed as Director and Chief Executive Officer of BMCE Capital Gestion, taking over the management of BMCE Capital’s Asset & Wealth Management division.

Mr Brian C. McK. HENDERSON is the Founding Partner of Henderson International Advisors, LLC.

During a career spanning 43 years in international banking, he has forged significant client relationships in both the private and public sectors as well as acquiring expertise in management and corporate governance.

At Merrill Lynch, where he spent a large part of his career, Mr HENDERSON held several positions of responsibility including Executive Assistant to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Vice- Chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, Middle East and Africa and Chairman of the Global Public Sector division. He also served as Chairman of Prime Merrill S.p.a Italy and as member of the Board of Directors of Merrill Lynch South Africa Pty Ltd.

Mr HENDERSON began his career at Chase Manhattan Bank where he held a number of important positions within the Group’s European Institutions division, including Vice-Chairman and Director of the sub- Saharan Africa region as well as within the Investment Banking division. He was also a Board member of Banque Ivoirienne du Développement Industriel and Chase Bank Cameroon SA as well as being Vice- Chairman and Treasurer of the Atlantic Council of the United States.

He is currently non-executive Chairman of Augustea Bunge Maritime Ltd., Malta, Advisor to Cremades & Calvo Sotelo, Madrid and Senior Advisor to Rockefeller Capital Management. His civic engagements include the posts of Chairman of the Chatham House Foundation, Honouring Nations’ Board of Governors, member of the Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard University’s JFK School of Government and Director of the Fort Apache Heritage Foundation.

Mr HENDERSON holds a Bachelor of Science degree in International Economic Relations from Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service, Washington DC.