Zenith Bank names new CEO

Zenith Bank scores big for gender equality as it names Adaora Umeoji as the bank’s new and first female CEO.

She will take up the position on 1 June 2024 subject to a Central Bank approval of her appointment.

Dr. Umeoji will replace Dr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu, whose five-year term expires on 31 May, according to the Bank’s statement.

“Dame Adaora Umeoji is the first female GMD/CEO since the inception of the bank,” the statement added.

“Her appointment is consistent with the bank’s executive transition tradition, succession plan, and strategy of grooming leaders from within.”

The incoming CEO currently serves as the bank’s Deputy Managing Director, a position she held since 28 October 2016.

Altogether, she has spent almost 30 years in banking, only four of which were outside Zenith Bank.

The CEO as a bibliophile

Dame Umeoji is an alumnus of both Harvard and Columbia University Business Schools. She attended Harvard’s Advanced Management Programme (AMP) and earned a certificate from Columbia University’s Global Banking Programme.

The new CEO is a bibliophile, with a string of academic degrees from diverse disciplines. She has three bachelor’s degrees, beginning with a first degree in Sociology from the University of Jos. She later enrolled at Baze University to earn another bachelor’s degree in accounting, and a first class degree in Law.

Umeoji topped off her academic laurels with a Master of Laws from the University of Salford in the UK. She returned to Nigeria to earn another master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from the University of Calabar. Finally, she went to Apollos University at Great Falls, Montana, United States to bag a doctorate in Business Administration from .

One of her professors at Baze University described her as “a bibliophile and an epistemophile who is at once rich.

“Owner of Nigeria-British University, Asa, Abia State, she is hardworking, kind, daring and disciplined and has, over the years, grown with the bank.

“She will be sustaining,” he said.

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