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Ashish Gowreesunker is a seasoned banking professional with over 25 years of experience at senior level, covering both first and second lines of defence roles, spanning across Retail Banking, Custody, Global Business, Corporate Banking, Remediation and Compliance with a global financial institution. Ashish has also served as the Head of Risk and Compliance of a Corporate, Private Client and Fund Services Group operating in the Global Business Sector in Mauritius. He has been very active in the industry, serving as the vice Chairman of the Compliance Committee of the Mauritius Bankers Association.

Ashish is passionate about ensuring the safe growth of institutions while optimising resources to capture all opportunities for growth. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated a strong commitment to maintaining the highest standards of regulatory compliance and risk management. Ashish is a member of the International Compliance Association and the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists. Ashish was appointed Head of Compliance of Bank One Limited in December 2024.

William is a seasoned, strategy, planning and business performance management practitioner with over 12 years of experience, gleaned from a multi-sectoral background with over 5 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited Kenya. He has deep expertise in strategic management, financial management, organisation development and capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, strategic risk management and portfolio, programme and project management.

Besides being a lead strategist for various financial services institutions, William has also worked as a Strategy Analyst at a financial service institution serving the East African market. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Nairobi and is a Certified Public Accountant and Member of the Institute of Public Accountants Kenya (ICPAK).

Kareen Ng is an associate member of the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland. She also holds a BSc in Computer Science and Information Systems from the University of South Africa and is a Certified Meta Coach from the International Society of Neuro-Semantics.

With over 15 years of experience as a chartered governance professional, Kareen has served within a diverse range of companies, including those listed on both the Official and DEM markets of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. Her extensive experience spans multiple industries, including banking and financial services, automotive, shipping and logistics, as well as food and hospitality. Kareen has a proven track record of collaborating closely with Boards to ensure robust governance practices and corporate compliance. She joined Bank One in May 2017, continuing her career in governance and corporate services.

(Appointed on 01.06.2021; Resident)

Lakshman Bheenick is currently the CEO of CIEL Finance Limited. Prior to joining CIEL Finance Limited, he was the CEO of Standard Bank (Mauritius) Limited from June 2010 to February 2021. Prior to that, he held the position of Head of Global Markets from June 2006 to May 2010. He started his career in 1996 as Head of Market Making & Liquidity Management at Barclays Bank Plc in Mauritius and left in June 2006. Lakshman holds a BA (Econ) from the University of Manchester.

(Appointed on 11.10.2024; Resident)

Sunil Ramgobin is an accomplished banking professional with over 30 years of experience across various sectors within the industry. His expertise spans Corporate and Investment Banking, Retail Banking, Business/SME Banking, Wealth Management, Custody and Islamic Banking. Prior to joining Bank One, Sunil served as the Chief Business Officer and Executive Director of Absa Bank (Mauritius) Limited. His extensive career includes key leadership roles in prominent financial institutions in the Middle East and Mauritius, including Al Rajhi Bank, BNPParibas, BPCE Group, State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) and Standard Bank Group.

Valerie Duval has over two decades of significant experience in the finance sector. After having held senior leadership positions in the insurance industry over 13 years with Swan Insurance Co Ltd and La Prudence Mauricienne Ltd (now known as Mauritius Union), Valerie is now the Head of Legal at Bank One for the last 14 years. She has been instrumental into setting up a strong and skilled legal division for the Bank. Her expertise ranges from advising Bank One on all legal aspects relating to the affairs and operations of the Bank to providing strategic legal support to all Lines of Business and Functions. She has acquired extensive and sound skills in analysing, structuring and negotiating sophisticated transactions and also assisted in successful recovery of assets both locally and internationally.

Valerie holds a Law degree from the University of Mauritius and is a Barrister at Law in Mauritius (sworn in 1995). She completed several leadership and management programs over the years with various training institutions locally and abroad. She recently graduated from the
CIEL-HEC Paris Executive Program. She is a member of the Mauritius Bar Association and a Fellow member of the Mauritius Institute of Directors and the Vice-President of the Mauritian NGO Terrain for Interactive Pedagogy through Arts (TIPA). She was recognised as Africa Women Leaders by CMO Asia 2018 Edition and Pioneering Woman Leader at the 6th World Women Leadership Congress and Awards in February 2019.

With over 25 years of experience in the human resource field, Priscilla is a seasoned Human Resources professional. She holds a Master in ‘Administration d’Entreprises’ from the University of Poitiers, France. Priscilla received The Women of Wonder Award Mauritius 2018 and was conferred the 101 Most Influential Global HR Leaders by the World HR Congress.

Prior to joining Bank One, Priscilla has worked across regional and global corporations such as DCDM Consulting (Managed by Accenture) where she was responsible for HR-related consultancy assignments for a portfolio of clients in various industries including banking. Her assignments were conducted both in Mauritius and regionally (i.e. Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and Djibouti, among others). From 2011 to 2014, she headed the HR department at Bramer Banking Corporation Limited before moving to GroFin in January 2015, a development financier specialised in financing and supporting small and growing businesses (SGBs) with 16 offices across Africa and the Middle East, as its Chief HR Officer. Priscilla joined the Bank in December 2017 as Head of HR.

Rishy Lutchman is a seasoned banker with over 30 years in the Treasury field. He holds an ACI Diploma, a PGCE in derivatives & financial products and a BBA from the Management College of Southern Africa. Before joining Bank One in February 2014, he worked for 26 years within the Treasury division of the State Bank of Mauritius Ltd (SBM), where he covered different desks, including sales, interbank and fixed income. There, Rishy acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the Mauritian and Malagasy markets.

Guillaume Passebecq is an International School of Management (IDRAC) graduate who has spent his entire career in the banking sector. He started off as a Portfolio Manager at B* capital Paris, the BNP Paribas brokerage house in 1999. In 2007, he was appointed as Head of Sales at BNP Paribas Personal Investors Luxembourg. He joined AfrAsia Bank in 2014 and was subsequently appointed as Head of Private Banking.

Guillaume joined Bank One as the Head of Private Banking in March 2017. He brought along the needed expertise to uplift the Private Banking offer. The Bank’s array of clients has also been widened to accommodate Asset Managers, Investment Funds, Pension Funds, Family Offices and Financial Intermediaries through a one stop shop and open architecture model.

Ranjeeve Gowreesunkur joined Bank One in 2008 as Financial Accountant bringing with him more than 20 years of extensive banking experience having worked in various senior positions at Union Bank, Delphis Bank, First City Bank, SBI (Mauritius) Limited and Deutsche Bank (Mauritius) Limited. After acting as Head of Finance for six years, he was subsequently promoted as Chief Financial Officer in 2014.

Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and a registered Professional Accountant with the Mauritius Institute of Professional Accountants, Ranjeeve also holds an MBA with Finance from Herriot Watt University.

Normela Maunick has more than 15 years of audit, advisory and risk management experience and has worked for the Mauritius Commercial Bank Limited, ABC Banking Corporation Limited and Standard Bank (Mauritius) Limited. She joined CIEL Finance Limited on 01 October 2021 as Head: Risk Management, Compliance and Controls and has executive ownership for risk management and compliance for CIEL Finance Limited and its affiliates. She was appointed as Interim CRO of the Bank in December 2023.

Normela holds an MBA (Specialisation in Financial Services) from the University of Mauritius and a BSc (Hons) Banking and International Finance from the University of Technology, Mauritius.

Eric Hautefeuille has a career spanning almost three decades at senior level in the banking sector. He spent 24 years at Société Générale whereby he worked in various countries namely in Europe, Asia and Africa. During his tenure, he successively held the positions of Chief Information Officer and Project Director in Cameroon (1997-2000) and in Tahiti (2000-2005), Project Director in Russia (2005-2007), Head of Operations and Deputy Chief Operating Officer in China (2007-2011), Chief Operating Officer (COO) in India (2011-2014) and Head of Transversal Operations in France (2014-2015). Prior to joining Bank One as COO in October 2020, Eric held the positions of COO and Head of Transformation at BNI Madagascar (2015-2020). He was instrumental in developing the BNI footprint, particularly on mobile, cards and payments businesses and branchless digital microfinance.

(Appointed on 01.09.2023; Non-resident)

Kihara Maina has been the Regional CEO of I&M Group since February 2023. He was the Chief Executive Officer of I&M Bank in Kenya from May 2016 to February 2023 and is a seasoned banker with experience spanning close to 30 years, mostly in senior executive leadership roles. Prior to joining I&M Bank, he was the Managing Director of Barclays Bank Tanzania Limited (now Absa Bank Tanzania Limited).

Kihara holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the Moi University and an Executive Master of Business Administration in Finance from Chicago Booth School of Business.

(Appointed on 01.08.2023; Resident) 

Cyril Wong was a non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of ABSA Bank (Mauritius) Limited from August 2014 to July 2023. Prior to that, he was the executive director and vice chairman of the Board of the Barclays Bank (Mauritius) Limited. Before joining the Board, Cyril held a number of senior management positions at Barclays Bank (Mauritius) Limited, including the roles of Finance Director and Chief Compliance and Risk Officer.

Before joining Barclays Bank (Mauritius) Limited, Cyril held senior executive positions as Head of Finance in multinational companies like ExxonMobil and British American Tobacco. He has an extensive experience in board leadership roles and acts as independent director on a number of companies. Cyril holds a First-Class Honours degree in Physics from the University of Manchester. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and is also a Fellow of the Mauritius Institute of Directors.

Directorship in listed entities: ABC Motors Co Ltd, MDIT, Sanlam Africa Core Real Estate Investment Limited and Avanz Growth Markets Limited.

(Appointed on 27.05.2022; Resident)

Marc Israel is an accomplished Entrepreneur, Author and Public Speaker, with a successful career spanning various technology industries. After a 17-year stint at Microsoft, where he served as the Chief Technology Officer for sub-Saharan Africa and had the privilege to launch Office 365 across the continent, Marc leveraged his extensive technical leadership experience to set up Aetheis, Mo Angels and Globe4Tech. These companies operate in the domains of cognitive services, blockchain and startup investment services. Additionally, Marc holds a Non-Executive Director position at Mauritius Network Services and Turbine and lectures at the Université des Mascareignes, Curtin University/Charles Telfair Education and HEC Paris.

Marc’s educational background includes a degree in Robotics and Engineering from École Supérieure d’Ingénieurs en Électrotechnique et Électronique in Paris. He has also completed prestigious INSEAD and Wharton Executive Education programmes, for which he achieved distinction.

(Appointed on 02.03.2017; Non-Resident. Resigned on 22.04.2024)

Leonard Mususa is a Private Management Consultant with extensive experience in transaction services, including due diligence and business valuations, business recovery and reconstruction services.

Leonard previously worked with PwC for 36 years and developed expertise in corporate governance, financial reporting, transaction services, financial risk management and control. He served as Country Senior Partner with PwC (Tanzania) for 14 years prior to his retirement. He also served in other roles, including Head of Assurance Risk and Quality in the PwC Africa Central region for three years and Head of Risk, Independence and Quality in the East Africa Market Area for a period of two years. Leonard also holds directorships in the financial and consumer industrial sectors. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and Fellow Certified Public Accountant (Tanzania).

(Appointed on 02.03.2017; Non-resident)

Gauri Gupta heads I&M Group’s Corporate Advisory function. Gauri’s forte lies in M&A transactions, including transaction structuring and negotiation of legal documentation. She holds a B.Com degree and is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Gauri is also a certified International Mergers & Acquisitions Expert and a Charterholder of the Institute for Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances. Her experience of over 25 years in Banking covers Credit, Risk Management, Product Development, Finance and Strategic Planning.

Gauri has been instrumental in the enhancement of the corporate governance framework at I&M for over 15 years and oversees governance matters, investor relations and sustainability for I&M Group Plc, the parent entity for I&M Bank Group, listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

Gauri is a director on the Board of several companies under the I&M Bank Group.

(Appointed on 25.08.2021; Resident)

Jérôme de Chasteauneuf currently serves as the Group Finance Director of CIEL Limited (CIEL), one of the largest diversified investment groups in Mauritius. Since joining CIEL in 1993, Jérôme has been instrumental in the Group’s development and involved on multiple strategic IPOs, international expansion projects, merger & acquisitions and company restructuring.

In addition to overseeing the Group’s financials, Jérôme is a Board member of most of the CIEL Group’s subsidiaries, including listed entities Alteo Limited, Miwa Sugar Limited and Sun Limited.  Jérôme de Chasteauneuf also sits as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius and that of Harel Mallac & Co. Ltd.

He is a Chartered Accountant of England and Wales and holds a BSc Honours in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK (1989).