Capitec boss Gerrie Fourie will hand over the reins of the company to Graham Lee in one of the most orderly successions in SA’s banking sector — ending a a period that saw the bank transform from an unsecured lender to offering sophisticated financial products.
Fourie, who has been with Capitec for nearly 30 years, presided over a surge in the share price and profitability, adding nearly 20-million new customers during his tenure.
Fourie will retire in July after being part of the executive management team for the past 25 years, the bank said on Friday.
“Under his stewardship as CEO, Capitec transformed from a challenger bank serving 5-million clients to SA’s leading digital bank and a diversified financial services provider serving more than 24-million clients. Gerrie’s leadership has been instrumental in fostering a culture of innovation and growth at Capitec,” the group said.
“Gerrie has built a strong and diverse leadership team poised to carry the bank into the future. To this end, the executive structure was expanded to establish divisional executive teams responsible for the retail bank, business bank, insurance company and strategic initiatives leaving a strong senior leadership team enriched with expertise, experience and deep institutional knowledge,” it said.
Santie Botha, the Stellenbosch-based bank’s chair, commended Fourie for his “exceptional leadership and strategic vision”.
Lee joined Capitec in 2003 and has held numerous strategic positions in credit, technology and data, retail operations, and most recently, as group executive of the Retail Bank division. He has been a member of the group executive team since 2022 and will succeed Fourie on July 19.
Fourie and Lee will continue to work together over the next four months to ensure a smooth transition.
Lee holds BBusSc (Hons) and MBA degrees and is a chartered management accountant. He has more than 25 years of working experience in various financial and technology businesses in SA, Zimbabwe, the UK, Australia and Nigeria.
He started his career in investment banking in Zimbabwe in 1997 before continuing in London with Morgan Stanley International. His career outside Capitec includes financial software development and data analytics in Australia and leading a microfinance bank in Nigeria. He also lectured part-time for the MBA programme of the University of Stellenbosch Business School.
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