CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Udu Ovbiagele
Udu holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and International Relations from the University of Reading, England, and an MBA in International Business from The Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, England. He also holds a Post Graduate Certification in The Mechanics of International Trade & Finance (CITF) jointly awarded by the London Institute of Banking & Finance (LIBF) and Middlesex University, London, England. He is a certified Commercial Banking and Credit Analyst (CBCA), awarded by the Corporate Finance Institute (CFI) of Vancouver, Canada. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers. (FCIB), and well as a Fellow of the National Institute of Credit Administrators. (FICA) He is an alumnus of the London Business School where he has undertaken executive level leadership training.
Udu commenced his banking career in Zenith Bank Plc’s Domestic Operations Group which offered him a firm grounding of the various aspects of the Bank's operations, prior to him venturing into the wide spectrum of Corporate Banking at the Group’s Head Office. His vast banking experience spans over two decades and cuts across various sectors including manufacturing, trading, hospitality, non-bank financial institutions, commercial real estate & Infrastructure, Project finance, Investment Banking, Development Finance, Telecomms, Agency Banking, Financial Technology and International Trade and finance. He has served in various supervisory capacities over the years, and as such has been actively involved in business development, corporate strategy, facility structuring, loan syndication and income optimisation. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Udu was the Zenith Bank (UK) Ltd Executive Director overseeing the Trade Finance Group, Correspondent Banking Group, the Dubai Branch, the Multinational Corporates Group, the Institutional Banking Group as well as the Digital Marketing Group.
Udu has been exposed to various training and management programmes, some of which include Treasury, Correspondent Banking, Bond and FX trading, Trade Services, Financial Control, Advanced Credit analysis, Risk Management, Internal Control, and Compliance. He has also played key roles in several development projects in the Group including, but not limited to, electronic business, Investment Banking and Credit Risk Management.
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Adeyemi Paul-Taiwo
Adeyemi Paul-Taiwo leads the Bank’s finance function and is responsible for supporting the Chief Executive in developing and implementing the Bank’s strategy, including making recommendations regarding the Bank’s annual budget and financial plan.
Prior to this, he worked in Zenith Bank PLC where he held various positions, including Head of Regulatory reporting, Group Accountant and Head, Management Information. Before joining Zenith Bank PLC in May 2005, Paul-Taiwo worked with multidisciplinary teams in KPMG Professional Services to provide assurance and other services to clients across the Consumer Goods, Shipping, Telecoms, Beverage industries in Nigeria.
Paul-Taiwo holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from University of Lagos, Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Nigeria) respectively. He received his Diploma in IFRSs from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW).
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
John Driscoll
John has a wealth of experience in banking with a career of over 40 Years. Prior to joining Zenith Bank (UK) Limited, John has worked for ScotiaBank, ABN Amro, UBS and Barclays. During his time in the Middle East, he built two Islamic Banks and is a former member of Deutsche Bank’s regional inspection team based in Singapore.
GENERAL COUNSEL AND COMPANY SECRETARY
Joseph Crowley
Joseph brings a wealth of experience in managing the legal support and risk within the banking industry having been a General Counsel and Head of Legal for over 26 years and an in-house banking lawyer for over 30 years. In that time, he has established the Legal function in three international banks. Working across sectors in financial and commodity derivatives, physical trading, trade finance, investment funds, general lending and Islamic Finance through his experiences at Credit Lyonnais group, Credit Agricole group and the Islamic bank, Bank of London and the Middle East Plc, he has gained extensive knowledge of products, structures and services and has held geographical responsibilities for the UK, Northern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South Africa. Prior to this Joseph worked in private practice as a Company Commercial solicitor. Joseph is a Company Secretary with proficiency in corporate governance.
Joseph is a qualified solicitor and holds an MBA from Reading University, the Islamic Finance Qualification from the Securities Institute and is a Chartered Manager from the Chartered Management Institute.
HEAD OF MARKETS
Mark Parlour
Mark joined Zenith Bank (UK) Limited in December 2015 following 16 years at Nedbank London where he was Head of Global Markets. Over 25 years’ experience in Bank Treasury Management and Trading roles having previously worked for West Merchant Bank, Postipankki and Bank of Boston.
HEAD OF HR
Theresa Eplett
Theresa joined Zenith Bank (UK) Limited in February 2023.
She is a senior HR professional with over 30 years’ experience gained in the Financial Services Sector, having held roles at National Westminster Bank / RBS, Old Mutual – Gerrard Management Services Limited, Access Bank (UK) Limited, UBL and its regulator.
Over the course of her career, Theresa has successfully delivered major change and transformation programmes, start-up and turnaround environments.
She is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and Chartered Management Institute.
CHIEF RISK OFFICER
Glenn Ashbrooke
Glenn joined Zenith Bank (UK) Ltd in June of 2020. He has an extensive banking career spanning 35yrs across financial institutions in Australia, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Poland and London touching all areas of wholesale and retail banking. His experience is built around end to end credit and lending origination, recovery and risk management roles, ahead of the wider enterprise-wide risk management roles he has also held and fulfils today for the Bank.
Glenn was Chief Risk Officer in HSBC Bangladesh, the Global Head of HSBCs Corporate and Institutional Banking Divisions Credit Services and led the HSBC Groups Credit Strategy team based in London for 4 years.
He holds a Masters in Business in Finance from the University of Technology, Sydney, is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer.
CHIEF COMPLIANCE OFFICER
Niranjan Patel
Niranjan holds a LLB (Hons) and a Diploma in Financial Crime Compliance (AML). He is a qualified solicitor with over 12 years of financial services industry experience and specialises in AML and regulatory compliance.
Niranjan joined Zenith Bank UK in 2018 as Deputy Compliance Manager. He progressed to MLRO in 2020 and in 2022, became Chief Compliance Officer.
Prior to joining Zenith Bank UK, Niranjan worked for Bank of China, Bank of Ireland, First Currencies Services and Post Office Financial Services, where he was responsible for the implementation and on-going testing of their respective compliance monitoring programs.
HEAD OF INTERNAL AUDIT
Oluwaniyi Eresanmi
Niyi is Zenith Bank UK Head of internal Audit, he is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience spanning the banking and financial services industry.
Prior to joining Zenithbank UK, he was the Unit Head, Group Inspection at the Internal Control and Audit Department of Zenith bank Plc where he had responsibility for the audit of all the bank’s Head Office Departments, branches, local and foreign subsidiaries.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Ibadan and a Master of Science degree also in Economics (specializing in Finance) from the University of Lagos.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and a member of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria.
He has attended various executive training programs on Management and Leadership.
