The general assembly of the Commercial International Bank (CIB Egypt) on Monday officially named Egyptian veteran banker Hisham Ezz Al-Arab as the new non-executive chairman, the bank said in a statement.
Earlier, the CIB announced last November that Ezz Al-Arab had returned to the bank as a non-executive board member following the Central Bank of Egypt and board’s approvals.
Ezz Al-Arab was chairman of the CIB from 2002 until October 2020. He had been considered one of the top bankers in Egypt and in the Arab world. Under his leadership, CIB achieved unprecedented successes.
In July 2017, under Ezz Al-Arab’s leadership – the CIB was named the World’s Best Bank in the Emerging Markets by Euromoney at the Global Awards for Excellence ceremony. It was the first time for a bank from Egypt, Africa, or the Middle East to win such an accolade.
He was also the chairman of the Federation of Egyptian Banks (FEB), the chairman of Board of Trustees of the CIB Foundation, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the American University in Cairo (AUC).
He was graduated from the Faculty of Commerce at Cairo University. He joined the CIB after a career at Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, and Merrill Lynch in Manama, New York and Cairo.
In August 2022, Egypt’s Central Bank Governor Hassan Abdalla appointed Ezz Al-Arab as his adviser. Two months later, Ezz Al-Arab stepped down from the central bank governor aide position.