Abu Dhabi: The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) announced on Monday that Alex Thursby has stepped down as group chief executive officer. Abhijit Choudhury, the group’s chief risk officer, has been appointed as acting CEO with immediate effect.
Thursby’s move to step down comes just over a month after NBAD and First Gulf Bank (FGB) announced their boards of directors have approved a merger plan. Once merged in the first quarter of 2017, the new entity will have assets worth over Dh642 billion, making it the largest bank in the Middle East and North Africa.
Choundhury will work closely with deputy group CEO, Abdullah Abdul Raheem to lead the bank until the completion of the merger. Khalifa Sultan Al Sowaidi, who is currently a member of NBAD’s board will take on the newly-created role of managing director to support the bank through the integration process until the merger is complete.
NBAD and FGB announced top management of the merged entity in early July — an announcement that did not specify any roles for Alex Thursby and Andre Sayegh who currently serve as CEOs of NBAD and FGB respectively, raising speculations among analysts that both CEOs will step down.
Thursby has been serving as NBAD’s CEO for over three years.
“With the planning for NBAD’s integration with FGB now underway, I believe this is the right moment to hand over the reins to Abhijit Choudhury and a senior team that will plan for the merger. I feel strongly that it is important from now that there is alignment between the decision being taken down integration planning and implementation of these decisions after the merger is legally completed,” Thursby said in a statement.
The chairman of NBAD, Nasser Al Sowaidi, thanked Thursby for leading NBAD, and said he had transformed the bank into a “modern, well-regarded, customer-oriented, and results-focused financial institution.”
