Hafiz Bakare, was until his appointment to the Board of Keystone Bank, the Managing Director/CEO, H.B.O Consulting, a fledging management consulting and capacity development firm which he founded with the objective of assisting organizations across different sectors to deliver sustainable value in an increasingly challenging and dynamic environment.
He graduated best-in-class with an MBA from the IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain. A Pharmacist by training, he practised briefly before joining the Nigerian office of Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) where he acquired valuable consulting experience and was on the firm’s Outstanding Track.
Hafiz’s banking career culminated in First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Nigeria and West-Africa’s premier financial institution where he was the Chief Strategy Officer with responsibilities covering strategy, new business development, mergers & acquisition, group co-ordination, economic intelligence, local/international ratings, investor relations, brand management and corporate communications. He also oversaw the Products portfolio in FirstBank covering Consumer Banking Products, Agricultural Business, Money Transfer and Wholesale Banking Products.
He thereafter joined Industrial & General Insurance (IGI) Plc, a multi-sector and multi-country business with an established industry leading insurance flagship in Nigeria in 2009 following a head-hunt. He was until June 2012 the Group Director, Corporate Planning & Strategy at IGI Plc with responsibility for parent company and group strategy as well as oversight and co-ordination of local and foreign subsidiaries/affiliates in different sectors across the African continent.
Hafiz has participated in a number of international conferences and seminars including the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings, Commonwealth Business Council Global Banking and Finance Forum, World Economic Forum on Africa and Economist Conferences while he has also been a panelist at the African Business Conference of the Harvard Business School, USA.
He has received executive education at the Harvard Business School; Andersen Worldwide Center for Professional Education in the USA; Euromoney Centre, UK; and the Lagos Business School, Nigeria. He is an alumnus of the European Bank Training Network’s International Banking Summer School (IBSS), anhonorary member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (HCIB) and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (MNIM).
Hafiz is a Council Member, Gerson Lehrman Group, USA; Consultant, Financial Institutions Training Center (FITC), Nigeria and Ex-Consultant, Knowledge Factory International, UK.
