Polycarp Igathe: Here today, gone tomorrow

It is hard to keep up with Polycarp Igathe. The trained economist is here today. Tomorrow, he is gone. Whoever prints his business cards has had a busy three years.

Igathe is as restless as the sea. He cuts the image of a man who walks around with a resignation letter in his pockets, ready to sign and bounce when the next big thing comes to his shores.

In the last three years the bespectacled University of Nairobi (UoN) graduate has job-hopped at a pace and skill that few executives in corporate Kenya can.

He has oscillated from the oil sector to politics, from politics to banking, to oil and now he is back to banking billions.

CORPORATE SUITES

To his critics, he is just a corporate nuisance, disorganising corporate suites and structures with his movements.

But to others, he is a talented chief executive who can work in almost any company.

He is a jack-of-all-trades. Knows when to fight, even when it means going to social media, and when to keep calm and face his tormentors privately.

After the public fallout at City Hall, where he was a deputy governor for embattled Nairobi City County boss Mike Sonko, Igathe dusted his coat and took up a lucrative job at Equity Bank as its Chief Commercial Officer.

After five months, his potential had already been noticed. He was elevated and named the MD of Equity Bank Kenya in September 2018, a role that hitherto never existed at the bank. The banking job had looked like his for the taking.

It also came at a time when Equity was thought to have started its secretive succession planning, having come under pressure from the Central Bank of Kenya for years.

INFLUENTIAL POSITIONS
Igathe was seen as the heir apparent, the man to take over from James Mwangi who had ran the bank like a colossus, growing it from nothing to a tier-one bank in Kenya.

Then he was doubled up as the Chief Commercial Officer and MD Kenya, two very influential positions in a bank.
Besides, at the time, Equity had just completed its group strategy that saw it separate management of its subsidiaries from that of the holding company.

James Mwangi was to handle things at the group and “global” level while Igathe would be left to deal with more local responsibilities here in Kenya.

However, when the market was just warming up to him as a bank executive, he quit unexpectedly eight months later after what insiders said was a clash of egos between him and his boss.

He would go back to Vivo Energy, where he started and where he made a name before quitting to join politics having risen through the ranks to become the managing director.

OIL FIRM

This time, Vivo, like a gracious father, welcomed him back and created a position for him since there can never be two managing directors. He was named the executive vice-president for sales and marketing in Africa at the oil firm.

Having gone back home, it was expected that he would settle. He had seen the world and just like the prodigal son had decided that east or west, home is best.

But last week he was at it again. He sent tongues wagging when he quit his job at Vivo Energy, for the second time in three years, months after being reconciled with his former employer.

The resignation came at time when the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission had said he did not resign from City Hall properly; which some interpreted to mean he was technically still the deputy governor of Nairobi County. With the office of the governor technically vacant, he was seen as the heir apparent.

However, that was not where his heart was. He turned up at Equity Bank as the Group Chief Commercial Officer, the same bank where he had packed his bags and left hurriedly a couple of months earlier. However, this time round the managing director title is gone.

TRANSFORMATIONAL AGENDA

Perhaps to explain himself, he said he left part of his heart at Equity because he had seen the immense potential it holds to transform Africa into a social economic powerhouse, creating opportunities for wealth creation “for our people through integrated financial services solutions.

“Indeed, financial services are at the heart of any social economic transformation.

“I have made a conscious decision to resume my role at Equity and continue what I started. I am glad that the board has given me another chance,” Igathe said.

In his new role, Igathe has been tasked with driving “the transformational agenda of empowering individual and business members in their pursuit of wealth creation by championing an integrated approach to financial services provision.” In welcoming him back, the CEO said he was excited that Igathe will continue from where he left.

“A strong part of our Equity culture is keeping lasting relationships with our Equity family of staff and customers. They are always free to return to the family and bring new experiences that help to make the team stronger and more agile. Once a member, always a member,” Mwangi said.

CORPORATE EXECUTIVE

Igathe’s profile paints the picture of a highly accomplished corporate executive, seasoned in overseeing large commercial enterprises in the fast-moving consumer goods sector.

He has served as CEO of leading blue chip corporate entities among them Coca-Cola SABCO, Africa Online, EABL, Haco Industries, Wines of the World, Tiger Brands International and Vivo Energy.

He has served as non-executive chairman and board member at several commercial and public sector entities.

He has also served as chairman of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, chairman of Petroleum Institute of East Africa, Director and Trustee Kenya Private Sector Alliance, and board chair at Bishop Ngandu Girls High School.

Igathe obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Sociology from UoN and is a graduate of Strathmore University’s Advanced Management Programme with IESE Business School in Spain.

At UoN he was the AIESEC chairman in Kenya — the international association of university students interested in economics and business management.