Management Team

Olukorede Adenowo

Chief Executive Officer 

KORE PHTOO

Olukorede Adenowo (K.O) was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria until he resumed his role at FirstBank UK in November 2023. He had previously served as MD/CEO for Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) Gambia (with Senegal responsibility), DMD/ DCEO for SCB Cameroon, Managing Director Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking for Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria and West Africa. K.O has also served as Non-Executive Director of SCB Gambia and SCB Sierra Leone, Vice President of the Gambia Bankers Association and Trustee of the Institute of Bankers of Gambia.

He has a total of 36 years post-university experience in Banking, Finance and Consulting and was conferred with the 2015 Distinguished Alumni award by Deloitte Nigeria and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria in 2003.

In his penultimate role as Africa Co-Head Financial Institutions (FI) and Public Sector business for SCB, K.O provided strong leadership in building and managing key strategic FI relationships across West Africa. He worked closely with several Banks and Governments across the region in advising them on accessing international capital markets and ultimately improving the banks visibility in Public Sector for business success and growth in an increasingly stringent regulatory environment. He has served as Managing Director, Origination and Client Corporates for Standard Chartered Bank, West4 and Director in Wholesale Banking in Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria. He was appointed the first Regional Head of Global Corporates for Standard Chartered Africa where he led the Africa Multinational business.

He was a founding staff of SCB Nigeria and has held other positions in Standard Chartered Bank Group in the last 24 years. He has worked in Societe Generale Bank Nigeria and Deloitte Nigeria, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1990.

Lekan Adelekan

Executive Director, Head of Business Development

Lekan Adelekan is FirstBank UK’s Executive Director-Business and has the direct responsibility of overseeing and implementing the Business Strategy of the Bank across all its origination and clientele base. Prior to his appointment with FirstBank UK Ltd, he spent the last 10 years of his career with the Parent Commercial Banking Group (First Bank of Nigeria Limited) as a Senior Management Staff where he was responsible for the Oil & Gas businesses of the Bank, covering four key energy hubs (Lagos, Port Harcourt, Bonny and Abuja) and driving business synergies across the Banking Group presence countries in the UK, China, Ghana, Guinea, Gambia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and DR Congo. Prior to joining First Bank of Nigeria Ltd in 2011, he had worked with Zenith Bank, Access Bank and First City Monument Bank where he managed various Projects, Structured Commodity Finance and Relationships for Multinational Corporates and Commercial Clients.

Lekan is a seasoned banker with over 24 years’ experience covering Operations, Cash Management, Public Sector, Retail, Commercial and Corporate Banking businesses. His skill sets involve Origination & Client Coverage, Risk Management, Trades & Structured Commodity Finance and Portfolio Remediation. He has led and participated in several Asset Acquisition via Bi-Lateral and Syndicated Financing Arrangements as well as Tombstone Corporate and Project Finance structures in Gas To Liquid (GTL) and Infrastructural Developments within and outside Nigeria.

Lekan is an Alumni of The University of Ibadan, Nigeria where he graduated with First Class Honours in Agronomy. He also holds a Master of Science in Management (MSc) from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance from The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He is a Fellow of the Risk Management Association of Nigeria (RIMA), an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN)- ACIB, an Associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN)- ACA and a member of the Energy Institute of the UK. He has attended several Executive Management and Leadership courses including  “BOS” at INSEAD, University of Michigan Ross and Cornell University.

David Davis

Executive Director & Chief Financial Officer

David Davis is an Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of FirstBank UK. He has responsibility for overseeing the Finance, Treasury & Markets functions of the Bank. David performed the role of interim CEO from April to November 2023 with an expanded remit to manage the Bank’s business operations, resources and administration ensuring the right balance between growth and operational resilience in full compliance with all regulatory requirements.

Before joining FirstBank UK, David held senior finance positions whilst working with Standard Chartered for over 16 years at Group Finance in UK and as Country CFO in UAE, Botswana and Gambia. David is an accomplished banker with extensive experience in banking and financial services.

He has built and maintained strong professional relations with regulators, chairman and board of directors in developing and implementing strategic plans, drive and deliver performance improvement, effectively manage capital and liquidity and optimise the Bank’s balance sheet. David has vast experience and exposure to the UK regulatory environment and has led and directed the Bank’s ICAAP and ILAAP processes for several years.

David has over the years developed an impactful leadership style with a reputation of getting things done. He collaborates well with colleagues across the Bank and has built a strong team of professionals across the Finance, Treasury and Markets divisions. David is a Chartered Certified Accountant, holds a BSc (Hons) Economics degree from the London School of Economics, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Henley Business School and an MBA from Oxford Brookes University.

He enjoys traveling, reading and playing golf. He also serves on various charity boards with focus on African art & culture, education and entrepreneurship.

Grace Igbiniyesu

Chief Risk Officer

Grace Igbiniyesu is the Bank’s Chief Risk Officer, leading the risk management operations of the Bank.  With the Bank now at an important transformational stage, her goal is to build a robust risk culture that allows for a sustainable and predictable performance.

Her extensive experience spans more than 25 years in roles that involved risk management and oversight, development risk frameworks, and front line risk support for Citigroup, Lloyds Bank and Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur (BMCE).

She has built risk structures around trade and corporate finance products across different countries in Africa, often acting as a guest credit risk reviewer to ensure consistency of processes. She has set up bespoke lending and risk control initiatives, established an African bank’s credit risk and portfolio management functions from scratch and worked as an in-house coach on risk matters aimed at continuously improving risk culture.

Grace has a degree in business administration and an MBA.

Antonio Gutierrez

Chief Operations Officer

Antonio was appointed as Chief Operations Officer of FirstBank UK Limited in May 2020 with responsibility for overseeing Trade Finance Services, Loans Administration, Commercial Payments, Treasury Operations, IT, Information Security, Internal  Controls, Operational Resilience, and Data Management Governance.

Antonio has over 25 years of banking experience and has held several senior management roles in various international banks in Spain and the UK. Before joining FirstBank UK, Antonio was instrumental in obtaining a UK banking license for BFC Bank as well as joining the Faster Payments Scheme, SEPA and Target 2. Antonio also led the project to implement and launch BFC Bank’s internet banking platform in the UK.  Antonio has extensive experience in Islamic Finance having set up the Islamic Banking unit for EAB Bank in London where he held a few senior roles like Senior Operations Manager and Legal Adviser.

Prior to EAB Bank, Antonio was the Head of IT for Arab Bank in Spain for over 14 years where he led projects with a high degree of complexity.

Antonio is married with two boys. He has a passion for technological innovations, reading and watching football matches especially from La Liga.

Antonio is a dual qualified lawyer under Spanish and English law and holds a Master’s in legal Practices.

Paddy OHara

MLRO

Paddy photo

Paul (Paddy) O’Hara joined the Bank in November 2023, as the MLRO. He is responsible for the Financial Crime programme of the Bank.

Paddy has more than thirty years experience in managing financial crime, starting as a policeman in the late 1990s, first with London’s Metropolitan Police and then with the Royal Hong Kong Police, where he specialised in Fraud investigation.

He moved to the private sector in 1997, working for JP Morgan in Singapore, continuing to focus on fraud investigation and anti-money laundering (AML) training. He moved with JP Morgan in London in 2000, leading the client due diligence team for the Investment Bank. He moved to Hong Kong in JPMorgan in 2003 to take on the Hong Kong MLRO position, and in 2006 took on responsibility for the Financial Crime Programme for Asia.

In 2013, Paddy joined Standard Chartered Bank, assuming the role of Financial Crime Compliance Head of North East Asia, responsible for the AML, Sanctions and Anti-Bribery & Corruption programmes for the region. Much of his time was focused on building, improving and maintaining the programmes in response to issues highlighted by US and UK regulators. His remit was expanded to the whole of Asia in 2020. In addition, Paddy was co-head of the nascent Asia Wolfsberg Group, working with other prominent global banks to clarify and develop guidance for the management of financial crime risk.

In 2021, Paddy returned to the UK with his family, and worked closely with the MLRO as a contractor for Deutsche Bank London, and latterly as a senior lead to the global Financial Crime Training team.

Paddy’s passion is people management and being able to make a difference. With regulators’ continued scrutiny on financial crime across the industry, joining the Management Team of First Bank is the perfect platform.