Board of directors

Mr Bakary Kamara has served as Chairman of African Reinsurance Corporation South Africa Ltd since July 2004, after joining the company as Secretary General of the Group from September 1984 and being appointed Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer in July 1993. He has also been Chairman of Africa Retakaful (Egypt) since April 2009.

Kamara is an Administrateur Civil (the highest category in the French speaking civil service).

He began his career in the insurance industry as a Legal Adviser for SMAR - Mauritania’s State insurance company - from 1 May to 11 November 1978. He occupied the role of Deputy Managing Director from September 1979 to January 1984, while also serving as visiting professor in third-year Business Law at the National School of Public Administration (E.N.A.) during the 1978-1979 academic year. From 1980 to 1984 he occupied the role of Director at AFARCO, a Mauritanian real estate company.

Kamara served as Technical Adviser to the Minister of Finance & Trade (in charge of insurance matters and International Trade Relations) from January to August 1984.

He is currently the Executive Chairman of Gras Savoye Mauritania and an International

Consultant in Management, Governance and Coaching.

Kamara serves as Independent Director in several insurance and reinsurance

companies and banks, and has been a member of various boards, councils and professional

bodies. He speaks French, English, Soninke, Pular, Wolof, Hassaniya and Spanish.

Mr Kamara holds a Bachelor's Degree in General Law and Faculty of Law (Dakar), a Master's Degree in Civil Law - Business Law (Dakar), a Diploma of the Insurance Institute of Tours (France) and Diploma of High Studies (D.E.S.S) in Insurance Law (France). 

Dr Corneille KAREKEZI rose to the current position of Group Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer of Africa Re in July 2011 after a transitional period of 2 years during which he served successively as Deputy Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director / Chief Operating Officer. Between 2003 and 2005 he served on the Board of Africa Re.

His professional career started in 1991 as Chief Accountant /Reinsurance Manager of the leading insurance company in Burundi (SOCABU s.m.), where he rose to the position of Head of the Finance Department. In 1995, he joined the leading insurance company in Rwanda (SONARWA s.a.) as Deputy Head of the Commercial & Technical Department. From 1996, he successively headed all the Technical Departments (Motor, Fire, Accidents & Miscellaneous Risks and Life) and was appointed Deputy Managing Director in early 2001. In February 2008, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of SONARWA s.a.

Dr KAREKEZI holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics (Burundi), Postgraduate diplomas in Business Administration (UK), a Master’s degree in Management (Burundi), an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration (UK) and a Doctorate in Business Administration (France). He speaks fluently English, French, Swahili and other African languages.

Since 1996, he has contributed significantly to the development of the insurance / reinsurance industry in Africa through his involvement and leadership in various national, regional and continental initiatives and organizations. He has equally participated actively as speaker in seminars, conferences, symposia and other fora across the world.

He has served as Chairman and member of various governing bodies of financial institutions in Africa. He is currently the Vice Chairman of Africa Re (South Africa) Limited, Vice Chairman of Africa Retakaful Company (Egypt) and a Member of the Executive Committee of the African Insurance Organization (AIO) where he chairs the Finance Committee.

Independent Non-Executive Director

Mr Flejou is currently the Chief Executive Officer, in charge of New Markets Development, AXA Mediterranean & Latin American Region. He attended École Centrale de Paris, Institut des Actuaires Français and DESCF graduating as Engineer, Actuary and Accountant respectively.

Mr. Themba Baloyi is a Co-Founder of Sithega Holdings, with a focused purpose to invest in companies that enable the magic of financial freedom to be accessible to all. Prior to Sithega, Baloyi founded Discovery Insure Ltd, a Short-term Insurance Company launched in 2011. He worked on the Discovery Insure vision against all the rebuttals until it came to fruition. The Discovery Insure work propelled him to win the 2018 AABLA Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He was honoured as a 2015 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (WEF-YGL), a tribute bestowed to recognize the most distinguished leaders under the age of 40 around the world.

Mr. Baloyi is a board member of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation (AGOF); Cube Capital, Prescient Empowerment Trust and New Leaders Foundation (NLF). In 2003 he co-founded Black Insurance Professionals of Southern Africa (BIPSA). He was the initiator and Pretoria Chapter Chair of the mentorship programme for the Young Presidents Organisation (YPO) designed to guide high potential future leaders to achieve their career objectives. He was a Member of the YPO Africa Region Board for 2years where he led the adoption of the Mentorship Programme in various countries in Africa.

Prior to joining Discovery, Mr. Baloyi worked for Rubico Consulting Services where he led a team that was responsible for the design of the accounting processes and client management systems. Some of Mr. Baloyi’s work history includes time with Siemens Ltd in Johannesburg and Durban Metro Wastewater Services where he was responsible for budgeting and commercial accounting systems.

Mr. Baloyi joined African Reinsurance Corporation (South Africa) Limited as an Independent Non-Executive Director in March 2020.

Mr Phillip Pettersen has served on the Board at Africa Reinsurance Corporation South Africa Ltd since July 2012, and has been Chairman of the Risk and Underwriting Committee, and a member of the Audit Committee and the Social and Ethics Committee.

He has been in the financial services industry for 43 years, and spent 1972 to 1986 gaining experience in broking and underwriting. From 1986 to 2000 he served as Director of various Alexander Forbes Operating Companies. He was also Managing Director for Forbes Reinsurance Broking Services, Managing Director for Nelson Hurst Reinsurance and Head of New Solutions at Partner Re (Zurich).

From 2000 to 2008 he was based in Switzerland as Head of New Solutions for Partner Re (Bermuda), the sixth largest reinsurance company at the time. Two years later, he returned to the broking profession as MD of the ART division with EW Blanch (UK). The Benfield Group (now AON) soon after bought the company and he was transferred to the ReMetrics team, where he served for six years before occupying the role of Managing Director at Towers Perrin Re Bermuda. While in Bermuda, he was successful in establishing the reinsurance office for the Towers Perrin Group, and substantially growing revenue.

Pettersen’s career as a professional Non-executive Director began in 2008 at Flagstone Re SA, previously known as Imperial Re. His portfolio included Chair of the Audit committee and serving on the Risk Committee. Thereafter, he joined the Board at Telesure Investments Holding.

In early 2012, Flagstone Group in Bermuda decided to exit from South Africa. Pettersen was instrumental in selling the portfolio to RMB in July 2013 and it was successfully deregistered and shut down. At the time of the sale he was serving as Chairman of the Board.

He currently serves as a Non-executive Director on six insurance licensed and regulated entities in South Africa and on FSC-regulated Assurance entity International Assurance Limited PCC (IAL) in Mauritius. He is on the Telesure Investment Holdings Board and is Chair of Lakeland Homes Share Block Limited. His other commitments include that of Executive Consultant to NMG Benefits on the restructuring of their short-term broking operation and Africa Health & Accident Insurance initiatives (2010-present) and Lockton Group local representative firstEquity Risk Management Services Ltd as specialist Executive New Business consultant advising them on the technical structuring of large/global corporate clients.

Pettersen is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK), a Fellow of the Insurance Institute of South Africa, Chartered Risk Manager.

He is a recipient of the CII International Boleslaw Monic Reinsurance Prize for the Most Meritorious Paper in the 1990 Fellowship Examination (IISA) and the Most Meritorious Paper in the 1992 Fellowship Examination (IISA).

Pettersen was elected as a Fellow of the South African Risk Management Society, an Associate of the Institute of Risk Management and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors - UK and South Africa. He served as the Chair of the Society of Fellows in South Africa and the UK and as a member of the Transvaal Insurance Institute (now known as the Gauteng Institute). He was also a part time lecturer to Wits Risk Management students, covering Reinsurance.

Mr Kumsa has occupied the roles of: Accountant/Chief Accountant of the ex-Union Insurance Company of Ethiopia (1970-1976), Chief Accountant/Head of Internal Audit & Inspection/Financial Manager/Deputy General Manager/General Manager of the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation (1976-1992), Managing Director/CEO of the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation (July 1991 - December 1992 and April 1995 - July 1999) and Deputy Branch Manager at the Arab Insurance Group - Tunis Branch (December 1992 - November 1994).

He occupied the role of Deputy Managing Director (Operations) at the African Reinsurance Corporation Ltd from August 1999 to July 2010.

Kumsa established Berhan Insurance S.C, trained a number of staff and opened eight branches in Addis Ababa and Hawasa. He occupied the role of Managing Director from December 2010 to July 2014.

He has served as Project Manager of the Ethiopian Reinsurance Share Company since July 2016.

He was a part-time lecturer at the Banking and Insurance Institute of Ethiopia from 1984 to 1987.

Kumsa’s Thesis for his MBA Degree won an award in 1989, from the Federation of Afro-Asian Insurers and Reinsurers (FAIR), as one of the best research papers written in the field of insurance. He has participated in several seminars and given presentations at various conferences.

He holds a Master of Business Administration (Scotland), a Bachelor of Business Administration (Ethiopia) and a Diploma in Commerce (Ethiopia). He has also received extensive re-insurance and insurance training. He was connected to the ex-Commercial Union and Scottish Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United Kingdom in 1981 and 1989.

Kumsa has participated in 10 boards and regional associations, three of which he is still a member. He serves as Chairman of the Board for the Ethiopian Reinsurance Share Company and Member of the Board and Chairman of Addis Village Real Estate SC. At Africa Re, he serves as Member of the Board, Audit Committee, Risk and Underwriting Committee and Human Resource and Administration Committee.

Mrs Sizakele Mzimela has served as an Independent Non-executive Director for African Reinsurance Corporation South Africa since June 2013, also serving as Chairperson of the Social and Ethics Committee and a member of the Audit Committee.

She currently chairs the board of JSE-listed company Cargo Carriers and also serves on the board of Bryte Insurance amongst others. Her past directorships include being a non-executive director at SA Tourism.

Mzimela has held various pioneering roles within the aviation industry. This includes being the first black woman to start an airline and the first female appointed to the board of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 67 years.

She is the founder of Fly Blue Crane and is the executive chairperson of Blue Crane Aviation. She previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of both South African Airways and SA Express Airways.

Under Mzimela’s leadership, SAA achieved a first in the history of the airline: introducing direct services to New York and Beijing. Her other notable achievements include serving as President of the African Airlines Association (2012), receiving the Individual Achievement Award for Outstanding Leadership and Service to the Aviation Industry from the African Airlines Association (2008), being a finalist in the Nedbank Business Women of the Year Award (2002) and being recognised in the international publication ‘The 100 Greatest Women in Aviation’.

She is a member of ARC, NC and REMCO, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Statistics, a Management Certificate from Henley College and completed the GIBS Executive Management program.

After graduating from university in 1986, Mr Tennick joined Swiss Re in Johannesburg as a graduate trainee. During a 14-year career he worked in various capacities culminating in management of the underwriting and subsequently the client management functions. 

He then joined the Imperial Holdings Group in Johannesburg and set up Imperial Reinsurance before moving to the Group’s insurance business, Regent Insurance, as an executive director with various responsibilities including underwriting, reinsurance and risk management. He was joint CEO of the Regent Insurance Group at the time he left the Group.

Mr Tennick holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Cape Town and is an Associate (ACII) and Fellow (FCII) of the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK).
He became Managing Director of African Reinsurance Corporation South Africa in April 2018.

Mr Ibrahim Ibisomi is an Executive Director at African Reinsurance Corporation Ltd and occupies the role of General Manager: Finance & Admin. Since joining the corporation in 2000, he has been engaged in managing the financial reporting, budgetary control, investment and administrative functions of the Nairobi Regional Office, and later of Africa Re South Africa where his responsibility extends to overseeing the Risk Management, ICT, Credit Control and Human Resources Management functions. He serves as the Company Secretary and coordinates the company’s preparations for the new regulatory framework in South Africa.

He is a multi-disciplinary professional with academic and professional qualifications spanning the fields of Economics, Banking and Finance, Law, Accountancy, Taxation, Risk Management and General Management. He is currently engaged in Leadership Studies and has many publications and presentations to his credit.

Ibisomi started his career in a global professional accounting firm with training and job exposure in many business areas - including accounting and audit, taxation, and management consulting - across several countries. He then moved on to a start-up commercial bank where for three years he headed the planning, finance control and credit administration functions. For another three years he operated a co-owned financial consulting, training and professional services firm before proceeding to head up the inventory accounting, costing and management reporting functions of a multinational oil-marketing firm.

Ibisomi has proven leadership, people management and negotiation skills gained from a diverse set of responsibilities spanning 30 years in five African countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya and South Africa), five companies (including three multinational/international organisations) and four industries (professional services, banking, petroleum marketing and reinsurance). He sits on a number of boards and board committees.