International Corporate Finance

INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE FINANCE 50 LEADERS

One of the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in

Finance, by American Banker

Plays an active role in promoting positive social

change in developing countries.

A prominent analyst, Chang has

profound expertise in fixed inco-

me research and emerging markets.

She leads 1,000 analysts worldwide

in conducting research in various

areas including monetary policies

bonds and interest rates to provide

investment opportunities for the

JPMorgan trading and investing

team. Before joining JPMorgan in

1999, she was a managing director

at BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Di-

vision. Beyond her own career, she

is dedicated to building a diverse

working environment. One of her

goals is to have 50% of her staff

worldwide be female. She also ac-

tively participates in organizations

that improve the quality of life of

disadvantaged groups, such as

Trickle up and Girls Inc.

Joyce Chang

Global Head of Research,

JP MORGAN

Former Executive Vice President of Global

Product Development

Topped Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful

Women list in 2015

Mary Barra started her career at GM

in the early 80s occupying several

positions in the engineering de-

partment. Under Barra’s leadership,

General Motors is transforming per-

sonal mobility through advanced

technologies such as connectivity,

electrification and autonomous

driving. In March 2016 GM an-

nounced the acquisition of Cruise

Automation, a San Francisco-based

developer of autonomous vehicle

technology, in a deal valued at $1

billion. Barra has also established a

strategic direction based on putting

the customer at the core of every-

thing the company does. She is

considered one of the most power-

ful women in the world and offers

several reasons to be optimistic

about the auto giant’s future.

Mary T. Barra, CEO and

Chairman, GENERAL

MOTORS COMPANY

Ranked the world’s second most powerful

women by Fortune

Has shifted PepsiCo’s focus from carbonized

drinks to healthier products

Nooyi graduated from Yale School of

Management and joined PepsiCo in

1994. She was named CEO in 2006.
      Since then she has been dedicated
      to redirecting PepsiCo’s value focus
      from cola drinks and fast food chains
      to healthy products. Nooyi separated
      PepsiCo’s brands into three categories:
      Fun for you, Good for you, and Better for
      you. To further create value for the lat-
      ter two categories, she supported the
      spin off of brands such as Pizza Hut
      and KFC in 1997. Then she imple-
      mented the $13 billion merger with
      Quaker Oats Co. and the acquisition
      of Tropicana in 2000. The prescient
      strategic redirection has shown its
      long-term effect, not only shifting the
      corporate perception but also raising
      PepsiCo’s average net income to more
      than $6 billion in the past five years.

Indra K. Nooyi

Chairman and CEO,

PEPSICO

Leaders League. Ecobank defines itself

as a pan-African bank, with a presence

in 33 African countries. What are the

challenges in terms of the structure and

organization of your network?

Evelyne Tall. Ecobank is a pan-African

bank whose ambition is to give the hi-

ghest quality service to our clients. We can

indeed talk in terms of challenges when

we operate in 33 countries with different

currencies and regulations - if you group

together the 10 UEMOA (West African

Economic and Monetary Union) countries

and the 33 CEMAC (Economic Commu-

nity of Central African States) nations, we

find ourselves facing over twenty regula-

tors - but our approach to market integra-

tion is decisive. Each time we set up in one

country, we establish ourselves in all the

countries of this zone and so capitalize on

the common markets.

Leaders League. What regulatory dif-

ficulties can a pan-African bank be

confronted with today?

E. T. The specificity of the banking sector is

that we are subject to tight regulation. This is

neither a difficulty, nor a challenge, but rather

a complexity that you must cope with when

you have a cross border operation and are the

depository for the savings of many thousands

of people. The biggest risk in our profession is

loss of reputation. At Ecobank we have no to-

lerance for non-compliance with the different

regulations we are subject to.

Leaders League. What will the African

bank of tomorrow look like?

E. T. The African bank of tomorrow will

be cross-border and offer the best services

to clients, who increasingly demand the

same standards as those in more deve-

loped markets. It will be a bank that

knows how to distribute its products

through different channels, be it agencies,

ATMs, the Internet or cell phones. It will

also be a bank that’s available 24/7. Lastly

it will have to respect regulations and have

a virtuous policy regarding governance.

THE AFRICAN BANK

OF TOMORROW WILL

BE CROSS-BORDER AND

OFFER THE BEST SERVICES

TO CLIENTS

“The biggest risk in our

profession is loss of reputation”

Evelyne Tall

Group COO, ECOBANK

© JPMorgan