18 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2017
Long groomed for the spotlight, Marlene, 26 , and sister Nang
Lang Kham, 2 9, are both executive directors of KBZ Group and
deputy CEOs of KBZ Bank. They’re regarded as two of the bright-
est lights in a wave of young Myanmar business leaders. Nang is in
demand as a conference speaker, with foreign executives keen for
insights into the country’s business reboot. Marlene seems to be the
deep thinker; she originally planned a career in the foreign service.
The pair exudes a bubbly, infectious energy. The upbeat impres-
sion is heightened by a tour of a KBZ office. With an incubator lab
and walls sporting signs with bright, inspirational messages, it could
be the home of a tech startup. The sisters buzz about investments
in high-speed internet to connect the bank’s branches and about
creative digital-advertising campaigns targeting customers on
mobile phones. They mention a tie-in with Viber, a popular voice-
and-messaging service that uses the internet. The conversations
seem ordinary, except that this is a country where cellphones and
the internet were outlawed until not long ago.
In May, KBZ won praise for hiring an American banker, Mike
DeNoma, as chief executive. He has extensive experience around
Asia, including serving as CEO of Taiwan’s Chinatrust Commercial
Bank and expanding it to ten countries. “This is an amazing time
for Myanmar,” he says. “Where else in the world can you find a
country where 3 0% of the people have electricity, 2 0% have a bank
account, but 90% have smartphones?” He says KBZ will continue
to modernize. “Within six months, you’ll see a lot, like anywhere-
anytime banking.”
KBZ has managed to avoid being tainted by the corruption
that’s plagued Myanmar for decades (and by the current Rohingya
refugee crisis). International organizations put the bank through
meticulous vetting before signing on as a partner on various proj-
ects, and these groups heap praise on KBZ. “In terms of business
operations they grade very high,” says a senior official with a large
international financier. “They can be aggressive, but they don’t just
chase wealth. They genuinely care about investing in the country,
and its future, by supporting its upcoming entrepreneurs.”
KBZ has focused on its human-resources department, working
to make sure it treats employees well. It’s also spending money oncorporate social responsibility. Its Brighter Future
Myanmar Foundation has financed water projects in
the parents’ home Shan State, independent advocacy
films and the Yangon Photo Festival, controversial
for highlighting uncensored photojournalism. In
2014 , KBZ was ranked No. 1 for transparency by the
Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business.
One of KBZ’s first businesses was mining for
rubies in Shan State. Mining in Myanmar is a murky
industry marked by smuggling and payoffs to gener-
als, and a report by London-based Global Witness in
2015 outlined the corruption. The group says KBZ
was one of the only companies to cooperate with
research for the exposé. The mine is still operational,
according to a KBZ spokeswoman, but the focus is
now on reforestation and modernization. “We are
committed to responsible mining,” she says. The KBZ
website notes: “We are committed to meeting inter-
national norms and standards in all our business operations. We
have zero-tolerance policies for bribery or facilitation payments.”
Some of Nan’s fellow teachers formed Kanbawza Bank in 1994 as
a sort of credit union in the Shan State capital of Taunggyi. (KBZ is
short for Kanbawza, a Pali word for the Shan region.) Aung’s trading
and mining business prospered, and two years later, he bought the
banking operation. Aung (now 55 ) moved KBZ and his family to
Yangon in the late 1990s, when there were only 4 branches. Now
there are 485 , and KBZ expects to reach 500 by the end of the year.
The family lived in the headquarters building—customers
bustled in the branch at street level with offices above, while home
was the top floor. “Nang always wanted to work in the bank,” says
Marlene. “But now we both are really involved.” Adds Nang: “Bank-
ing is exciting, really one of the last frontiers here. We grew up in the
bank. Even as kids, we were always there, greeting customers. We
always felt a part of it.”
Like many children of the elite in Myanmar, Nang and Marlene
were sent to school overseas. Nang studied business administra-
tion and management at the National University of Singapore,
then earned a master’s degree in management at the University of
Sydney. Marlene spent four years at Georgetown University’s School
of Foreign Service in Qatar before getting a master’s degree in inno-
vation, entrepreneurship and management from Imperial College
Business School in London. (The youngest sister, Tracy Nang Mo
Hom, 2 1, is training to be a doctor.)
The sisters praise their parents’ acumen in building the business.
Their mother, 6 0, the vice chairman, is described as the ultimate
bean counter and has the final say on all financing. “Dad is very
progressive,” notes Nang. “He knows more about Facebook than us,
and he’s not on Facebook!” Instead, she says, he spends lots of time
in Myanmar’s original information highway—tea shops. “He goes
and listens to everyone.”
The first candidate for a listing among the company’s many
businesses might be insurance, the sisters acknowledge. But the
options are numerous, and KBZ holds many cards. “Our dad is the
strategist,” says Nang. “In any business you have to have a plan. Even
when we were very young, they had a plan.”FORBES ASIA
ALL IN THE FAMILY
F“They genuinely care about investing in the country”: Aung Ko Win and wife Nan Than
Htwe; their third daughter, Tracy Nang Mo Hom (second from left), is studying medicine.