By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Primary mortgage firm, Abbey Building Society Plc Friday said it has appointed Emile Hubert Groove as an independent director of the company.
The company said following a board meeting it held on November 22, 2013. It appointed Groot as an independent director to take effect from February 1, 2014.
‘’This appointment is however, subject to the approval of the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) in consonance with the provisions of Section 48 (1) of the bank and other financial institutions act cap B3 Laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004 ed,’’ Abbey Building said.
Groot was born in 1950 and holds Masters’ Degree (M.Sc.) from the Northern Illinois University in Dekalb (NIU), Illinois, USA (1974) before obtaining his Doctorate Degree (P.HD) in Economics (including Banking and Monetary Theory) at the University of Tilburg, The Netherlands in October 1974.
He started his working career in May 1975 as a staff member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for research of several African countries at the Hague, Netherlands.
Groot became a full time Lector in Economics at Masters Level at the Polytechnic University of Mexico City between (staff member of UNESCO, Paris) 1976 – 1978 while between 1978 and 1983 he became the Advisor to the National Institute of Labour Studies (INET) in Mexico City.
He has also worked in the under listed places:
? Advisor to the Nicaraguan Investment Fund in Managua, Nicaragua on assignment of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, The Netherlands (1983 – 1990)
? FMO, Senior Investment Officer Latin America: Project financing and financing of Financial Intermediaries (1985 – 1990)
? Manager Small Scale Enterprise Department responsible for all FMO’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) investment world-wide (1990 – 2005)
? Financial Sector Specialist in the Asia Department, Member of the Board of Shore cap International, Chicago; AfriCap, Johannesburg; Bellwether and Lok Capital in India and Board Member of Grass Roots Business Fund (Washington, DC) among other Financial Sector areas (between 2006 – June, 2009)
Groot has attended several courses across the world both in the area of banking and in financial institution as a whole among which are: banking course in Ireland, Dublin, 2000, IFC’s banking course in Turkey in April 2001, negotiation course on restructuring of a financial institution, May 2002, Johannesburg among others.
He was the financial sector specialist at the special operations department (distressed assets in FMO’s Sustainability Group) prior to this appointment. Groot is an international speaker married with one child.
