The London and Johannesburg-listed bank and asset manager, Old Mutual, has added Zoe Cruz and Adiba Ighodaro to its board as independent non-executive directors, as the firm aims to have its group leadership represent expertise across its range of financial services.

The London and Johannesburg-listed bank and asset manager, Old Mutual, has added Zoe Cruz and Adiba Ighodaro to its board as independent non-executive directors, effective immediately. The move is part of the firm’s bid to have the group leadership represent expertise across its range of financial services.

“With these appointments, we now have a board which reflects substantial diversity in terms of skills, experience, geography and gender. The composition of the board has been structured so as to match and support the evolution and focus of the group's strategy,” said chairman Patrick O'Sullivan when commenting on the appointments.

“Zoe's extensive experience of international financial markets and asset management will provide us with additional insight into these important areas of the group's business, while Adiba's deep knowledge of investing and operating in sub-Saharan Africa will widen the board's ability to evaluate opportunities as we pursue our strategy of expanding further into this region.”

The appointments come as Bongani Nqwababa, who has been an independent non-executive director of Old Mutual since April 2007, resigned from the board today.

As such, the firm said that various changes have been made to board committee memberships following the annual review of the composition of the committees and in light of the aforementioned changes to the board. In this respect, Old Mutual said that Danuta Gray will step down from the Group Audit Committee and will succeed Alan Gillespie as chairman of the Remuneration Committee after the 2014 Annual General Meeting. Gillespie will still remain a member of that committee after ceasing to be its chairman.

Zoe Cruz has an extensive background in financial services, having served as co-president for institutional securities and wealth management at Morgan Stanley from 2005 to 2007, prior to founding and running her own investment management firm, Voras Capital Management. She previously served at Morgan Stanley as the global head of fixed income, commodities and foreign exchange, having joined the company in 1982.

Adiba Ighodaro is currently a partner with Actis, an emerging markets investment firm. She has served with the Commonwealth Development Corporation, first in London, and later in Lagos. Actis was spun out of CDC in 2004, resulting in Ighodaro's role changing primarily to raising investment funding for the firm’s funds. In addition, Ighodaro has also contributed extensively to various think tanks, including the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, the Privatisation Committee and the Nigerian-South African Business Council.