Board of Directors

Titre degradé

Directors

Mr Othman BENJELLOUN is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BANK OF AFRICA Group, formerly Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur, which was privatised in 1995, Chairman of O CAPITAL GROUP Holdings, Chairman of Royale Marocaine d’Assurance and Chairman of Medi Telecom Orange. 

He has been the Chairman of the Professional Association of Moroccan Banks since 1995 and was Chairman of the Union of North African Banks from 2007 to 2009. 

Mr BENJELLOUN is the founder of BMCE Bank Foundation, which has two main aims: 

• Education, primarily combating illiteracy by building and managing community schools in rural areas in Morocco and Africa, and 
• Environmental protection. 

Mr BENJELLOUN was appointed as Chancellor of Al Akhawayn University of Ifrane between 1998 and January 2004 by His Majesty the late King Hassan II. In 2007, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by King’s College, London. 

Since 1981, Mr BENJELLOUN has been an Adviser to the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) that was formerly overseen by Dr Henry Kissinger. In 2013, the CSIS conferred upon him the prestigious title of Honorary Trustee. Mr BENJELLOUN has been named Officer of the Order of the Throne by His Majesty the late King Hassan II and Commander of the Order of the Polar Star by His Majesty the King of Sweden. Other distinctions include Commander of the National Order of the Republic of Senegal, Commander by Number of the Order of Isabella the Catholic by His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain, Commander of France’s Order of Arts and Letters, and Commander of the Order of the Grand Star by the Republic of Djibouti. 

On 7 April 2010, Mr BENJELLOUN was elevated to the rank of Commander of the Order of the Throne by his Majesty King Mohammed VI. 

Mr Azeddine GUESSOUS has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Maghrebail since 2004. He also sits on the Boards of a number of companies including RMA, BANK OF AFRICA, BOA Group, BANK OF AFRICA Europe (ex-BMCE Bank International Madrid), Sonasid and Imperial Tobacco Morocco. 

He is also Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Risma and a director of Al Akhawayn University. In 2001, he became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Al Watanya, an insurance company and, in 1995, Caisse Interprofessionnelle Marocaine de Retraite (CIMR). Between 2010 and 2012, Mr GUESSOUS was also Chairman of Risma’s Board of Directors. 

Between 1978 and 1994, Mr GUESSOUS held a number of senior government positions including Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism in 1978, Minister responsible for relations with the European Economic Community in 1985 and Morocco’s Ambassador to Spain between 1986 and 1993. 

Mr GUESSOUS’s decorations include Officer of the Order of Wissam, Spain’s Order of Civil Merit and Grand Cross, France’s National Order of Merit and the Order of the British Empire. 

Mr Lucien MIARA began his career at Crédit Mutuel du Centre in 1973 before moving to Crédit Mutuel Méditerranée in 1978. From 1995 to 2014, he was Chief Executive of Crédit Mutuel Méditerranéen. 

He then became Chairman of Fédération du Crédit Mutuel Méditerranéen and Caisse Régionale du Crédit Mutuel Méditerranéen. 

He is a technology graduate of the University of Nice Alpes Maritime with an elective in corporate administration.

After graduating from Paris’ Ecole Polytechnique in 1991 and then Paris’ National School of Statistics and Economic Administration in 1993, Mr Khalid SAFIR began his career at the Office d'Exploitation des Ports in the same year as head of the Port of Casablanca’s financial management division. He then joined the Ministry of Finance in 1995 as a research officer before becoming Director of Remuneration and Pensions Payments within the same department in 1998, then Director of Modernisation, Resources and Information Systems at the General Treasury of the Kingdom from 2004 to 2006. 

In 2006, His Majesty the King appointed Mr Khalid SAFIR as Governor of the district prefecture of AI-Fida-Mers-Sultan, then Governor of the district prefecture of Casablanca-Anfa in 2009, prior to being appointed, in 2011, as Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. 

15 October 2013, Mr Khalid SAFIR was appointed by His Majesty the King as Wali of the Greater Casablanca region and Governor of Casablanca prefecture, then, 13 October 2015, as Wali of the Casablanca-Settat region and Governor of the Casablanca prefecture following changes to prefecture boundaries across the Kingdom. 

25 June 2017, Mr Khalid SAFIR was appointed by His Majesty the King as Wali, Chief Executive of Local Authorities. 

13 July 2022, Mr Khalid SAFIR was appointed by His Majesty the King as Chief Executive Officer of Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion. 

Mr Hicham EL AMRANI has more than 29 years’ experience of private equity investment, financing, and corporate strategy across a wide range of industries. When FinanceCom, now O CAPITAL GROUP, was founded in 2001, Mr EL AMRANI assumed responsibility for the Technologies & Telecommunications division. Appointed as Director of Strategy & Development between 2005 and 2008, Mr EL AMRANI was subsequently promoted to the post of Delegate General Manager in 2008. He then went on to become the holding company’s Chief Executive Officer in June 2010. He has been responsible for adopting best practice in steering the performance of the various entities within the holding company’s portfolio. 

He also spearheaded a number of M&A deals, LBOs, and restructurings as part of a process of rationalising the holding company’s portfolio and reducing debt. 

In 2009, Mr EL AMRANI coordinated the process that enabled Portugal Telecom and Telefonica to acquire a stake in Medi Telecom and the sale of a 40% stake in this company to Orange in 2010. In this capacity, he is Chairman of Medi Telecom-Orange’s Audit Committee and a member of its Strategy and Appointments Committees. 

In addition to these roles, Mr EL AMRANI is a member of BANK OF AFRICA’s Group Risks Committee and Strategy Committee, Chairman of RMA’s Strategy Committee and member of its Audit Committee. He is also a Director of O TOWER, CTM, RISMA, Air Arabia Maroc, Finatech, Colliers International Maroc and Brico-Invest. He has served as Chairman of the Audit Committees of Air Arabia Maroc, RISMA and CTM. 

Mr EL AMRANI is an engineering graduate of Ecole Hassania des Travaux Publics and holds an MBA and a Graduate Certificate in Manufacturing and Service Management from Southern New Hampshire University. Mr EL AMRANI is a Certified Administrator of INSEAD in 2022 and a Qualified Risk Director of the DCRO Institute. He has also been awarded certificates from Singularity University’s Executive Program and IMD’s Driving Sustainability from the Boardroom. 

Mr Mohamed KABBAJ is currently Chancellor of the Euromed University of Fez. He formerly served as Minister of Finance and Foreign Investment, overseeing implementation of vital financial reforms that resulted in the modernisation and deregulation of the banking system. 

As Minister, he also oversaw the successful privatisation, in 1995, of Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur, which attracted investment from a consortium of Moroccan and foreign institutional and financial investors led by Royale Marocaine d’Assurance. 

Mr KABBAJ is a graduate of the prestigious École Française Polytechnique and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. He also has a diploma in Advanced Studies in Econometrics from the Sorbonne, Paris. 

He had a long and successful career as head of various departments at the Ministry of Public Works prior to becoming Minister. As such, he represented the contracting authority and the prime contractor for many of the country's infrastructure projects. 

From 2000 to 2005, he was Adviser to His Majesty King Mohammed VI, before being appointed Governor of the Greater Casablanca region for nearly four years. 

Previous socio-professional appointments include two terms as Member of Parliament from 1993 to 2003, Chairman of several foundations and associations, including the Spirit of Fez Foundation, Fez-Saiss, the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, and Chairman of Lafarge Holcim Maroc, the Development Committee of the IMF and the World Bank. He was also a Member of Lafarge International Group’s Advisory Board, Coordinator of the Permanent Inter-ministerial Committee of State-owned Enterprises and Chairman of the Watch Committee of State-owned Enterprises as well as Vice-Chancellor of Al Akhawayn University.

Mrs Nezha LAHRICHI holds a State Doctorate in Economics, the first awarded to a woman in Morocco. 

She began her career in academia and research as Professor of Higher Education, specialising in domestic and international monetary and financial economics. She was concurrently a member of the ‘Centre Marocain de Conjoncture’, an economics think tank.

After acting as special adviser to three Prime Ministers, notably with responsibility for economic and financial affairs, Mrs LAHRICHI was then entrusted with the responsibility of heading up Société Marocaine d’Assurance à l’Exportation (SMAEX) as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, a post that enabled her to gain experience of the credit insurance and risk business. 

After time spent as a member of parliament, her second responsibility was to chair the National Foreign Trade Council. The latter’s transformation into an observatory was the catalyst for the creation of a business intelligence and strategic planning system. Mrs LAHRICHI was Director of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT) for two terms of office. 

She also sat for ten years on the National Savings and Investment Council (CNME) as well as being a member of the Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion’s supervisory committee as the Prime Minister’s representative. 

Mrs LAHRICHI recently published an essay titled Le pouvoir entre réalisme et illusion (Power Between Realism and Illusion), recounting her time working with three prime ministers. The essay is particularly timely as it comes amid a wave of populism, and notably reflects on whether or not it is compatible with democracy.

Prior to launching InVivo Partners Ltd, Mrs Ngozi EDOZIEN served as Managing Director of Actis LLP’s West Africa business, a leading private equity firm specialising in emerging markets. She draws on more than 35 years’ experience in finance, consulting and operational management. Mrs EDOZIEN currently sits on the boards of several listed companies in the UK, South Africa and Nigeria as an independent director, generating value for businesses and clients. She advises African start-ups in a variety of sectors including healthcare, FMCG, financial services and technology. 

Mrs EDOZIEN began her professional career in corporate finance, first at Salomon Brothers and then at J.P. Morgan, both in New York. She subsequently left JPM to pursue an MBA at Harvard University. 

After obtaining her MBA, she worked for McKinsey & Company in London and Paris where she became an Associate Principal. 

In 1999, she joined Pfizer Inc. in New York, where she was Vice President, Strategic Planning and Business Development until 2005, when she was transferred to Nigeria as Pfizer Pharmaceuticals’ Regional Director for East Africa, Anglophone West Africa and Lusophone Africa. 

Mrs EDOZIEN holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) (cum laude) degree in Social Studies (government, philosophy and economics) from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, Harvard University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. She has completed advanced management training in governance and finance at IMD, INSEAD, Harvard and other institutions. She was also an Aspen Leadership Institute Fellow and a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, among other global institutions.

Laureen KOUASSI-OLSSON is a highly respected professional in the private equity and financial services industry in Africa. She is one of the continent’s most influential African personalities. 

She began her career in London in the Mergers and Acquisitions division of Lehman Brothers, an investment bank. In 2008, following the latter’s collapse, she decided to specialise in responsible finance and refocus on her continent of origin. In 2009, Mrs KOUASSI-OLSSON joined Proparco, a subsidiary of the French Development Agency focused on the private sector, where she was responsible for private equity and debt structuring and execution for African financial institutions. 

In 2012, Mrs KOUASSI-OLSSON joined Amethis, a major French private equity firm backed by the Edmond de Rothschild Group specialising in the continent. At Amethis, based in Paris, she was responsible for the fund’s investment strategy in the financial sector covering the entire continent. She was heavily involved in creating long-term value for the fund's investment holdings and worked with the companies in question to determine their local and regional growth strategies – restructuring, diversification and acquisition-led growth. In 2016, Mrs KOUASSI-OLSSON moved to Abidjan to launch Amethis West Africa, a regional fund incorporated in Côte d'Ivoire, with capital raised from local and regional institutions and invested in SMEs in French-speaking West and Central Africa. On returning to Africa, she quickly became aware of the wealth of the continent’s creative industries. Leveraging her track record in private equity and her close relationship with African designers, in 2020, she founded Birimian Ventures, a financial institution which aims to develop long-term brand equity and global renown for brands which showcase Africa’s creative excellence. 

Laureen KOUASSI-OLSSON remains heavily involved in the financial sector and sits as an independent director on the boards of several financial institutions in Africa. 

She is an alumna of EM Lyon and Harvard Business School.

Jinane LAGHRARI is a former partner with McKinsey & Company. She worked with public institutions for nearly 20 years. Mrs LAGHRARI has managed a variety of projects involving the setting of public policy or the development of industries or regions in the areas of economics, finance, transport, tourism, industry, employment, the interior and national education. She has also managed projects for large private companies in the region. 

Formerly in charge of economic development in the EEMEA region at McKinsey, Mrs LAGHRARI was a member of McKinsey’s Public Sector division board. She also has extensive experience in the private sector, having served as Deputy Managing Director of Aksal Group from 2011 to 2014. 

She earned an MBA from ESSEC Business School in 2004 and a degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2024. She is also very civically engaged through a number of foundations and associations, notably in the fields of education and social inclusion. 

Jinane LAGHRARI has been an Independent Director of Ryanair International in Dublin since 1 July 2024. She also holds unpaid positions on the board of directors of the Moroccan Foundation for the Promotion of Preschool Education (FMPS) and on ISCAE, UNA and UM6P committees. 

She is fluent in Arabic, French, English and Spanish. 

Mr Brahim BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI is Director & Executive General Manager of BANK OF AFRICA with more direct responsibilities in relation to Group Governance & CSR, Compliance, Legal, Human Capital, Communication and Strategy. As such, he is an associate member of various Specialised Committees that are offshoots of the Board of Directors – the Governance, Appointments and Remuneration Committee, the Group Risks Committee, and the Group Audit and Internal Control Committee – in addition to being a member of the Strategy Task Force. 

From 2015 to 2024, steering BANK OF AFRICA Group’s international strategy, Mr Brahim BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI was Chairman of BOA Group, a banking group in which BANK OF AFRICA Group had a stake of 81.82% at end-June 2026 and which has operations in some 20 countries in Africa. 

He is also Director of the Group’s European banking subsidiaries. As far as his other posts are concerned, he is either Board Chairman or Director of a number of Group companies in Morocco. 

Within the framework of strategic partnerships with reference shareholders, Mr Brahim BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI is a Director of RMA, an insurance company and O Capital Group, its holding company. 

Reflecting the Group’s commitment to corporate social responsibility, Mr Brahim BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI is a Director of BMCE Bank Foundation for Education and Environmental Protection and of the Othman Benjelloun Foundation. 

He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Casablanca Stock Exchange as well as its Governance, Nominations and Remuneration Committee, and he sits on the Board of Directors of Proparco, a France-based development finance institution and subsidiary of the AFD (Agence Française de Développement).

Mr Brahim BENJELLOUN-TOUIMI is a Doctor of Money, Finance and Banking from Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. After a study internship with the International Monetary Fund in Washington in 1985, he began his career in financial markets in France in 1986, becoming Head of Research within the Securities division at one of France’s large investment banks, before joining in 1990 Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur, which was renamed BANK OF AFRICA BMCE Group in 2020. 

After obtaining a science-based high school diploma with honours in 1993 from Lycée Descartes in Rabat, Mrs Myriem BOUAZZAOUI continued her studies at the University of Paris IX Dauphine, obtaining a Master’s in Management Sciences (Finance) with honours in 1998. 

On returning to Morocco in 1999, she joined BANK OF AFRICA Group’s portfolio management subsidiary as an Equity Portfolio Manager, then as Head of Investment Management. 

Whilst working at the company, Mrs BOUAZZAOUI obtained, in 1999, the certificate of financial analyst issued by the French Society of Financial Analysts (SFAF) and then, in 2000, the French Diploma of Accounting and Finance (DECF). 

In 2007, she was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the BMCE Capital Gestion Privée subsidiary, which she has managed since it was founded. She also became a Member of BMCE Capital’s Executive Board in 2013. 

From late March 2018 through March 2025, Mrs Myriem BOUAZZAOUI served as Managing Director of BMCE Capital Gestion and was responsible for managing BMCE Capital’s Asset & Wealth Management division.

She remains a member of the Executive Board that oversees BMCE Capital Gestion’s Asset & Wealth Management division, supervising its asset management, private wealth management and discretionary management activities.  

In 2023, Myriem BOUAZZAOUI earned a Corporate Director’s Certificate from Sciences Po Paris. 

Since March 2025, she has also served as Managing Director of BMCE Capital Gestion Privée and BMCE Capital Gestion Privée International.