Chief Executive Officer Orange Bank Africa
Originally from Côte d'Ivoire, Jean-Louis Menann-Kouamé, 43, took office on January 1, 2020 as Chief Executive Officer. Before his appointment, he was CEO of the international bank for trade and industry in Burkina Faso (BICIAB), a subsidiary of the BNP Paribas banking group, where he spent most of his career.
He graduated from the National School of Business and Management of Agadir in Morocco (Financial and Accounting Management) in 1998. Subsequently, in 2012, he obtained a Master’s in Strategy and Management of International Business from the ESSEC International Business School in Paris. His thesis focused on "improving the negotiating power of African states in the development of natural resources (mining, oil & gas): case study of Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon and Mali".
Jean-Louis Menann-Kouamé has spent most of his career at BNP Paribas, firstly looking after financial engineering for the management and intermediation company BICI Bourse in 1999, before his appointment three years later, at 25, as the Managing Director of this BNP Paribas UEMOA subsidiary, in charge of market operations.
In 2006, he joined the Group’s Internal Audit department in Paris, where he audited the group’s dissolutions and subsidiaries around the world. In 2009, Jean-Louis Menann-Kouamé was appointed Deputy Director of the Africa Department of BNP Paribas, based in Paris, supervising subsidiaries in Sub-Saharan Africa, mainly Madagascar, Gabon, Mali and Senegal.
In 2012, he returned to Africa and became Deputy CEO of BICI Guinea, the first bank in this country.
In 2014, he was promoted to Managing Director of BNP Paribas' most important subsidiary south of the Sahara, BICI Côte d'Ivoire, becoming the youngest to hold this position in the history of the bank.
Named best manager of the year 2017 in Côte d'Ivoire by Ivorian employers, and laureate of the Choiseul 100 Africa, Jean-Louis Menann-Kouamé is a member of the Board of Directors of Lycée International Jean Mermoz d'Abidjan.