Qatar's Lesha Bank replaces board of directors of recently acquired Kazakh Bereke Bank, retains previous board chairman
ASTANA. Dec 19 (Interfax) - Qatar's Lesha Bank has prematurely terminated the powers of the current board of directors of Kazakhstan's Bereke Bank and appointed new board members, Bereke Bank's press service said.
Nasser Abdullah Saad Al Mahmoud Al-Sharif has been elected chairman of Bereke Bank's board of directors. Magzhan Madiev and the previous chairman Maksat Nuridenuly have left the bank's board of directors prematurely. In addition to the new chairman, David Mark Brown and Piotr Janusz Kaczmarek, both independent directors, have joined the board.
The chairman of the bank's management board, Andrei Timchenko, has retained his position as a member of the board of directors.
Bereke Bank previously said that Askar Elemesov, who served as an independent director, voluntarily left the board of directors on December 3.
Nasser Al-Sharif holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from George Washington University and a master's degree in project management from the University of Houston. He has held key positions at Qatar Gas, Qatar National Bank, Barclays Capital, and Q-Invest. He has also served on boards and committees of various investment and insurance companies. Currently, he is also the CEO of WISE Consultancy.
Piotr Kaczmarek earned a master's degree in law from the University of Wroclaw. His career spans significant roles in international finance and banking, including senior positions at Credit Agricole Group, where he served as CEO, deputy CEO and head of the legal department. He has worked in France, Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Belarus. Kaczmarek has chaired boards of major organizations, such as Idea Bank, Carcade Leasing and the Belarusian Small and Medium Business Bank. Since February 2024, he has been an advisor to the president of the Polish-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce.
David Brown graduated from Brighton Polytechnic (now the University of Brighton) with a degree in civil engineering. His extensive career includes roles at Bankers Trust (USA), Banco Santander (UK), Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (UK), Commerzbank Securities (UK), Merrill Lynch International (UK), VTB Capital, and VTB Group. He also served as chief risk officer at Alfa-Bank (Russia and Kazakhstan), a member of the supervisory board of Sense Bank (Ukraine), and a member of the investment and risk committee at Letterone Treasury Services (Luxembourg). He is currently chief executive officer at Oman Investment Bank.
As reported, Bereke Bank, previously the Kazakh subsidiary of Sberbank , was placed under U.S. blocking sanctions in March 2022. In September 2022, Sberbank sold the institution to the Baiterek national holding company, leading to its rebranding as Bereke Bank. Following the acquisition, Baiterek submitted documentation to the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to lift the sanctions.
On March 8, 2023, OFAC removed Bereke Bank from its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) and Sectoral Sanctions (SSI) lists.
On October 8, 2024, Baiterek completed the sale of 100% of Bereke Bank's shares to Lesha Bank LLC.
Lesha Bank is a Sharia-compliant financial institution which has held a license from the Qatar Financial Center Regulatory Authority to conduct banking operations, including accepting deposits, lending, investment transactions, and managing collective investment funds, since June 30, 2010.
As of November 1, 2024, Bereke Bank ranked 9th among Kazakhstan's banks.