Jason Quinn is the Chief Executive of Nedbank Group Limited. He was previously the Interim Group Chief Executive and Group Financial Director of Absa Group Limited. Prior to that he was a Partner at EY.
Brief Career History
Jason’s career started directly from school with EY, where he studied part-time to become a CA (SA), earning his Bachelor of Accounting Science from Unisa and Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting from the University of Natal. After completing his Advanced Diploma in Auditing at RAU, Jason qualified as a Chartered Accountant with SAICA.
In 2005, Jason returned from three years with EY USA as a Senior Manager in the Financial Services practice of the San Francisco office. He was then appointed as a partner at EY South Africa in the Financial Services practice, becoming the youngest partner in the firm’s history at the time. His 15-year career with EY features many highlights across various disciplines in Johannesburg, London and San Francisco, including advising on Investec Limited’s London listing and transformation into a Plc.
Jason left EY to join Absa Group Limited as Group Financial Controller in 2008 and held various senior roles before being appointed as Group Financial Director and an Executive Director of the Group in 2016. He led the Separation negotiations with Barclays, culminating in a $1 billion contribution to Absa and providing leadership oversight to the successful operational separation over a four-year period.
Other highlights include the successful corporate action to create Barclays Africa Group Limited in 2013 through the acquisition and integration of Barclays businesses across the continent by Absa Group. This R18 billion transaction has yielded significant strategic benefits as well as strong portfolio diversification.
Following a strategic review of the business, Jason led the process of creating South Africa’s largest black-owned asset manager with funds under management of more than R1 trillion through the merger of Absa and Sanlam’s investment management business with African Rainbow Capital. The key highlight remains the recent R12 billion BEE transaction which gained significant stakeholder support and placed the Group on a sustainable Level 1 footing. This will make a real difference to the lives of colleagues and communities and was led by Jason from end to end.
During a period of organisational change, Jason provided leadership to the firm’s Digital, Information and Technology team. Improvements were noted in technology resilience and the cybersecurity control environment, and the focus moved towards reshaping the bank’s digitisation strategy.
Jason was the Interim Group CEO of Absa Group Limited and Absa Bank Limited from April 2021 to March 2022, when he resumed his role of Group Financial Director. As Interim CEO he played a key leadership role in delivering record earnings for the business, refreshing and re-anchoring the corporate strategy with renewed focus on ESG and turning around the performance of the South African consumer franchise. On the ESG front, a successful milestone was the creation of African Rainbow Energy and Power, a black-owned leading investor in the renewables space with a R500 million equity investment and a renewables portfolio in excess of R5 billion.
Jason is a past Chairperson of the CFO Forum of SAICA and a past National Council member of SAICA. He was named CFO of the Year in 2020, also winning in the categories of Strategic Execution and Moving into Africa. For 10 consecutive years, Jason and his Investor Relations Team were recognised as Best at Investor Relations for all listed companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, including large cap financials.
Nedbank Ltd