Sanlam grooms Ian Kirk as next CEO

Cape Town - Sanlam Limited [JSE:SLM] on Tuesday announced the appointment of Ian Kirk as deputy group chief executive with effect from January 1 2015 as part of the group’s succession planning strategy and implementation of a smooth leadership transition.

Kirk is set to take over as group CE when CEO Johan van Zyl retires at the end of 2015.

Kirk (56) is currently the chief executive of Santam, in which Sanlam has a 60% stake. Kirk is currently part of Sanlam's group executive committee.

Sanlam said in a statement the process to appoint a new chief executive for Santam will commence shortly.

At the group's results presentation last Thursday Van Zyl marked among the highlights the increase in net operating profit per share, the performance of the personal finance business and “Santam coming back to the party”.

Sanlam posted an expected 28% jump in earnings for the six months to end-June, with diluted headline earnings per share totalling 220.2 cents from 171.4c a year ago.

As deputy group CE Kirk will be responsible for Sanlam Group operations and will report to Van Zyl.

Van Zyl commended Kirk's requisite leadership qualities and his vision to support the Group’s continued growth and transformation. "We are confident that he is suitable for this new position and to take Sanlam’s business forward.

“Over the past 10 years or so we have accelerated Sanlam’s growth into a global, diversified financial services group and as we progress we need to continue strengthening the business and our leadership structure to sustain our growth and the value for shareholders.” Van Zyl said.

Kirk joined the Sanlam Group in May 2006 as chief executive: Strategy and Projects and has been at the helm of Santam since June 2007.

Under his leadership, Santam has been a leader of the short-term insurance industry and has seen profitable growth in South Africa and more recently has expanded its footprint in the rest of Africa, India and South East Asia.

Prior to joining Sanlam, he was the deputy CEO of the Liberty Group.

Sanlam shares ended down 0.19% at R67.87, while Santam gave up 0.25% to R216.21.

 - Fin24