Crisis is nothing new for Cecilia Ibru. As the Managing Director and CEO of Nigeria’s Oceanic Bank International, she has dealt with the challenges arising from the present global recession in the context of Nigeria’s efforts at tackling other issues, such as poverty, civil unrest, and corruption. “Banking is about people,” she says, and that philosophy must meet the challenge of investing in men and women whose promise and value have long gone unrealized.

Yet that is precisely Ibru’s strategy. Since the founding of Oceanic, in 1990, the bank has supported economic development through public-private partnerships that invest in local businesses – and, as a result, has grown from a modest family-owned bank into one of Nigeria’s largest publicly quoted institutions.

Ibru’s March 2009 appointment to the board of the United Nations Global Compact, a corporate-citizenship initiative chaired by the UN’s secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, solidified her reputation as a champion of corporate responsibility in a region long beset by corruption.

During a recent visit to her daughter’s residence near Washington, DC, Cecilia Ibru spoke with McKinsey Quarterly editor Thomas Fleming about the downturn, corporate ethics, women’s leadership, and Oceanic’s role in Nigeria’s economic development. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Ban Ki-moon, Banking, Cecilia Ibru, McKinsey, Nigeria, Oceanic Bank, United Nations