Over three decades in banking, a move across a continent, a retirement that became a beginning, and a return to the institution she once led. Sola David-Borha’s career offers a compelling perspective on what it takes to keep growing, adapting and leading at the highest levels.
When Stanbic IBTC Holdings appointed Sola David-Borha chairman of its board in September 2024, the moment carried a significance that went beyond another senior executive appointment. Atedo Peterside, the institution’s founder, recalled that she had once been a manager standing over his shoulder when he served as its pioneer chief executive, and expressed gratitude at her confirmation as chairman. It was a remarkable full circle: a professional who had witnessed the institution’s early development was now responsible for providing strategic oversight at the highest level. Yet the significance of her journey lies not simply in where she ended up, but in the changes that shaped her along the way. From navigating corporate mergers to leading operations across several African markets, returning to academic study after retirement and taking on board-level responsibilities, David-Borha’s career illustrates that sustained leadership often depends on the willingness to evolve beyond the role that first establishes you.
Her professional journey began without the kind of carefully mapped-out career plan that people often associate with senior leadership. She studied Economics at the University of Ibadan before earning an MBA from the University of Manchester. Her first job was at NAL Merchant Bank, which was affiliated with American Express, before she moved to the boutique investment banking firm IBTC. She has spoken candidly about not knowing exactly where her career would lead in its early stages and has even joked about disliking cocktail parties when she first entered the profession. Those details offer a more revealing picture of professional development than a straightforward list of qualifications and appointments. They suggest that a successful career does not necessarily begin with certainty, nor does it require an immediate natural fit with every aspect of an industry. Sometimes, direction emerges through experience, as people discover their strengths, learn the demands of their chosen field and become more comfortable navigating unfamiliar situations. For young professionals, her early years are a reminder that not having every stage figured out does not prevent meaningful progress.
One of the earliest defining tests of her adaptability came through the transformation of the institution where she was building her career. In 2005, IBTC merged with two commercial banks to form IBTC Chartered, and Standard Bank Group acquired the business in 2007. For employees, such changes can mean new systems, different expectations and uncertainty about where they fit within a reorganised company. David-Borha continued to advance through the transition, serving as Deputy Chief Executive of the bank and Head of Investment Banking Coverage for Africa excluding South Africa, before becoming chief executive of Stanbic IBTC Bank in 2011 and chief executive of Stanbic IBTC Holdings in 2012. Her progression demonstrates an important aspect of corporate reinvention: organisational change does not automatically have to interrupt a career, but it can demand a willingness to adapt to new structures and responsibilities. Rather than treating a changing institution as a reason to retreat, professionals can use such moments to understand what the business needs and where their experience can make a difference. David-Borha has also spoken positively about the opportunities available to women at IBTC, describing a working environment where women were encouraged to advance into senior positions. Her experience therefore points to two factors that can shape a career: the individual’s ability to respond to change and the organisation’s willingness to create room for talent to grow.
Her next major transition took her beyond Nigeria. In early 2017, David-Borha moved to Johannesburg to lead Standard Bank’s Africa regions business, with responsibility for 19 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa. The move represented more than a change of location or a larger title. It required her to operate across different national markets, understand their individual business environments and approach leadership from a broader strategic perspective. She described the position as more strategic than her previous role, with responsibilities spanning governance, risk, conduct, growth and client experience. The work also involved engaging with country teams and regulators while developing an understanding of the opportunities and challenges within each market. Leading one national business and overseeing operations across multiple countries require different ways of thinking. Familiarity with one environment cannot simply be transferred wholesale to another; leaders must learn to recognise local differences while maintaining a coherent organisational direction. Her experience highlights the importance of remaining teachable even after reaching a senior position. A promotion may confirm what a person has achieved, but it can also expose how much more there is to understand.
That willingness to keep learning matters because career progression rarely removes the difficulties that accompany responsibility. Asked about adversity as a woman in business, David-Borha acknowledged that challenges are part of every career and emphasised the importance of not allowing them to become a distraction. She has also spoken about having to fight and prove herself repeatedly to advance, and her advice to her younger self has been to stay focused. For young professionals entering finance, she has similarly stressed commitment. These are straightforward principles, but their value becomes clearer when considered alongside the demands of her career. Moving through organisational restructuring, taking on executive leadership and assuming responsibility across multiple countries would each have required sustained attention to the work, not merely ambition for the next position. Focus does not mean pretending obstacles do not exist, and commitment does not guarantee that every opportunity will work out. Rather, both help professionals continue making sound decisions when circumstances become difficult. David-Borha’s experience suggests that resilience is not simply about enduring pressure; it is also about keeping that pressure from determining the direction of one’s career.
Perhaps the most unexpected chapter began when she retired from Stanbic IBTC on 15 April 2021, after 31 years with the institution. Retirement after such a long career can be seen as the point at which professional identity gives way to a quieter life, but David-Borha chose to pursue a different kind of challenge. She enrolled at SOAS University of London to undertake doctoral research examining the challenges and opportunities of risk mitigation in Nigeria’s electricity and telecommunications sectors from a political economy perspective. Her decision is significant because it did not require her to discard her banking experience and begin again in an unrelated field. Instead, she moved towards deeper study of the systems, institutions and economic conditions that influence business and investment. Decades of executive responsibility had given her practical experience; academic research offered another way to investigate the issues behind that experience. This is an important lesson for professionals whose careers have reached a turning point: reinvention can involve taking existing knowledge further, asking better questions and exploring areas that a demanding job may have left little time to examine. Retirement, in her case, became a change in how she engaged with knowledge rather than an end to intellectual growth.
Her retirement also did not mark a withdrawal from corporate leadership. David-Borha became an independent non-executive director on the board of Coca-Cola HBC AG and, from 1 July 2024, joined Standard Bank Group’s social, ethics and sustainability committee, as well as its audit and risk committees. She had also chaired Private Investors for Africa, a coalition of business leaders working to improve the business climate on the continent, from 2018 to 2021, and was named CNBC Africa Business Woman of the Year in 2016. In September 2024, she returned to Stanbic IBTC Holdings as chairman, succeeding Basil Omiyi. The appointment placed her in a different relationship with the institution she had once led as chief executive. Executive leadership involves running the business, making operational decisions and directing teams; board leadership requires oversight, strategic judgement and accountability for the organisation’s long-term direction. The distinction matters because it shows that professional relevance does not depend on holding the same kind of authority throughout a career. Experience can create value in new ways as responsibilities change. David-Borha’s return was not a repetition of her earlier executive chapter, but an opportunity to contribute from a different position, bringing the perspective of someone who understands the institution’s history as well as the demands of its future.l
Taken together, her career offers four connected lessons about corporate reinvention. The first is to approach change as an opportunity to reassess where your skills can be useful, rather than assuming that a merger, restructuring or new leadership team must bring your progress to a halt. The second is to expand your understanding before your existing expertise becomes a limitation. David-Borha’s move from leading a Nigerian business to overseeing operations across 19 countries required her to engage with a wider range of markets, people and risks. The third is to remain focused without becoming rigid. Her advice about commitment and managing adversity points to the importance of staying grounded in the work while adapting to the circumstances around it. The fourth is to keep learning after achieving professional milestones. Her decision to pursue doctoral research after three decades in banking demonstrates that experience can be a foundation for further exploration, not a reason to stop asking questions. These lessons are interpretations of her career rather than a formula she has personally prescribed, but they emerge from the transitions that have defined her professional life. Together, they show that reinvention is not one dramatic decision; it is a continuing process of adjusting how you think, work and contribute as the demands around you change.
There is also a personal dimension to how David-Borha understands her journey. She has spoken about her faith and her conviction that events unfold according to God’s plan. That belief is part of her own perspective on a career that has moved through several distinct phases, from the uncertainty of her early professional years to executive leadership, academic research and the boardroom. What makes her story worth considering is not the suggestion that every transition was predictable or that success comes without difficulty. It is the evidence of continued growth across different stages of a long career. The manager who once worked alongside Stanbic IBTC’s founder eventually became the institution’s chairman, but that outcome was shaped by years of changing responsibilities, expanding knowledge and learning to lead in different ways. Her journey offers a timely reminder for professionals at every level: you do not have to abandon everything you have built to become something more. Sometimes, the next chapter begins when you are willing to see your experience differently, step into unfamiliar responsibilities and continue developing long after others might assume you have reached the end of your growth.
