Togolese executive Cathia Lawson-Hall elected to Ecobank board
Thursday, 04 June 2026 04:23 
(Togo First) - Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) elected Cathia Lawson-Hall to its board of directors at its annual general meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting, held at the Pan African Centre in Lomé on June 3, 2026, approved a three-year term that will run until the annual meeting that approves the group's 2028 accounts.
Lawson-Hall holds a master's degree and a DEA in finance from the University of Paris-Dauphine. She joined Société Générale in 1999 as a credit analyst covering the telecommunications and media sectors. After working in debt capital markets, she became head of Africa coverage and investment banking at Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking in March 2015.
Over the next eight years, she managed the French banking group's relationships with governments, financial institutions and major corporates across Africa. She left Société Générale in 2023 to establish CAT, a strategic advisory firm specializing in governance and financial transactions.
An extensive boardroom track record
Her appointment at Ecobank adds to an already extensive list of board positions. The first African woman elected to Vivendi's Supervisory Board in 2015, she chaired its audit committee for 11 years before stepping down from that role in April 2026.
She currently serves on the boards of Universal Music Group, Endeavour Mining — West Africa's largest gold producer — and Eurazeo. She was also an independent director of the Agence française de développement (AFD) between 2020 and 2024.
According to Ecobank board chairman Papa Madiaw Ndiaye, her deep knowledge of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) region was a key factor behind her appointment. She previously served on the boards of Société Générale Côte d'Ivoire and Société Générale Bénin.
That direct experience of the West African banking market is expected to benefit Ecobank, whose UEMOA operations generated 30% of the group's net banking income and 48% of pre-tax profit in 2025, while delivering a return on equity of 26.8%.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
