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Tom Gaffney

Business Reporter
INVESTMENT banking group, Imara Holdings has appointed Tom Gaffney as the new group chief executive officer following the recent retirement of Mark Tunmer.The group yesterday advised shareholders of Tunmer’s retirement effective March 24, 2015.

The top official remains a director and will take on the role of non-executive deputy chairman.

“The chairman and directors of Imara Holdings have advised shareholders of the retirement of Mark Tunmer, group chief executive officer, and the appointment of Tom Gaffney to this position.

“Tunmer will, however, remain a director of Imara and will take on the role of non-executive deputy chairman,” said the group in a statement.

“In addition, he’ll continue to make a contribution as chief executive officer of Imara’s subsidiary company, Imara Capital Zimbabwe (Private) Limited.”

Tunmer, who is the founder of Imara, has been with the group since March 1985 in Zimbabwe and was largely responsible for the establishment of Imara in Botswana in 2002.

He then led its growth into Africa, resulting in the group being represented in several African countries today.

Tunmer was instrumental in Imara being licensed in the International Financial Services Centre, Botswana’s offshore centre, in 2003 and being listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange in October 2006.

Imara said Gaffney has served as a non-executive director of the giant firm since November 2014 and was previously chief executive officer of Ambrian plc in the United Kingdom, a natural resources investment bank active in Africa and listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

Prior to founding Ambrian plc in 2001, Gaffney was a director in the corporate finance department of Robert Fleming & Co.

Imara is mid-sized and has offices in Angola, Botswana, South Africa and the UK and associate offices in Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The firm has also partnered with Chapel Hill Denham in Nigeria, Sterling Bank in Kenya, Namibia Equity Brokers and Mac Capital in Dubai.

The group is an active participant in Africa’s financial markets and maintains extensive research coverage of regional equities.

It provides a range of specialised financial products and services that can be broadly categorised as asset management institutional and private client, corporate finance and advisory services, securities, and trust and administration services.