NLB Management Board completed: Newly appointed members receive all necessary approvals

May 5, 2022

After receiving all necessary approvals for recently appointed trio of new members, NLB Management Board is finally filled and now has six representatives. Hedvika Usenik, Antonio Argir, and Andrej Lasič – all three of whom come from NLB or NLB Group, have extensive experience and proven value creating track record –, have therefore joined the NLB Management Board.

And who are the new members? 

Hedvika Usenik, Member of the NLB Management Board (CMO), responsible for Retail Banking

Hedvika is an experienced banking professional with over 20 years of experience in international banking groups. She started her career in 1996 as researcher at the Institute for Economic Research and joined UniCredit Bank Slovenia in 2001, where she held various management positions in retail and corporate banking. From 2014 until her arrival to NLB in 2018, she was in charge of the Retail Banking division, and she was member of the Management Board in this bank. Since 2020, she has been Executive Assistant to the Management Board of NLB for Retail and Private Banking, responsible for the bank’s Distribution Network, Private Banking, NLB Contact Centre 24/7, and Sales and Development Management. Apart from retail banking her key areas of expertise include corporate banking, trade and export finance, segment, product, and channel management, and digital transformation. She is a Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board at NLB Skladi and a member of the Supervisory Board of NLB Banka Banja Luka. She is also a member of the NLB Group Sustainability Committee. 

“In retail banking, our first guideline is customer experience. If we manage to deliver excellent services across all channels – whether in branches, contact centre or digital channels –, then we have reached our goal and we will be able to achieve our priorities. Looking forward, I see the main opportunities for growth in three areas: retail lending growth, fees and commissions increase and channel strategy implementation,” she emphasizes. 

Antonio Argir, Member of the NLB Management Board, responsible for Group governance, payments and innovations

Antonio has built his entire career in NLB Bank Skopje. He joined the bank in 1999 as a Credit Officer for corporate clients, long-term and investment loans, and later he spent several years in the branch network as branch coordinator, branch manager, and head of the Retail division. In 2015, he became a member, and a half year later President of the Management Board of NLB Bank Skopje. He joined  NLB d.d. in Ljubljana on 1 January 2022 taking over the lead of Group Steering. Argir was Member of the Assembly of the North Macedonian Banking Association and since 2018, he has held the position of the Vice President of the Economic Chamber of North Macedonia. Under the management of Antonio Argir, NLB Bank Skopje marked exceptional growth in all segments of its operations, significant increase in the profitability of the bank, and the share price of NLB Bank Skopje increased fivefold. Today, NLB Bank Skopje is a reputable and stable financial institution, and a leader in innovations and digitalisation of banking products and services on the market. 

“As my whole professional career has been linked to NLB Group, taking over steering, payments and innovations it presents a huge opportunity and huge responsibility. We will focus on utilizing synergies within the NLB Group’s operations, build on existing and innovative way of banking and to our goal – to become the leading banking group in our region, region of opportunities” he explains.  


Andrej Lasič, Member of the NLB Management Board (CMO) responsible for Corporate and Investment Banking

Andrej started his career in SKB, Société Générale Group in 1997, where he was Executive Director of Key Accounts and Institutional investors before moving to the NLB. He joined the NLB in 2013 as an executive director of key clients; as the Executive Assistant to the Management Board for Corporate and Investment Banking he covers the SME segment and key clients, trade finance and investment banking, custody services, and consulting on the relevant resource structure and cross-border financing. In conducting business, his motto is to provide comprehensive and the most demanding banking and financial solutions for companies, as well as institutional clients. As a renowned expert, he regularly shares his vast knowledge and rich experience in the field of corporate and investment banking, corporate governance, project financing, and restructuring at various public meetings. He is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of N Banka, a member of the Board of Directors of NLB Bank Sarajevo, a member of the Supervisory Board of NLB Lease&Go, and a member of the NLB Group Sustainability Committee. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Slovenian banking journal.  

“Corporate and investment banking are fundamentally relationship driven – human touch and personal relationships matter enormously. To be successful, a bank must listen to its clients actively and to respond timely with appropriate products. The foundation of our strategy is therefore our laser focus on our clients’ interests and well-being. With such an approach and the best corporate relationship team in the market, I strongly believe that NLB Group will increase its market shares in corporate banking in all our key markets,” he describes his view on the challenges and opportunities awaiting our banking group. 

Addressing new opportunities stronger than ever 

NLB Group has been growing recently, as it has become a key player in as many as seven markets in South-Eastern Europe with the successful acquisition of Komercijalna banka Beograd in December 2020. This growth continues with its active looking for new opportunities for either organic growth or expansion through M&As. The Group's strategy also focuses on intensive digitalisation and emphasis on top quality user experience, as well as a commitment to sustainable operations and development. All this requires and will require also in the future even more comprehensive, coordinated, and efficient management, both of individual business areas and the group as a whole, as well as exploitation of all the synergies within the group. The Bank's Management Board, supplemented with three new members, is properly equipped for this challenge and offers the best combination of various knowledge, experience, and competencies. 
 

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