James Mwangi

Kenya. When Mwangi joined Equity Building Society in the early 1990s it was technically insolvent. He turned it into Equity Bank by doing what Kenya's established banks would not: opening accounts with tiny minimum balances for farmers, traders and the poor, sending mobile banking vans to rural areas and later using agents in shops. It grew into one of East Africa's largest banks by customer numbers, and he has led it for decades.