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Al Mada, the family office of Morocco's King Mohammed VI, appointed Noufissa Kessar as president and chief executive officer, elevating a long serving insider after the death of Hassan Ouriagli in Paris earlier this month.
The leadership change, effective immediately, was approved by the board of the Casablanca based holding company. Ouriagli led the group through a decade of expansion and a stronger tilt toward Africa, becoming a low profile but pivotal figure in the country’s corporate scene.
Kessar built her career largely within Al Mada’s ecosystem. She started in the group’s banking arm at Attijariwafa Bank, working on the structuring and rollout of financial initiatives tied to priority sectors. She later moved to the holding company, rising to deputy CEO and taking a hands on role in strategic projects and long range planning.
Her promotion underscores a continuity play at a conglomerate with stakes across banking, mining, retail and energy. Its moves ripple through Morocco’s boardrooms and across parts of West and Central Africa, where the group has sought to back industries it sees as foundational to growth.
People familiar with Kessar’s work describe her as operationally focused and methodical, with a reputation for pushing projects from idea to execution. She is a graduate of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and has been part of the management cohort tasked with modernizing mature assets while building new platforms in faster growing markets.
The board has framed the transition as stability first, with Kessar expected to consolidate ongoing changes while pursuing innovation, sustainable growth and tighter operational discipline. That mandate arrives as many African economies contend with uneven growth, pricier financing and sharper scrutiny of environmental and social practices, especially in mining and power.
Al Mada has increasingly presented itself as a long term investor backing projects positioned as delivering positive impact, aligning with regional efforts to channel capital into infrastructure, industry and jobs. At the same time, the group’s scale means its portfolio companies often sit at the center of debates about competition, pricing power and corporate governance.
Key holdings include Attijariwafa Bank, one of the largest lenders, mining company Managem, and renewable energy developer Nareva, as well as interests in consumer and distribution businesses. Those assets give the group exposure to commodity cycles and demand, and they tie its strategy to policy shifts in Rabat and across the continent.
Kessar inherits both the advantages and the constraints of that footprint: deep networks, a sizeable balance sheet and steady access to deal flow, alongside heightened expectations from regulators, partners and the public. The way she balances expansion beyond Morocco with performance at home will shape the next chapter for a group that helps set the pace for corporate Africa.
