Career biography

Eugene is the Chief Legal Officer of the CalBank Group with the core responsibility of managing the legal function of the Group. He is a Chartered Banker with extensive experience as a legal and finance executive. He has close to 14 years’ practical experience in corporate & commercial law, transaction structuring, corporate & civil litigation, banking & finance, and board-level experience in the capital markets and pensions management.

Prior to joining CalBank PLC, he worked as a barrister and solicitor at the Ghana office of the leading African law firm, AB & David Africa. As a member of the Executive Committee, Eugene provides legal and strategic leadership and support across the members of the CalBank Group comprising CalBank PLC, CAL Asset Management Company Limited, CAL Brokers Limited among other registered affiliates.

He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree from the Law Faculty of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST), Kumasi – Ghana, a Qualifying/Professional Certificate in Law from the Ghana School of Law and a Master of Science Degree (MSc.) in Development Finance from the University of Ghana Business School.

He also holds a Verified Certificate in Contract Law, International Law and Legal Studies from the Harvard Law School’s HarvardX programme, a Securities Industry Certification from the Ghana Stock Exchange, a course certification in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Law from the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance and an Executive Leadership certificate from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), University of Pretoria, Johannesburg, South Africa. Eugene is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB), Ghana under its CBEL programme. He is a commissioned Notary Public and is also a former member of the Executive Committee of the Ghana Chapter of the African Bar Association (AFBA).

What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past twelve months?

I have advised on a key debt to equity conversion transaction involving the U. S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and a financial institution as well as advised on a multi-million capital raising transaction involving a consortium of pension funds.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

As Chief Legal Officer, I provide legal and strategic leadership to a commercial bank and its affiliates, each of which operates within highly regulated markets. My team’s approach to managing legal support to business is coordinated at an enterprise level. Respective sector regulations require that the organisation employs an enterprise risk management framework. This enterprise risk management regime requires a comprehensive evaluation of risks associated with our business model(s) and operations, from product development through the entire customer experience. As part of this risk management regime, my organisation has a Chief Risk Officer whose core function is to coordinate the identification and management of enterprise-wide risks. This is irrespective of the fact that my role as Chief Legal Officer is primarily to manage legal risk within the Group. Again, the central bank of Ghana requires that regulated entities have in place a Business Continuity systems and processes. I am a member of the Business Continuity Management Steering Committee and offer the requisite support in the coordination of the Group’s business continuity protocols in the event of instability or crisis. To aid business continuity and reduce downtimes in service provision, the organisation also has a data recovery programme, which includes the use of a data recovery site for data storage and swift failover of systems to support services. The organisation, and by extension the legal team, likewise has in place a call tree system that ensures seamless internal and external communication and effective people and situation management. This proactive and nimble approach to the management of business ensures business resilience and continuity during periods of instability and crises. The above interventions also ensure compliance even in times of instability and crises.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

Perhaps the most defining attribute that the modern in-house counsel must develop and demonstrate is agility—the ability to learn quickly and adapt to evolving technologies, regulatory developments and changing organisational or customer expectations. This quality can sometimes be obscured by the inherently conservative nature of legal work, particularly within traditional, precedent-driven legal practice.

That said, the core attributes long associated with the profession—such as integrity, sound judgement and tenacity—remain equally relevant. The modern in-house lawyer must therefore strike a careful balance between upholding these foundational principles and embracing the flexibility and responsiveness required to operate effectively in today’s fast-changing business environment.