* Atlas Mara names ex-marine Vitalo as CEO
* Venture aims to be sub-Saharan Africa's leading bank
By Steve Slater
LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - Ex-Barclays boss BobDiamond has poached a former senior colleague from the Britishbank to head Atlas Mara, a venture he wants to buildinto the leading bank in sub-Saharan Africa.
Atlas Mara said on Tuesday it had appointed former U.S.marine John Vitalo as chief executive officer.
Vitalo has been chief executive of Barclays' Middle East andNorth Africa region since May 2009, and in the previous fouryears was responsible for building and leading Absa Capital,Barclays' African investment bank arm.
Atlas Mara has said it wants to become Africa's leadingfinancial services firm by providing capital, liquidity andfunding to banks in sub-Saharan Africa.
The company is backed by Diamond and Africa-basedbillionaire entrepreneur Ashish Thakkar, and raised $325 millionin a London listing in December. Diamond and Thakkar haveinvested about $20 million between them.
Atlas last week bought BancABC, which has operations inBotswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, for up to$265 million in cash and shares, and this week said it plannedto buy a controlling stake in state-run Development Bank ofRwanda.
The deals mark a return to the spotlight for Diamond, thehigh-profile American banker who was ousted from Barclays in2012 after the bank was fined $450 million for rigging Liborinterest rates.
Barclays was the first bank fined for interest ratemanipulation, but since then UBS, Royal Bank ofScotland and Rabobank have been handed biggerfines and other banks have been fined for rigging Euribor rates.
Diamond built up Barclays' investment bank into a globalpower over more than a decade, but since he left it became clearhe had a poor relationship with regulators who said he had"sailed too close to the wind" after taking over as group chiefexecutive at the start of 2011.
He sees scope for strong potential in banking in Africa,where Barclays and Standard Chartered also predictstrong growth. Barely a quarter of sub-Saharan Africans have abank account, yet economic growth in the region is set tooutpace the global average over the next three years, accordingto World Bank figures last year.
Vitalo joined Barclays in 2002 from Credit Suisse,where Diamond also used to work. Vitalo will be responsible fordirecting and executing the company's strategy and will lead anexecutive committee that includes Doug Munatsi, CEO of BancABC,and Jyrki Koskelo, the company's head of strategy.
Barclays was not immediately available to comment. (Editing by John Stonestreet)