Mr Allan Kilavuka (left) was confirmed as Kenya Airways CEO after Sebastian Mikosz resigned. Ms Jane Karuku (centre) was named EABL managing director, becoming the first Kenyan woman to lead the brewer. Mr Peter Ndegwa became the first Kenyan to lead Safaricom PLC , East Africa’s biggest company. FILE PHOTOS | NMG
Some of the executive changes this year took place at the country’s biggest companies where Kenyans took the reins, breaking a long-running tradition of appointing foreigners seconded from other subsidiaries.
Safaricom
, East African Breweries Limited (EABL), BAT Kenya and Kenya Airwaysappointed new leaders –Peter Ndegwa, Jane Karuku, Crispin Achola and Allan Kilavuka respectively.
Retirement is a unique factor at insurance group Britam
where long-serving chief executive Benson Wairegi is stepping down at the end of this month when his successor will be named.
Pressure to improve performance saw CIC Insurance
hire Mr Patrick Nyaga, a former finance and strategy director of Co-op Bank, as its CEO.
A similar goal led to a boardroom purge at electricity distributor Kenya where half of the non-executive directors were forced out.
In a rare move, agricultural firm Kakuzi
was forced to shake up its boardroom including the appointment of billionaire investor John Kibunga Kimani to appease the local community that has accused the firm of long-running human rights abuse.
Mr Ndegwa took the mantle at Safaricom on April 1 from Michael Joseph who was holding the post temporarily following the death of Bob Collymore. He becomes the first Kenyan to lead the telco since it went public in 2008.
Mr Joseph, who remained on the telco’s board as a non-executive director, recently took the additional role of chairman to replace Nicholas Ng’ang’a who retired.
Mr Ndegwa said his vision is to make Safaricom a technology company by expanding the breadth of its services. He is also on the verge of shepherding the company’s first cross-border expansion with a bid for one of Ethiopia’s telecommunications licences.
EABL announced that Ms Karuku will take over from Andrew Cowan on January 1, 2021. She became the first Kenyan to lead the brewer in more than a decade.
The changes followed Mr Cowan’s promotion to the post of managing director for beer and spirits giant Diageo’s Africa regional markets.
Mr Achola, also a Kenyan, will take the reins at BAT on January 1, 2021, replacing Beverley Spencer-Obatoyinbo.
The appoint marks a comeback for Mr Achola who had previously worked at the cigarette manufacturer for 19 years before exiting in 2017.
Greatest challenge
Mr Kilavuka was confirmed as Kenya Airway’s chief executive on February 27, filling a vacancy left by his predecessor Sebastian Mikosz who resigned ahead of his contract expiry and later took an appointment at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as senior vice president for member and external relations.
Mr Kilavuka faces the greatest challenge of any CEO of the national carrier, with the Covid-19 pandemic adding to the company’s problems including underfunding, strategic missteps and labour unrest.
Mr Wairegi is leaving Britam after 40 years, ending one of the longest tenures among Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firms.
He is credited with the listing of the firm on the NSE in July 2011, helping its founders, including Jimnah Mbaru and Peter Munga to reduce their stake, earning hundreds of millions of shillings from the disposals.
Turnaround artist
Mr Nyaga joined CIC on June 22 with a mandate of turning around the insurer’s performance which has recently been defined by losses and indebtedness.
He was hired from Co-op Bank where he was the finance and strategy director and was among the executives credited with the ascent of the lender that overtook storied rivals like Standard Chartered Bank Kenya to rank third in terms of absolute earnings. Co-op Bank has a 24.8 percent indirect stake in CIC.
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