Five months after he was headhunted from Diageo office in UK, Peter Ndegwa officially takes over from Michael Joseph as Safaricoms CEO from today, April 1, 2020. And this is not an April Fools day joke.
In late October last year, the Safaricom board announced the appointment of Peter Ndegwa as the company’s new CEO from April 1, 2020, taking over from Michael Joseph who’s held the position in acting capacity since the demise of Bob Collymore on July 1, 2029.
(TOP: Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom’s new CEO).
Ndegwa joins Safaricom from Diageo where he is been the MD of Diageo Continental Europe since July 2018.
He brings a wealth of experience in General Management, Commercial and Business Strategy, Sales and Finance Operations, having spent over 25 years in various roles within the Financial Services and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sectors in Africa and Europe.
at Diageo, Ndegwa oversaw the operations of the brewer in 50 countries in Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, Middle East and North Africa region. He had previously served for 7 years as CEO in Guinness Nigeria and Guinness Ghana Brewerie, where he transformed the two operations to deliver a double-digit growth by investing in people, introducing new brands and reorganising the businesses.
Prior to that, he served for 8 years across a range of senior Executive Director roles at EABL (a Diageo subsidiary) based in Nairobi. Serving as the Group Chief Finance Officer (CFO), Group Strategy Director, Sales Director, and as an Executive Director on the EABL Board, he was part of the team that saw the EABL business more than doubled in value, and winning the Most Respected Business Award in East Africa for 5 years in a row.
Ndegwa is credited with the development of an affordable-beer strategy for EABL resulting in the production of new brands such as Senator beer. Senator beer became one of the most successful innovations by Diageo that has been featured in the Harvard Business Review.
Ndegwa started his career at PwC, the consulting firm, where he worked for 11 years.
Ndegwa holds an MBA from the London Business School and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Nairobi. He is also a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK).
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