This archive report was first published on 24 October 2019.
October 24, 2019 - Safaricom, the East and Central Africa's most profitable company, has made history by appointing a Kenyan as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the first time in nearly 20 years.
The company's Board of Directors has resolved to appoint Peter Ndegwa as the new CEO, effective April 1, 2020.
Ndegwa joins Safaricom from Diageo, where he is the Managing Director of Diageo Continental Europe, overseeing operations in 50 countries in Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and North Africa.
With over 25 years of experience in various roles within the Financial Services and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sectors in Africa and Europe, Ndegwa has a chequered career that includes serving as CEO in Guinness Nigeria PLC and Guinness Ghana Breweries PLC, where he transformed the operations to deliver double-digit growth.
He previously served for eight years across senior Executive Director roles at EABL, a Diageo subsidiary, based in Nairobi, where he was part of the team that saw the EABL business more than double in value and win the coveted Most Respected Business Award in East Africa for five 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, which became one of the most successful innovations by Diageo, featured in the Harvard Business Review.
He holds an MBA from the London Business School and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nairobi, and is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK).
The Safaricom Board expressed confidence that Ndegwa will carry on the company's vision of transforming lives while keeping customers' needs at the forefront and meeting the new commitment of being Simple, Transparent, and Honest.
