Safaricom Board of Directors has today appointed Mr Peter Ndegwa as the company’s Chief Executive Officer effective April 1, 2020.
He joins Safaricom from Diageo PLC where he is the Managing Director of Diageo Continental Europe.
In his current role, Peter oversees the operations of Diageo PLC in 50 countries in Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, Middle East and North Africa region. He had previously served for seven years as CEO in Guinness Nigeria PLC and Guinness Ghana Breweries PLC.
Prior to that, Peter served for eight years across a range of senior Executive Director roles at EABL (a Diageo subsidiary) based in Nairobi.
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He also served as the Group Chief Finance Officer (CFO), Group Strategy Director, Sales Director, and as an Executive Director on the EABL Board.
He started his career at PwC, the global consulting firm, where he worked for 11 years..
Peter 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).
He will take over from the acting CEO Mr Michael Joseph, who took over the leadership of the company in August following the death of Bob Collymore.
Joseph, a South African-born American, served as the first Safaricom CEO for 10 years, giving way to Collymore who passed on in July.
There has been a tussle between Safaricom and the government, with the latter insisting that the void left by Collymore should be occupied by a Kenyan.
In an interview with K24 TV four months ago, Joseph noted that officials currently serving in various senior capacities at the company and whom many Kenyans feel should have been promoted are not ready to fill in Collymore’s shoes at the moment.
“At this point, we (board) thought that none of them was ready for the role today,” he said.
The search for Collymore’s successor, whose initial term was to end in August 2019, commenced two years ago but stalled due to demand and pressure from various corners. This saw Collymore’s term extended by one year, but he passed on before he could begin the extended term.
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