Safaricom on Friday announced the appointment of John Ngumi as a director and also chairman of the firm’s board replacing Michael Joseph.
The appointment takes effect on August 1.
Under his belt, Mr Ngumi has a 35-year banking career having worked with both local and international corporates that have an East African regional presence, state-owned enterprises, sovereigns and financial services grasps.
Announcing the appointment, Safaricom chief executive officer Peter Ndegwa said Mr Joseph takes over from August 1, 2022 with the aim of drawing from his plethora of experience spanning from private to government enterprises.
“He is a seasoned director having drawn his experience in both private and state-owned enterprises. For the latter, he is best known as the inaugural Board Chairman at Konza technopolis Development Authority and as an extremely active and effective board Chair at Kenya Pipeline Company Limited.”
Mr Ngumi, who is also serving on the board of Kenya Airways PLC, is also serving as the board chair at the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC) which is leading the effort to implement the Kenya Transport and logistics Network that is encompassing Kenya ports Authority, Kenya Pipeline Company Limited and Kenya Railways Corporation.
Mr Joseph, whom Mr Ngumi is taking over from, was the first Safaricom CEO from July 2000 when the company was re-launched as a joint venture between Vodafone UK and Telkom Kenya until his retirement in November 2010. He would come back as a caretaker CEO after the death of Bob Collymore as the firm looked for a new boss.
During his tenure, Mr Joseph steered the company from a subscriber base of less than 20,000 to over 16.71 million subscribers.
In the same breath, Mr Ndegwa announced the resignation of Mr Sitholizwe Mdlalose from the board effective August 1.
“We take this opportunity to thank Sitho for his service, dedication, sound advice, and commitment to the company with particular reference to his invaluable contributions at the board audit, risk and compliance committee,” Mr Ndegwa said. BY DAILY NATION