Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph, on Thursday, October 24, explained why the telecommunications giant settled on Peter Ndegwa as his successor.
Speaking to Citizen TV anchor Yvonne Okwara on her Tonight show, Joseph stated that Ndegwa was a suitable candidate owing to his vast experience in running multi-nationals.
He further disclosed that the entire process took the firm a year to complete and that they cast the night wide after a section of its shareholders expressed interest in having a Kenyan take the reins at the company.
"We went through a long extended recruitment process for the next CEO. We wanted to be very careful about who we chose because we also wanted the board and the shareholders wanted to have a Kenyan so we had to cast the net widely.
"We went through a long search process and it took us nearly a year. Eventually, the best candidate to emerge was Peter," he told Okwara.
"He has deep experience in multi-nationals. He has worked in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. He is in a big organisation like Diageo and I think he was the right choice for the job," Joseph added.
Earlier that day, the firm appointed Peter Ndegwa as the company’s Chief Executive Officer effective April 1, 2020.
Currently, Ndegwa oversees the operations of Diageo PLC in 50 countries in Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, Middle East and North Africa region.
Previously, the newly-appointed CEO served seven years as CEO in Guinness Nigeria PLC and Guinness Ghana Breweries PLC, where he transformed the two operations to deliver a double-digit growth by investing in people, introducing new brands and reorganising the businesses.
