#7

Jane Karuku, MGH

CHAIR OF BOARD: VISION 2030 DELIVERY

Upon the exit of an industry giant like Dr. James Mwangi, the President of Kenya had to head-hunt someone with the charm, elegance, poise, presence, drive, strategic thinking and charisma to reboot and give fresh impetus to the country’s premier planning agency. So, and naturally, it was to Ms. Jane Karuku that he turned.

Ms. Karuku is currently the Chair of the Vision 2030 Delivery Board. The Board is mandated to deliver a policy making and advisory role and provide overall leadership, oversight, guidance and policy direction in the implementation of the Kenya Vision 2030 Strategy.

Vision 2030 Delivery Board also drives sustenance of the momentum in realizing the goals and aspirations under the Vision’s three pillars, political, economic and social, in addition to setting sectoral and national targets, evaluating the results and influencing policy direction.

As if this catch was not big enough, it is again to Ms Jane Karuku that the President of Kenya turned, when SARS CoV 2, the virus that causes the Covid-19 disease hit Kenya’s shores, to chair the Kenya Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund Board to support the government’s efforts in the procurement of medical supplies and equipment (also referred to as PEE) for front line health workers as well as alleviating the welfare support to the vulnerable communities and individuals.

The Fund has helped raise over Kshs 2.8 billion shillings in cash and in-kind donations directly which has already been distributed and fully utilized. The Fund has also helped coordinate the distribution of an additional Kshs 500m worth of in-kind donations through its secretariat from various charity groups, individuals and corporates across the country, a no mean feat.

With her at the helm, the Board has been fulfilling its mandate with utmost transparency, having adopted good corporate governance theory and embedding this in practice, working with professional audit, consulting, financial advisory and tax services firms PwC Kenya, KPMG, Deloitte Kenya and EY Kenya to support operations and providing pro-bono assurance services.

Then, the EABL Board led by Dr Martin Luke Oduor-Otieno came calling: They appointed Ms Jane Karuku to take the helm as Group Managing Director and CEO at East African Breweries on January 1, 2021, the first woman to be appointed to the position since its incorporation. Ms. Karuku is not new to the EABL business. She joined the company’s Board in 2013, before being appointed Managing Director for Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL) in mid-2015.

At KBL as Managing Director, she has driven the growth agenda for Kenya’s biggest manufacturer and one of the oldest companies which will be celebrating a centenary in 2022. She is currently among the most senior women leaders in East Africa, steering East and Central Africa’s largest alcohol beverage business to greater heights with iconic brands such as Tusker, Bell, Serengeti, Senator, Guinness and Johnnie Walker. She has been instrumental in driving innovations in the business by launching new brands and categories that include Tusker Cider, Tusker Premium Ale, Sikera Cider and a number of premium scotch whiskeys, gin, rums and liqueurs.

Ms. Karuku has also been driving one of Kenya’s biggest investments in recent times by a single company—the Kshs 15 billion Kisumu brewery—to produce the Senator, a low-cost beer made from sorghum. The Senator value chain has spawned a significant multiplier effect in the economy with 30,000 farmers supplying the Nairobi Brewery and nearly 15,000 more from Western Kenya region delivering to KBL Kisumu Brewery. The new brewery is estimated to have created over 100,000 jobs in the Western Kenya.

She has been instrumental in ensuring KBL is committed to the UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) which has seen KBL aligned to 13 SDGs and the company was awarded the Private Sector winner of the 2020 SDGs Kenya Awards 2020.

Jane is passionate about driving diversity and inclusion by ensuring disadvantaged sections of the society are given opportunities to participate in the KBL value chain, one of the main criteria for the 25 Most Influential Chair of Boards Impacting Business nominations.

Ms. Karuku is a dynamic business leader, with strong management experience spanning over 25 years in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and non-governmental organizations, stretching from Cadbury East Africa to Telkom Kenya to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Her expansive experience straddles strategy development, operational management, marketing, brand management as well as change management.

In her new tour of duty at the helm of the EABL business, Ms. Karuku is leading East Africa’s biggest manufacturing Group with an exceptional collection of local and global brand icons across beer, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages. While the EABL manufacturing operations are concentrated in the three East African core markets of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the products are sold in more than 10 countries across Africa and beyond.

Ms. Karuku is leading a company whose performance ambition is to be the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in Africa. She is also guiding EABL’s significant contribution to the community and the positive role of alcohol plays in society as part of a balanced lifestyle.

Jane has served on several boards including Barclays Bank (now ABSA Kenya) and is currently a Trustee of Precious Sisters, a Not-for-profit organization that empowers bright and underprivileged girls through education scholarships.

Always polite and unassuming, Jane has been recognized and awarded for her contribution to the country’s social and economic development by HE the President of Kenya. She was recently awarded the Presidential Order of Service, Uzalendo Award in May 2020 and conferred the award of the Order of the Moran of the Golden Heart (MGH) in December 2020.