KENYA – The East African Breweries Limited (EABL) has appointed Ory Okolloh Mwangi as an independent non-executive director, tapping into her vast experience in corporate governance.
Ms Okolloh possesses strong technological and legal exposure, with extensive board experience and the ability to create new partnerships with positive impacts.
She joins the brewing company from heading the global philanthropic organisation, Omidyar Network and Luminate Group in Africa, where she served as the Managing Director, reports Star News.
Currently she is serving on the board of several organizations including the Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company, Van Leer Group, Harvard University’s Centre for African Studies, Stanbic Holdings, and Stanbic Bank Kenya.
Ms Okolloh has previously worked for global tech giant Google as the policy manager for sub-Saharan Africa, tasked with persuading governments to adopt an open-internet policy that allows ease of access to the internet.
She is also the co-founder of Ushahidi, a pioneering, free open source platform for crowdsourcing crisis information.
It combines mapping with eyewitness reports that has been used to monitor elections in Kenya, Mexico and India as well as track violence in the eastern DRC.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Political Science from University of Pittsburgh and a law degree from Harvard Law School.
EABL recently announced a 39% decline in net profit to Sh7 billion (US$64.9m) for the year ending June 2020, due to the plunge in net sales in the second half of the year (January – June).
The latest performance is in contrast to the Sh11.5 billion (US$106.7m) net profit posted in the previous financial year and is the lowest since 2014 when it posted net profit of Sh6.85 billion (US$63.5m).
The company has seen a 9% decline in net sales to ksh. 74.9 billion (US$695.25m) despite a 10% first half growth, which has been wiped out by a corresponding 29% decline in the second half period.
The second half decline was due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic which saw containment measures such as closure of bars and restricted movements imposed by the government across East Africa during the pandemic.
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