KENYA – East African Breweries Limited has announced the appointment of Dayalan Nayager, as a non-executive director on the twelve-member board.
Dayalan is currently the Managing Director for Diageo Great Britain and he is a member of the Diageo Europe Executive team, reports Kenyan Wallstreet.
He replaces Andrew Cowan, the former Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EABL, who has taken up the role of Diageo’s Managing Director for African Regional Markets.
Diageo’s Africa regional markets comprise operations in Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, the Indian Ocean islands and Angola.
Dayalan Nayager replaces Andrew Cowan, the former Group Managing Director of EABL
He has taken over the role from Hina Nagarajan, who joined Diageo’s Indian subsidiary United Spirits Ltd as MD.
Cowan’s resignation in December from the helm of EABL paved the way for the naming of Jane Karuku as the firm’s new CEO.
Prior to the appointment, Jane was the MD of EABL’s subsidiary KBL, and has been replaced by John Musunga, who joined the Kenyan unit on 1st March 2021 from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he has been responsible for leading GSK’s vaccines business in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Eastern Europe.
Dayalan brings his extensive leadership expertise and knowledge about the consumer goods industry to East Africa’s leading alcoholic drinks company.
Other than working at Diageo, he was the Head of Key accounts at Mars from January 2009 to December 2009 and led the Sales, Marketing, and Innovation department at Heinz Africa from November 2011 to February 2013.
“Dayalan is passionate about developing strong talent and is known for his ability to implement a structured and disciplined approach that drives stronger performance and sustainable growth,” said EABL while announcing his appointment.
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Marketing the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the University of South Africa, and a MBA with Distinction from the University of Oxford UK.
The holder of Jonnie Walker whisky brand also recently appointed Ory Okolloh Mwangi as an independent non-executive director, tapping into her vast experience in corporate governance.
She joined the brewing company from heading the global philanthropic organisation, Omidyar Network and Luminate Group in Africa.
The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to hamper the company’s performance reporting a 47.3 per cent dip in profit for the half year ended December 2020 to Ksh.3.8 billion (US$34.5m) from Ksh.7.2 billion (US$65.3m) registered in the same period in 2019.
During the period under review, the brewer recorded a net sales decline of 3 percent to Ksh44.5 billion (US$404m) compared to the corresponding period in 2019.
Liked this article? Subscribe to Food Business Africa News, our regular email newsletters with the latest news insights from Africa and the World’s food and agro industry. SUBSCRIBE HERE
