KENYA – Multinational drinks maker, Diageo, has undertaken an executive reshuffling at two of its African subsidiaries, Kenya Breweries Limited and Guinness Nigeria PLC.

The alcoholic beverage company has appointed KBL’s current Managing Director Mr. John Musunga, to be the CEO of Guinness Nigeria PLC, with effect from 1st November 2022.

Mr. Musunga, a seasoned leader with local and international leadership experience, joined KBL 19 months ago following the promotion of Ms Jane Karuku as the new Group Managing Director for the company’s parent company East African Breweries PLC in 2020.

Prior to joining the maker of Tusker Lager, he had a highly successful career at GSK, working at senior levels in Eastern Africa, Southern Africa and Europe.

Among other industry roles, he served as a Non-Executive Director for the Vision 2030 Board in Kenya, chaired the Kenya Association of Pharmaceuticals Industry and the Kenya HIV/AIDS Business Council.

Since joining KBL, Mr Musunga is appraised for leading the business recovery through Covid-19, achieving phenomenal growth with the company reporting 30% growth in net sales in the year ended June 2022.

He holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Nairobi and Master of Business Administration from the United States International University Africa.

Following his recent appointment, he will take over the helm of Guinness Nigeria from Mr Baker Magunda who headed the company since 2018.

Prior to joining the Nigerian business, he was Managing Director of Diageo Ethiopia and the Indian Ocean Markets.

Mr Magunda has also lent his leadership skills by becoming the Managing Director for Diageo’s businesses in Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon after serving in several marketing roles in the multinational alcoholic beverage company.

He started his career in Sales and Marketing at Coca-Cola Sabco in 1991 and was made Head of Sales in 1996 before joining Diageo in 1999.

Mr Magunda gained his first degree in Economics at Makerere University in Uganda and attended IESE and Strathmore Business Schools for postgraduate studies in Business and Leadership.

Diageo launches innovation fund in Africa

In other related news, Diageo has announced a £450k of funding for three innovations intended to lessen and monitor the impact of water and climate crises on smallholder farms in Africa.

As part of its Society 2030: Spirit of Progress ESG action plan, Diageo is building resilience in its communities and monitoring its farming programmes to preserve natural resources.

Diageo Sustainable Solutions launched in November 2020 to foster collaboration between the company and innovators on the next generation of sustainability technology.

The objective of the global programme is to discover and develop innovators and technology that can help Diageo achieve its sustainability goals by 2030. 

Current pilots underway from previous application rounds include a partnership with EXXERGY, Dassault Systemes and Ardagh group to develop a coating to make glass thinner without losing its strength to reduce emissions and the resources needed.

This year’s challenge will focus on improving soil water holding capacity and monitoring; improving the soil carbon measurement, modelling; in addition to biodiversity measuring.

The pilots will be taking place in East Africa and if successful will be rolled out across Diageo’s smallholder farmer network across Cameroon, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Tanzania, Turkey, the Seychelles, South Africa and Uganda.

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