In a bid to enhance shareholder value, Safaricom has announced the appointment of Mohamed Shameel Aziz Joosub and Linda Watiri Muruiki to its board as Non-Executive Directors, effective immediately.
Vodafone Group recently transferred 35% of its indirect interest in Safaricom to its sub-Saharan African subsidiary Vodacom Group Limited. The new shareholding reflects the interests of the new shareholding structure.
Mr Joosub is the current Chief Executive Officer and executive director of Vodacom Group as well as the Chairman of the Vodacom Group Executive Committee & Vodacom (Pty) Limited. Prior to joining Vodacom Group in 2012, Mr. Joosub was the former CEO of Vodafone Spain. He has held several high-level positions at Vodacom and served on the Vodacom Group Board from 2000 to 2011. He was reappointed to the board after his return from Spain.
On her part, Ms Muriuki currently serves as the Senior Partner at LJA Associates, where she is a practising Advocate of the High Court of Kenya with over 27 years of experience, ranked by Chambers and Partners in 2015 and 2016. She has previously served as a Non-Executive Director of Old Mutual Life Assurance Company Limited from 2004 to 2010 and the Capital Markets Authority from 2015 to 2017. She currently serves as a Non-Executive Director of East Africa Reinsurance Company Limited.
“We continue to place a keen focus on building an inclusive board that can both meet the evolving needs of our business, and which takes into account the recent changes in our shareholding structure. All three of our new directors bring with them a wealth of expertise in creating world-class mobile companies in both Europe and Africa,” said Nicholas Ng’ang’a, Chairman, Safaricom.
Safaricom also announced the resignation of Gianluca Ventura as a substantive Director of the Company. Mr Ventura will now act as an Alternate Director to Vivek Badrinath.
Till Streichert, the current Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and executive director of Vodacom Group, has been appointed as alternate director to Mr Moosub. Mr Streichert is also a Member of the Vodacom Group Executive Committee and is a Non-executive Director of Vodacom SA.
