Michael Joseph has been appointed as the interim Chief Executive Officer of Safaricom following the demise of Robert William Collymore yesterday morning after a period of battle with cancer.
According to a statement by the company, the current KQ Chairperson and Safaricom Board Member, Michael Joseph will act in the capacity of the Interim CEO until the board appoints a permanent person for the office.
The Company’s secretary Kathryne Maundu in a statement said, “Following the passing on of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Robert (Bob) William Collymore on 1 July 2019, at a Special Board meeting of the Directors’ that was held on even date. The Board resolved to appoint Mr. Michael Joseph, a Board member of the Company, as the interim Chief Executive Officer of the Company with immediate effect.”
Joseph had served as the CEO of the firm following its re-start as a joint venture between Vodafone UK and Telkom Kenya from July 2000 until his retirement in November 2010.
While he served as CEO back then, there were several innovations and achievements recorded one of which was the launch of mobile phone-based money transfer service M-Pesa placing Kenya as a hub for financial services innovations.
About the time of his departure from the telco, in 2011 Safaricom had doubled its profits to Ksh 13.1 Bn (USD 127 Mn) from Ksh 5.8 Bn (USD 56 Mn ) in 2005 while the M-Pesa revenue tripled from Ksh 370 Mn (USD 3.5 Mn) in 2008 to Ksh11.78 Bn (USD 114,573 ).
The new interim CEO works with the World Bank as a consultant on matters of deepening financial services in developing countries.
There were reports that a foreigner was earmarked for the position but for the intervention of the government that the new CEO must be a Kenyan.
The former CEO Collymore had been quoted by Business Daily to have said that having the right skills is more important than nationality.
In his words, “You have to get the right person for the job. It might be a Kenyan; it might not be a Kenyan.”
