KAMPALA–Nation Media Group (NMG) has confirmed the exit of Chief Executive Officer Joe Muganda.
In a communication to staff on Monday afternoon, NMG Group Chairman Wilfred Kiboro said Muganda, who joined the media house in July 2015, will officially depart on January 31 next year.
He is to be replaced by the Group’s Finance Director Stephen Gitagama who will act as CEO as the board seeks Muganda’s substantive replacement.
Group Editor-in-Chief Tom Mshindi is among those tipped to replace Muganda.
Kiboro said during his tenure, the outgoing CEO presided over a business re-engineering strategy to position the company firmly on a digital growth path.
“Mr Muganda has aggressively driven our product portfolio review, presided over a general restructuring and re-oriented the business to seize the opportunities presented by the digital disruption in the media sector,” said Kiboro in a statement read on his behalf by Group Human Resources Director David Kiambi in a staff meeting reported to have lasted just seven minutes.
“He will leave a leaner, nimbler organisation whose future commercial success is already evident in the positive trajectory of returns from the investments in digital initiatives. We wish him well in his future pursuits,” he added.
Mr Kiboro assured all NMG shareholders, stakeholders and the public that corporate leadership changes are normal and that the transition will be seamless and expeditious.
“We wish to reassure our stakeholders that we continue to be committed to delivering value in line with their expectations,” he added.
As NMG CEO, Muganda will be remembered for presiding over a restructuring programme that saw the closure of three radio stations -Nation FM and QFM in Kenya, Rwanda’s KFM – and hybrid television channel, QTV as effected in November last year.
He also implemented a newsroom convergance project that saw various desks merged to serve its print, electronic and digital outlets pushing out more staffers. This saw Ddembe FM merged with its sister TV station Spark TV.
Meanwhile, we have learnt that Muganda will be joining Vivo energy.
He will take over at Vivo Energy on February 1, the company has revealed.
In a statement, the company noted that Muganda brings a wealth of experience from this and various other roles, primarily within the FMCG sector.
These include Kenya Breweries Ltd. where he was the Managing Director and British American Tobacco (BAT) where he held a number of different roles including General Manager for the Southern Africa Markets, Head of Corporate Affairs, Regional Manager – Africa and the Middle East, and senior marketing and brand roles. Before BAT, he previously worked in Barclays and Unilever.
THE STATEMENT IN FULL
