EABL Appoints Jane Karuku  Group Managing Director and John Musunga KBL Managing Director

East African Breweries Limited (EABL) on Thursday said it has appointed Mrs. Jane Karuku as the new Group Managing Director and Mr. John Musunga as Managing Director for its Kenyan subsidiary, KBL.

The appointments of Mrs. Karuku and Mr. Cowan will take effect from 1st January 2021 and Mr. Musunga’s appointment will take effect by 1st March 2021.

Mrs Karuku replaces Mr Andrew Cowan who has been in the EABL business for four and a half years. 

Mr. Cowan is taking up a new role in Diageo’s global business as Managing Director for Africa Regional Markets. He will remain a member of the EABL Board.

“Mrs Karuku is a dynamic business leader, with strong management experience spanning over 25 years in fastmoving consumer goods (FMCG) and non-governmental organisations. A consummate leader, her expansive experience straddles strategy development, operational management, marketing as well as organisational change management,” EABL said in a statement.

Prior to joining KBL, Mrs. Karuku was the President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), where she was responsible for one of Africa’s largest grant-making organisations in the food security and agricultural development sector. 

Previously, she has held a host of senior positions in various other organisations including Cadbury’s East & Central Africa as Managing Director before joining Telkom Kenya, as Deputy Chief Executive and Secretary-General. At Cadbury’s, she was responsible for operations in 14 countries across Africa and during her tenure she conceived and implemented a highly successful growth programme for the business in this period. Before Cadbury’s Mrs. Karuku worked with Farmer’s Choice Kenya and Kenya Co-operative Creameries (now known as New KCC).

She is the current Chairperson of Kenya Vision 2030 Board.  

Mrs. Karuku holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Food Science and Technology from the University of Nairobi and an MBA in Marketing from the National University of California.

Mr. Musunga has more than 25 years of experience in general management, sales, and marketing.

He joins EABL from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he began his career as a sales representative and progressed through roles of increasing responsibility including that of Managing Director and General Manager of their Kenya and East Africa Business. 

He has most recently been responsible for leading GSK’s vaccines business in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Eastern Europe. He has previously worked in regional and global roles and lived in Belgium and South Africa.