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Florence Namatta Mawejje, Human Resources Director, Centenary Bank
Florence is a Human Resource professional with over 25 years of corporate executive experience, over 15 years of managing investment fund schemes as well as 5 years serving as a Non-Executive Director (NED) on several multi-billion company boards.
Her wealth of experience in corporate human resource management and development spans across multinational organizations in the Banking, Telecommunications, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs), Energy, Manufacturing and Non – Government Organizations (NGOs) sectors in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia. She is an executive coach and mentor to young people especially young women. She boasts of developing and grooming talent, with over 25 active Heads of Human Resources in the region.
She currently works with Centenary Bank as the General Manager Human Resource, while serving as a Board of Trustee / NED on the Uganda NSSF Board and as Board of Director / NED at Uganda Clays Ltd and UMEME Uganda Ltd that are listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) and Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) respectively. Florence successfully instituted the Business Partnering concept that step-changed people management at Centenary Bank.
As an entrepreneur and investor in the education sector, she is a shareholder and NED at Silver Spoon Limited, where she once served as a Board Chairperson (2013 – 2015).
As NED/Board member in the various institutions Florence, has ensured professionalism in the handling of the people management agenda through robust HR strategy, policy guidelines, and organization design.
Before Centenary Bank, Florence served as the Human Resource Director, East and Southern Africa (ESA) business Cluster at Unilever, Kenya (2009-2011) where she built a very strong HR ESA Team.
She also served as the General Manager, Human Resources at MTN Uganda (1998-2009). She was part of the pioneer senior management team that was responsible for establishing MTN Uganda, from start-up to a successful and highly respected telecommunications organisation in the region. She played a lead role in establishing a strategic HR function with robust and effective systems including participating in key strategic business development initiatives, amidst a very strong competitive business environment. During her functional leadership, MTN Uganda grew to be the employer of choice and won the highly contested National Employer of the Year Award for 2008.
Mawejje has previously served as the first female President of the Human Resource Managers’ Association of Uganda (HRMAU), where she was individually awarded Best Contributor to (HRMAU) in recognition of the strategic positioning of the HR profession in Uganda, and for lifting the association to an international level. Additionally, she served as a Board member of the World Federation of People Management Associations (WFPMA) as well as a Board General Secretary / Treasurer of the African Federation of Human Resource Managers’ Association (AFHRMA). She also served on the Governing Council of the Federation of Uganda Employers where she played a pivotal role in shaping Human Resource Management for member organizations.
She holds a Master of Science Degree in Human Resource Development (Manchester University, UK) as well as an Executive MBA-Strategic Management, (ESAMI/Maastricht, The Netherlands). She is a graduate of Makerere University, Kampala. An Alumni of the Female Future Leadership Program (FUE/ Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO); the CEO Apprenticeship Program (CAP 2016) with IFE / Strathmore Business School(SBS); the Women Directors’ Leadership Summit (2018) – SBS and member of the League for East African Directors(2019).
Florence’s diverse experience, strategic and innovative capability in the various leadership and management disciplines is no doubt an anchor to the successful development and implementation of all people management change programme initiatives in the organizations she has served in the past decade.
2 of 10:
Abdul Kibuuka, Founder and Chief Executive; True North Consult Ltd
Abdul Kibuuka is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of True North Consult Ltd, a boutique HR Consultancy and Manpower Services Company with operations in Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda.
True North currently employs over 700 persons with a turnover of over USD 4million.
Before True North, he worked in several capacities in blue-chip multinationals in the Oil & Gas sector both locally and internationally, the last one being Tullow Oil Plc. Abdul was the maiden Head of HR at Tullow Oil Uganda, presiding over the setup and growth of Tullow Oil in Uganda during a busy oil exploration phase. Soon after, he got promoted to become the Group Head of Talent & Competency Development, at the Tullow Group Head Office, UK. At Tullow Uganda, he also had a short stint as Head of Public Affairs.
He is also a former President of the Human Resource Manager’s Association of Uganda (HRMAU) and is to date the youngest president of the association that brings together over 700 people management professionals.
Over the last two years, he has been part of several HR Advisory assignments for several organisations mostly in the banking & telecom sectors advises several boards and executive teams on aspects of HR & Management practice. He has also led recruitment & selection processes for over 15 executives in varied sectors. During his time in the oil & gas industry, he was a major contributor to the Skilling Uganda initiative as the maiden Chairperson of the World Bank-funded Lake Albert Oil & Gas Bursary Scheme Task Force and as a member of the Oil & Gas Sector Skills Council. He has also been appointed to several working committees for local capacity development in the Uganda oil and gas sector, including advising the Presidential Investor Round Table (PIRT) on several industry matters. He has also served on the governing council of the Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum (UCMP), a not-for-profit, member-based voluntary organization that represents the interests of private players in the mining and petroleum sectors in Uganda.
His company (True North Consult) employs over 700 people supporting several industries mostly in manufacturing, telecoms, and banking.
He holds a Bachelor of Education from Makerere University (Bachelor of Education) and a Master of Science in HR & Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE).
3 of 10:
Patrick Ngolobe, Chief Executive Officer, Africa Executive Leadership Solutions (AELS)
As well as being an accomplished Human Resources professional, Patrick is an entrepreneur who has founded quite some enterprises.
He is the CEO and Founder of Africa Executive Leadership Solutions (AELS) premium Leadership and organizational development consulting firm. AELS is built on Patrick’s over 17 years’ experience in government, telecoms, beverages, and energy sectors.
AELS, among other solutions, builds and delivers several workplace solutions such as organizational design &development, job evaluation, talent management, succession planning, HR Audit, salary surveys, executive leadership development, and coaching. Other solutions include: talent investment analysis, workload assessment, employee engagement survey, culture audit, and implementation of human resources information systems, organizational and institutional review, change management, and business strategy development.
AELS is also the Africa Representative of the CEO Institute Australia, a global premium CEO development firm.
Patrick is a Certified Professional Executive coach and a Member of the International Coach Federation and as part of his everyday job, coaches CEOs on how to shape their leadership, business growth and people management skills.
He broke his HR Professional teeth at Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), Uganda’s tax revenue agency where, be between 2005-2006 worked as the Performance Management Supervisor. Between December 2006 and Mary 2010, he worked for telecom giants, MTN Uganda as the Rewards and Performance Manager.
In May 2010 he joined Uganda Breweries Limited as the Human Resources Director for four years and in February 2014 joined Umeme Limited, Uganda’s largest power distributor as the Head Human Resources.
Before quitting Umeme, in April 2018, he had in January 2018 founded AELS as its first CEO. Over and above joining AELS, Patrick in April 2018, also founded Red Token Solutions, a technology solutions company that creates customised solutions for especially the health, workspace, education, e-commerce, energy, tourism, fintech and food production sectors. He was between February 2011- February 2014, the President Human Resources Managers Association (HRMAU)- a professional association of human resources practitioners; scholars, and managers in Uganda. Before that, he served as the Director Human Resources Managers Association Uganda (Feb 2011 – Feb 2014), responsible for bridging the gap between HR theory and practice; informing and participating in HR curriculum design; membership professional development; Consultancy, and Research.
Before that, he served as the Director Human Resources for HRMAU, responsible for bridging the gap between HR theory and practice; informing and participating in HR curriculum design; membership professional development as well as consultancy and research.
He also serves on the Board of Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE).
Ngolobe holds a Degree in Human Resources from Uganda Management Institute as well as a Degree in Economics from Makerere University, Kampala. He is a cohort 2 graduate of the CEO Apprentice program that was setup by CEO summit, Strathmore Business School and Bank of Uganda to grow local CEOs talent to break the dominance of CEO positions by non-Ugandans.
4 of 10:
Rachel Dumba, Partner – Strategy and Human Capital Management; Steadman Global Consulting
On her LinkedIn page, Rachel describes herself as a strategic HR development and management consultant with “vast experience in review of people, processes, structures, and structures within both the private and public sector for small, medium and large organizations as well as government institutions across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.”
She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) with a rich hands-on experience in leadership development, designing and implementing competency frameworks, strategy review and implementation, performance management, job evaluation, design of reward systems amongst other key HR and Business Processes.
She currently works as a Partner – Strategy and Human Capital Management at Steadman Global Consulting- a global people management consulting firm with a presence in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Before this, Dumba was Head of HR at Citi Bank’s Uganda unit. Before Citi Bank, she worked at dfcu Bank as the HR Learning and Development Manager (January 2004 – January 2005) before being promoted to Head of Human Resources (February 2005 – July 2010).
Before dfcu Bank, she, between, December 2002 and January 2004 worked as the Head of Human Resources at Kenya’s KenolKobil Limited, one of Kenya’s top five downstream oil and gas majors.
Dumba holds a Masters Degree in Strategic Human Resources Management from The Manchester Metropolitan University as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Administration from Makerere University. She also possesses a Certificate in Strategic Planning from International Development Institute (IDI) Ireland.
5 of 10:
Milton Steven Owor, Head of Human Resources & Administration; NSSF Uganda
Milton is awell-rounded Human Resources Professional with 25+ years of both local and international work experience.
He has a hands-on strategic human resource leadership and business partnership at various corporate levels, including the board, and in multi-country structures, having worked across Africa, Europe, and the US, for global multinational companies including British American Tobacco Plc, Royal Dutch Shell and General Electric Company (GE).
He currently works as the Head of Human Resources & Administration at Uganda’s largest social security fund, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF).
Milton started his HR Career in BAT Uganda as a Graduate Trainee in 1991 and by January 1993 he had been promoted to the role of Factory HR Manager in Jinja. In January 1995, he became the Head Office HR Manager, a role he served until May 1998 when he went on to become the Management Training and Development Manager, East Africa, based in Nairobi. In January 200, he returned to Uganda as the Head of Human Resources for just about a year, before returning to Nairobi in January 2001 as the regional HR Director.
In January 2004 he was appointed Area HR Director for Equatorial Africa that covers Eastern and Southern Africa, a role he served well, before moving to Senegal as the BAT Area HR Director for West and Central Africa. In April 2007, he ended his 16-year career at BAT and returned to Nairobi to join Royal Dutch Shell as the Head of Human Resources for Anglophone Africa in April 2007 for six and a half years.
In September 2013, Milton joined General Electric as the Organisation and Talent Development Leader for Africa, based in Nairobi and in October 2014, went on to become the Human Resources Director for Africa.
In 2016, Milton joined NSSF to head the development and delivery of the Fund’s human capital strategy, centred on talent, and high- performance culture. One of the major achievements at the Fund is the streamlining of the Graduate Trainee programme, done through proactive partnerships with the leading universities in the country. He also spearheaded the launch of Percipio, a cutting-edge online learning platform for staff that allows them access to over 20,000 books, 1,200 audiobooks and several other instructional materials for facilitator guided self-assessments and integrated mentoring.
He has driven employee engagement, which now stands at 93%, way higher than global top tier benchmarks. He has also been an active coach and mentor to many HR Professionals as well as business leaders.
Milton holds an MBA in Strategic Human Resource Management (University of Leicester, UK), Certification in Global Business Leadership (INSEAD, France) and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Public Administration (Makerere University). He has also attended several leadership and functional developments, globally.
6 of 10
Moses Mbubi Witta, Manager, Stanbic Holdings Ltd
Diageo to Exit East African Breweries as Asahi Takes Control
With over 20 years in the business, Moses is one of Uganda’s seasoned Human Resources executives with a solid career built on working for some the world’s leading brands on the African continent.
He started out at British American Tobacco Uganda (BAT-U) as an HR Management Trainee in January 2001 and by January 2003, had risen to become the Company Training Manager. In February 2004, he was promoted to become the HR Operations Manager & Company Training Manager. In January 2005, he left the tobacco industry to join Century Bottling Company, the franchise bottler for Uganda as the HR Manager, Projects.
In October 2005, he took up a Deputy HR Manager at Coca-Cola Sabco (Pty) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and after a year and four monhts, he became the HR Manager – Central Region, Bloemfontein, South Africa. In 2007, he would return home as the Country Human Resources Manager for Century Bottling Company Ltd.
Following a people-shepherding career that lasted for almost 6 years, he in June 2013, joined Stanbic Bank, Uganda’s largest bank with over 1,000 executives as its Head, Human Capital until April 2020 when he was appointed the Manager for Stanbic Holdings Ltd, the holding company for the bank and its other subsidiaries.
Over the two decades, Moses has gained broad experience in both Leadership and HR / HC technical areas. These span from HR strategy development and execution, learning & development, leadership development, talent and succession planning, resourcing, employee relations, compensation & benefits.
During his career, Moses has led HR Teams that participated in the Federation of Uganda Employers Awards and has won the GOLD Award twice – “Employer of The Year” with two different employers- Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (formerly Century Bottling) in 2011 and Stanbic Bank in 2019. His teams also came up as Runners-Up twice in 2008 and 2009 at Coca-Cola Beverages Africa.
Moses has greatly contributed to the HR Profession by mentoring and coaching several HR Practitioners, eleven (11) of whom have gone on to become heads of human resources in various organizations and companies. In recognition of his professional role he was in 2018 voted as the President – HR Managers Association of Uganda and received a second term in 2019 that goes on until 2022.
He has now moved on to the newly created Stanbic Uganda Holding Company as The Manager to lead the set up and operationalization of the new four subsidiaries of the Stanbic Uganda Brand.
Moses has a Master’s of Business Administrationfrom Edinburgh Business School – Herriot Watt University Scotland and a Bachelors’ Degree in Social Work and Social Administration– MUK. He has also attended numerous technical and leadership development programmes notably the CEO Apprenticeship Programme 2015 (CAP 2015)and recently become a Certified Professional Coach(ICF Affiliated).
7 of 10:
David Ssegawa, Global Director for People, Oxfam International
Describing David Ssegawa on LinkedIn, Joseph Bagabo, the Absa Bank Uganda, Chief Operating Officer describes his as thus: “David provides excellent support, leadership, coaching and mentoring to colleagues which builds on individuals’ skills, capability and opportunities for growth.”
And it is not difficult to see why- his 20+ people management career is built on some of the best performing brands in the world. He has provided strategic-thought direction as Human Resources Director at some of the leading global multinational organisations including; Unilever, The Standard Bank of South Africa, The Coca-Cola Company, Bharti Airtel International, the Africa Development Bank, and recently at Oxfam International where he is the lobal Director for People & Culture.
During this time, he has led organisation-wide transformations at country, regional and international levels, provided successful business solutions for mergers and acquisition, organisation re-design, start-ups, and is adept at building organisational capabilities for the future.
Over the last 10 years, he has played a key role in building African talent pools for multinational business in Africa, and has proudly mentored and coached HR professionals to become HR Directors across Africa and beyond.
In Uganda, his professional legacy will forever be etched in stone- he is the Founder and first President of the Human Resources Managers’ Association of Uganda (HRMAU).
His people shepherding started at Unilever East Africa as a Human Resources Manager in October 1995 and by January 2000, he had become the Regional HR Manager, Development & Training, based in Nairobi Kenya. From July 2003, he joined the banking industry as the Head of HR for Standard Bank, the parent company for Stanbic Bank and after two years, he was picked by the Coca-Cola Company as the Business Unit HR & Rewards Manager for Coca-Cola East & Central Africa, sitting in Nairobi, Kenya.
In July 2007, he returned to Unilever as the Human Resources Director, based in Kenya. After just a year, he re-joined Coca-Cola as the Human Resources Director in 2008, still in Nairobi and in April 2011, he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, still as the Human Resources Director for the Coca-Cola Company in South Africa.
In April 2012 he was hired as the Airtel Africa Chief HR Officer and after 4 years, quit to join the African Development Bank as the Director, Corporate Human Resources, at the bank’s Headquarters in Abidjan Ivory Coast. In December 2018, he moved back to Nairobi as the Oxfam International Global Director for People.
He holds an MBA in Strategic Human Resources from the University of Leicester, UK, and a Bachelor of Arts – Social Work & Social Administration degree from Makerere University.
8 of 10:
Harriet Nabakooza Musoke, Head Human Capital, Dfcu Bank
A career banker with over 25 years’ experience in the industry, the majority of which have been spent in people management, Harriet is one of Uganda’s outstanding names, strategic HR management, largely with local and international financial institutions like Standard Chartered Bank Uganda and dfcu Bank.
She is currently the Head of Human Capital at dfcu Bank a role she has held since January 2015. Before that, she worked with the Ugandan office of Standard Chartered Bank for 17 years working her way up across various roles in the Human Resource/Human Capital, Corporate Affairs/Public Relations, and Marketing Departments.
Harriet’s career highlight is perhaps her overseeing the integration of Crane Bank people into dfcu Bank, after the former was acquired by dfcu Bank at the beginning of 2017. As proof of this, a 2019 Employee Engagement Survey by Towers Wills Watson returned 86% participation rate and 85% Engagement Score. Such is her mother hen skills that staff regrettable attrition at the bank has been below 8%, an indicator of a strong brand and good employer.
“In the past 5 years at dfcu we have been able to attract very good key strategic hires from the top competitor banks an indication that our brand is strong and stable,” she boasts.
“My employee engagement scores from the Gallup Employee Engagement Survey have recognized me as a great people leader consistently above 4.5 score out of 5,” she told CEO East Africa Magazine, adding: “My entire 9 years as Head of HR at Standard Chartered Bank (2006 to 2014), I had Zero attrition within the HR department.”
She is a professional member of the Human Resources Management Association Uganda (HRMAU), Uganda Bankers Association (UBA) and a member of the Federation of Uganda Employers (FUE).
She serves on the board of Madhvani Group of Companies/ Kakira Sugar Limited and is passionate about mentoring young people, especially young girls, which is why she belongs G4G (Girls for Girls)- a global movement that aims to help young women develop the courage, vision, and skills to take on public leadership. She was also recently appointed as an independent director to the Sanlam General Insurance (Uganda) Limited board effective April 2020. She is also a member of the League of East African Directors (LEAD) and The Boardroom Africa.
Harriet holds an MBA in International Business from Bentley College Graduate School of Business, Boston USA, and a Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Human Resources Management from Uganda Management Institute.
In her free time Harriet says, she enjoys pro bono mentorship, Rotary activities, traveling, dancing, and keeping fit and networking.
“It never hurts if you light another candle,” she says.
9 of 10:
Martha Munnu Omer, HR Professional; Private Practice
Until June 2020, Martha was the HR Director for Coca-Cola Beverages Africa – Uganda, a role she served for nearly 7 years since August 2013.
As a testimony to her abilities, besides the strong performance of the business, which remains Uganda’s largest bottler of carbonated soft drinks, her department twice won, the Coca-Cola, Group Accolades under the People Award (HR/People Practices) and for Corporate Social Responsibility.
She has over 16 years of working experience, 11 of them at the executive level, in banking, manufacturing, and not-for-profit.
She says of herself: “I am intentional in partnering with business leaders to deliver a proactive approach to business, shorten the time to value and remain agile whilst driving high returns on capital investment. The transformation of organizations has been a big part of my assignments; I have restructured and transformed all the organizations I have worked for.”
Besides Coca-Cola, Martha has also worked as the Human Resources Manager for Uganda Women’s Effort To Save Orphans (UWESO), between 2003-2005; Regional HR Manager Century Bottling Company (2006-2008), Head of Human Resources, KCB Bank Uganda (2008-2012) before joining Bank of Africa in October 2012, again as the Head of Human Resources. In August 2013, she returned to Coca Cola Beverages Africa-Uganda as the HR Director until June 2020. In this role, she flawlessly managed the merger of Century Bottling Company Ltd and Rwenzori Bottling Company into Coca – Cola Beverages Africa – Uganda.
She is a Presidential Independence Medal Awardee for her contribution to the country in the Labour industry. This Medal is awarded by the President to distinguished individuals that have contributed to the country in a particular field.
She has served as a Board Member / Governing Council Member to the Federation of Uganda Employers a body that brings together all good employers in the country and has in that capacity participated in several policy-forming decisions.
Together with James Agin and Nok Bwonditi the then Managing Director and Executive Director respectively, she was one of the senior executives that started KCB Bank Uganda from the ground up from one branch to 14 fully-staffed branches.
As HR Director, she has led her teams to win two ‘Employer of the Year’ Awards. Martha holds a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management and Training from the University of Leicester and a Bachelor of Arts (Social Sciences) from Makerere University.
10 of 10:
Joseph Ajal, Head Talent Development and Engagement, Airtel Uganda
Currently the Head Talent Development and Engagement at Airtel Uganda, Joseph is also the Chief Executive Officer at PrecisionHR Proprietary Ltd- a Ugandan Human Resources and Leadership Development Consultancy.
Joseph’s 12 years in the HR trade has seen him practice across the Pensions, Multimedia, Insurance, and telecoms sectors, a career that has seen him work at Monitor Publications Limited, Sanlam Life Insurance, Volcanoes Safaris and National Social Security Fund and Airtel Uganda.
He is a Certified Professional Coach, Certified Talent Practitioner (CTP), Chartered HR Business Partner, Fellow of the American Academy of Project Management (FAAPM) as well as a certified Balanced Scorecard Professional by George Washington University and a Certified Korn Ferry Hay Job Evaluator. He is also an Equity and Merit Fellow at the University of Manchester.
A Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management/Development (University Of Manchester) holder, Joseph confesses to being a “very passionate believer in the transformational power of people in the bigger picture of the organisation.”
Joseph has served as a Secretary-General of HRMAU and was on the HR Bill Committee, a committee of HR professionals spearheading the statutory recognition of the HR practice in Uganda.
He also works as the Business Development Director For Coach Masters Academy in East Africa and also sits on the board of the ICF Uganda Chapter, Areda Ventures, CIVFUND, The University Of Manchester Uganda Alumni Mentorship Forum, British School Of Kampala’s Parents Staff Association And The Tumaini Foundation.
He was the winner of The Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Training And Development award at the Africa Best Employer Brand Awards in Mauritius in December 2017.
Joseph’s specialities include coaching, organisational development and change management, talent management, learning and development, and e-learning.
