At its Annual General Meeting held on 12th March 2022 at Kampala Serena Hotel, the Uganda Marketers Society elected a new secretariat, following a competitive campaign period. The new leadership will steer the society to achieve its vision 2022-2024 “to become the leading body for marketing practitioners and professionals inspired towards the development, promotion, and application of world-class marketing leadership”.
Uganda Marketers Society is a membership body and is affiliated to the Chartered Institute of Marketing CIM-UK. CIM is the world’s largest community of marketers that strives for business leaders and opinion formers to recognise the positive contribution that professional marketing can bring to their organisations, the economy and wider society.
The elected directors are;
- David Balikuddembe DipM, MCIM, President
- Sandra Arinaitwe, Vice President
- Doreen Nyiramugisha, General Secretary
- Faith Ainembabazi Sabiiti, Membership Coordinator
- Anitah Kubugi, Finance
- Donato Laboke, Director Ethics and Professional Standards
- Sharon Sanya Mirembe, Director Events & Sponsorships
- Nicholas Hirya, Director Training and Consultancy
- Joseph Wokwera, Director PR & Media
David Balikuddembe succeeds Sharon Kiggundu who has been serving the society as the president since March 2019.
Sharon Kiggundu, commended the UMS Secretariat elect for the passion expressed during this election as the most participated election since inception. She also thanked all partners; Kampala Serena Hotel, ESKIMI, Crown Beverages Limited, Capital One Group, Optimus, KEIPhone Global, Kahil Insights, Owaraga and Hedge Marketing for the support over the years.
Speaking at the AGM, David said; “I’d like to appreciate the previous leadership for the immense efforts they have put in especially steering UMS through the COVID 19 pandemic, and in cementing strategic collaborations like that of CIM”. He added that, “on behalf of the new secretariat, I pledge to make membership benefits the core focus of the next 2 years.”
Here is a closer look at the new members of the UMS Secretariat
David Balikuddembe – President
David Balikuddembe, DipM, ACIM is a professional marketer with vast experience in Market Research & Business Development. He is a Certified Planner with SOSTAC® Business Planning, certified by Google; holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Professional Digital Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM-UK), and BSc. in Marketing (1st Class Honours) from Makerere University.
Sandra Arinaitwe – Vice President
Sandra Arinaitwe is an award-winning marketing and communications practitioner with a demonstrated history of achieving results across many verticals. Sandra serves as the Marketing Manager of Rocket Health, overseeing its overall strategic direction, campaign planning, execution, brand management and external positioning. She previously worked at Knight Frank Uganda where she led the overall management of internal, external and digital communication for the company and its retail portfolio. Sandra is an active athlete and sports enthusiast.
Doreen Nyiramugisha – General Secretary
Doreen Nyiramugisha is the Head of Marketing and Communication at PostBank Uganda with 11 years of experience in Marketing Communications. Prior to PostBank, Doreen worked as Manager, Marketing and Coms at Bank of Africa where she orchestrated Marketing Communication strategies to support the Bank’s business objectives and augment the Bank’s market position. Her work experience in Marketing and Communications spans a little over a decade, starting at fireworks Advertising where she managed key brands like Centenary Bank, NSSF, DStv, Uganda Telcom and Uganda Insurers’ Association
Doreen holds a Bachelor of International Business degree from Makerere University Business School (MUBS) and a Professional Diploma in Marketing from Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM UK). She is also currently pursuing an MBA from the University of South Wales.
Anitah Kubugi – Finance
Anitah Kubugi is an enthusiastic sales and marketing professional with vast experience in building strategic customer relationships, identifying new business opportunities negotiating, and closing business. Anita currently is a Business Development Manager, at UAP Old Mutual Insurance (U) Limited, driving sales growth and management, distribution, marketing as well as after-sales service support for the health insurance portfolio.
Anita started her sales and marketing career at Barclays Bank, which transitioned into ABSA Bank, as a financial advisor where she grew the asset portfolio by 10% and thereafter joined AAR Health Services in 2011.
She is pursuing an MBA at Kingston University, holds a diploma in Marketing, a Diploma in Professional Marketing CIM-UK, a Diploma in Business Administration (YMCA), a Certificate of Proficiency, The College of Insurance Kenya & a Bachelor of Mass Communication at Makerere University.
Sharon Sanya Mirembe – Director Events & Sponsorships
Sharon Sanya Mirembe DipM ACIM, is a creative multipotentialité with a passion to see brands grow. She is a digital communications officer at Diamond Trust Bank Uganda (DTB) a role that has seen her marry her creativeness with marketing and technology.
Prior to DTB, Sharon was the content creator and media services consultant at PostBank during a crucial time when the bank was transforming into a tier one Bank. This role enabled her to work with various dynamic teams both internally and externally hence sharpening her strategic thinking, partnerships and networking skills.
Irene Mwoyogwona: Beyond the Numbers – How Pride Bank's Award-Winning CFO Combines Profitability and Social ImpactPrior to her consultancy at PostBank, she was a digital marketing consultant at Orient Bank (I&M Bank) where her skills in digital marketing and content creation saw her revamp the bank’s image online and with no doubt one of the key players in the acquisition of the bank by I&M.
Sharon started out her career at Aggrey and Clifford a marketing and communications agency as a Digital Media Manager. On this assignment, Sharon led digital brand positioning for KCB Bank Uganda, Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) and Roke Telecom among others.
These were executed with meticulous preparation climaxing into target audience delight.
Sharon holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Marketing Level 7 from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM-UK), a Diploma in Visual communication from Artfield Institute of Design and a Bachelors of Catering and Hotel Management from Makerere University Business School (MUBS). Sharon Sanya holds 8 years of experience in Marketing and Communications.
Faith Ainembabazi – Membership Coordinator
Faith Ainembabazi through “Infinity and Jewel” supports small and medium-sized businesses with strategic communications, CRM management, brand development and digital media management. She has led the strategy team at Blu Flamingo Digital’s Uganda, served as Marketing and Sales Manager for Latitude 0 Degrees Hotel.
Faith holds an MSc in Marketing, a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Finance), and is an Institute of National Transformation Graduate (Governance Sphere).
Donato Laboke – Director Ethics & Professional Standards
Donato Laboke is currently Head of Marketing & Channel Development-East Africa at Sanlam. With over 13 years of work experience, he has expertise in business, marketing & advertising strategy development, sales and brand management.
Previously he worked with Lion Assurance Company, Fireworks Advertising Uganda, ZK advertising Uganda. While in the advertising industry he closely worked with prominent brands and government organizations where he championed various business growth initiatives.
MBA, Dip.MCIM, DipMIM. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM-UK) Has an MBA & Diploma of Master in Management from EMAS Business School. Exec Development Certificate from University of Stellenbosch Business School. A degree in Entrepreneurship & Business Management from Makerere Business School.
Nicholas Hirya – Director Training & Consultancy
Nicholas Hirya is a Growth Marketing Professional with over 10 years of work experience across a number of industries. Nicholas’s Professional work experience cuts across FMCG- with Movit and Coca-Cola, Recruitment Tech- with Fuzu, Consumer Tech- with Samsung, and the Media- with Kingdom FM. His professional expertise lies in driving scalable market growth along different stages of the customer, product, and business lifecycles.
Passionate about training, coaching, and consultancy, he has developed and delivered proprietary learning modules like the Dimensions of Leadership master class.
Nicholas holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Makerere University and a CIM Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Joseph Wokwera – Director PR & Media
Joseph Wokwera is passionate about Digital Communications with over 4 years of experience. He believes that instead of interrupting audiences, brands need to attract audiences.
Joseph works at Global IT as Digital Marketing & Communication Officer steering its communications strategy for a multivendor ecommerce marketplace eMoolo on the Ugandan market. Previously, he worked at the British Council Uganda as a Marketing & Communications Coordinator, where he supported the implementation of its communication and social media strategy and rollout of its refreshed brand in Uganda and that Sub-Saharan Africa Countries
He holds a number of certifications such as Digital Communications Certificate by UK Government Communications Services, Developing a marketing strategy by Hult Ashridge Executive Education, Introduction to digital journalism by Reuters, Social Media Marketing certificate by Hubspot Academy, Online marketing fundamentals by Google Digital Skills for Africa
Joseph holds a Bachelors Degree in Information Technology from Makerere University. Joseph loves tree planting and is also a Green Marketing Champion.
