He is currently serving as Managing Director of Vivo Energy Namibia effective 1 October 2019- the country’s No.1 player in the downstream oil and gas industry.
He wields 22 years of engineering, sales and management in the FMCG/oil and gas industry across Africa, most of them, with Shell and Vivo Energy.
He started out as a young engineer at Shell Uganda (now Vivo Energy) and by 2005 he had caught the eye of his superiors- he was appointed the Project Manager responsible for the construction and management of fuel supply to 3 thermal power generation plants producing over 250MW electricity into Uganda grid.
Between 2009-2012, he was East Africa Cluster B2C (Lubes & LPG) Manager where he was responsible for redefining and overseeing lubricant business across the three East African markets (Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania), delivering combined After-Tax earnings of USD9.2 million within the lubricants and LPG business for East Africa against a target USD$8 million.
In Oct 2012, he was appointed as Commercial Manager for Shell Uganda and in Nov 2013, during the birth of Vivo Energy as Shell Licensee, he was moved to the role of Retail Lubricants Manager, for Vivo Energy Uganda.
By the end of 2014, some of his achievements include:
Breaking Barriers: Charles Mudiwa on Intergenerational Leadership at Makerere - Delivering retail market leadership for Vivo Energy;
- Growing Shell lubricants by over 55% by volume;
- Doubling sales volume for LPG as well as network expansion and improvement of over 50 new stations;
- He also led several innovations, for example, the launch of the Shell Gas 6kg ‘ka-portable’ and Shell Gas Lite.
In 2015, he was elevated to the role of Country Sales Manager for a period leading up to May 2017 when he was appointed the Acting Managing Director.
In June 2017, Walugembe crossed over to Namibia as the Supply and Marketing Manager for Vivo Energy Namibia. In October 2019 he was appointed Managing Director.
Since his appointment in Namibia, he has been vital in the acquisition and retention of big accounts especially in the mining business alongside driving of accelerated Lubricants growth in Namibia as well as a 33% expansion in network size; further consolidating Vivo Energy’s market leadership in Namibia.
Walugembe holds a BSC Engineering (Hons) MUK, Master’s Degree in Business Administration from ESAMI Business School.
He also attained Certificate- CEO Apprenticeship Executive Education from Strathmore Business School
