Juliana Kagwa named corporate relations director in management shake-up at UBL

Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) has announced new changes in the senior executive team.

The changes, which take effect on November 1, saw Juliana Kagwa become UBL’s corporate relations director.

She has been the director of marketing and innovations, a position that will now be occupied by Emmy Hashakimana.

Agnes Ssali will take over as the company’s legal director and secretary, replacing Charity Kiyemba Ekudu who held this position for the last seven years.

According to the changes, Eunice Waweru is the new director of Finance and Strategy at UBL, taking over from Busola Doregos who was recently appointed as the group head of finance and strategy at East Africa Breweries Limited.

Below are the profiles of the executives that were appointed to new roles:

Juliana Kagwa

Juliana has a wealth of experience having held various leadership roles in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, ranging from marketing, strategy, commercial and innovation.

Juliana has previously been the UBL Marketing & Innovations Director, responsible for ensuring the profitable and sustainable growth of the focus brands in the UBL portfolio.

During her tenure, Juliana built a formidable, high-performing team that has now become the highest net exporter of talent in Africa.

She has built a reputation for herself in growing both the brand portfolio and her team members in tandem. In the 4 years of her stewardship, UBL realized the overall premiumization of its portfolio registering double-digit growth annually for Tusker lite, Guinness, and the Reserve scotch brands.

In the same period, the portfolio registered an all-time high share of voice in the marketplace alongside efficiencies created through her consolidation of media spend.

Juliana started her career at Diageo as a Graduate management trainee and has worked in various marketing roles in Uganda and Kenya, including a brief stint as Country Manager for Heineken.

Emmy Hashakimana Emmy

Hashakimana has been appointed the Marketing and Innovations Director. Emmy brings a vast wealth of experience having worked across Africa in marketing and commercial roles with Diageo and Unilever.

He has previously been the Head of Beer at Uganda Breweries Limited, where he delivered the record-breaking Guinness Smooth launch, and facilitated the COVID-19 response planning and execution; putting in place Direct Home delivery and new partnerships with the leading e-commerce players.

Emmy has also worked as the Head of Innovation Commercialization for Africa Diageo based in London where he was responsible for developing standout commercial innovation plans and seeing them executed in African markets – Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Angola.

Prior to this, Emmy worked with East Africa Breweries as head of Customer Marketing, a position he held for 2 years and 7 months before he was promoted to Projects and Execution Manager.

Agnes Ssali

Ssali has been appointed as the Legal Director and Company Secretary.

She replaces Charity Kiyemba Ekudu who held this position for the last seven years. Agnes joins the UBL team from British American Tobacco Area where she has been serving as Marketing, PRRP and Regulations Counsel for the East African Markets (EAM) Cluster, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Prior to this, Agnes was the Legal Counsel for British American Tobacco Uganda and has also worked as an Associate with Sebalu & Lule Advocates. Agnes has vast experience in the areas of Corporate Governance, Commercial Law, Land Transactions, Intellectual Property Management, Regulatory Review, Litigation, Labour and Retirement Benefits. Eunice Waweru – Finance & Strategy Director Waweru has been appointed the Finance & Strategy Director.

She replaces Busola Doregos who was recently appointed as the Group Head of Finance & Strategy, East Africa Breweries Limited.

Eunice was previously working with Guinness Nigeria Plc (GN) as Head of Commercial Finance, responsible for building the company’s long-term strategy, collaborating the MISSION workstreams, and driving an optimal cash position.

Her biggest asset remains in being a great business partner to the Sales and Marketing teams. Eunice has worked with East Africa Breweries as the Group Finance Controller and Finance Director.

She brings with her passion, foresight and great breadth in Finance and Strategy but more importantly a willingness to champion new barriers and create break-through outcomes.