Coca-Cola has appointed Debra Mallowah as the new Vice President for East and Central Africa, effective February 15 this year.
Debra will be taking over from Phillipine Mtikikiti, who has served as the Vice President and General Manager of East and Central Africa since June 2019. Phillipine will take up a similar role for the South Africa Franchise in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Debra will oversee the development and implementation of business strategies across the East and Central Africa Franchise, from her office in Nairobi. She joins Coca-Cola from Safaricom, where she served as the Chief Business Development Officer. While at Safaricom, she played a key role in developing a blueprint for entry into new geographical territories and expanding the business to new growth areas.
She has previously served as the General Manager for East and Central Africa at GlaxoSmithKline and Vice President at Unilever for Sub-Sahara Africa. She has also worked as Group Marketing & Innovations Director at Diageo East Africa (EABL) and Regional Marketing in Diageo in the United Kingdom.
Debra holds a Business degree (Honours) from the University of Nairobi and completed an Advanced Management Program from the IESE Business school in Spain. She advanced to do an Executive Program on Fintech Innovation at Said Business School, Oxford University. She has lived and worked in Kenya, South Africa, and the UK, and is married with two children.
“Debra is a highly accomplished leader with a wealth of experience gained within leading multi-national organizations. She has a strong track record of driving growth and is a versatile leader with deep understanding of customers and markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has held senior leadership positions in fast-moving consumer goods, including the beverage industry, manufacturing, and technology companies and I am confident that she will lead the Coca-Cola Franchise in its next phase of growth,” said Bruno Pietracci, President Coca-Cola Africa Operating Unit.
Speaking on her appointment Debra said, “My vision is to ensure that the Coca-Cola brand continues to refresh our consumers lives and make a difference in communities we operate in. A lot has changed around the environment we operate in especially in the last one year driven by the ongoing pandemic, but there many growth opportunities for the Coca-Cola business and that is my focus.”