Former General Manager of IBM Eastern Africa, Nicholas Nesbitt, has been appointed the new Chairman of Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA).
Nesbitt takes over from James Ndegwa who left the regulatory state agency in March this year following the expiry of his two terms of three years as Board Chairman of the Authority. Ndegwa, was first appointed to head the CMA Board of Directors in April 2015, after which he was subsequently reappointed on March 28, 2018, for another three years.
“IN EXERCISE of the powers conferred by section 5 (3) (a) of the Capital Markets Act, I, Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces, appoint- NICK NESBITT to be the Chairperson of the Board of Capital Markets Authority, for a period of three (3) years, with effect from the 6th October, 2021.” read a gazette notice dated 4th October, 2021.
In addition to his role as CMA Chairman, Mr. Nesbitt also served as the Chief Executive of KenCall, a leading international BPO/call center outsourcing company in East Africa. He has previously held senior executive positions in the United States at Qwest Communications, Schneider Electric and The Boston Consulting Group.
Mr. Nesbitt has also served as the Chairman of the Board of KEPSA (Kenya Private Sector Alliance), the apex body of the private sector in Kenya from April 2017 to May 2021. He has also been a board member of the Central Bank of Kenya, Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), American Chamber of Commerce, AMREF Flying Doctors, Kenya School of Monetary Studies, Multimedia University and Gateway insurance.
He received his MBA from Stanford University and both his Masters and Bachelors of Engineering degrees from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA.