East African Breweries (EABL) Group MD and CEO, Ms. Jane Karuku, has been listed on the Africa.com Definitive List of Women CEOs. The List was unveiled during The Definitive List Summit held on 13th October, 2021.
Ms. Karuku is part of the 50 African women who qualified from an initial list of a total of 526 women who run 355 companies as either CEO of publicly listed African corporations, division heads, Africa-region heads or Africa country heads of global corporations.
Other Kenyan women CEOs named in the list are KenGen CEO, Rebecca Miano and Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) Group CEO, Naseem Devji.
Africa.com undertook a rigorous, data-driven research project to identify high-profile personalities and women who run the largest, most complex businesses in Africa. This included reviewing all publicly listed companies on all of the twenty-one stock exchanges in Africa, a list of over 1400 companies.
Ms. Jane Karuku is amongst the most senior women leaders in East Africa, steering East and Central Africa’s largest alcohol beverage business. At the helm of the EABL business, she has been instrumental in driving innovations in the business.
In addition to revealing the names on the Africa.com Definitive List of Women CEOs, Africa.com has provided observations and trends that emerged from the research project, including key enablers that must be put in place to empower women towards successful careers.
“Part of success is choosing the right employer. Research by Harvard Business School shows that the company that a black woman works plays a very important role in determining the course and trajectory of her career,” said Anthony Mayo, MBA professor at Harvard Business School during his presentation.
“The women in the Definitive list today indeed show that Africa has made great progress in gender inclusion in the corporate space and I hope that we get to inspire young women all over the continent to arise, step forward and go for their dreams, whatever they may be. At East African Breweries PLC, we are passionate about mainstreaming inclusion and diversity both at the workplace and in our communities. We have put in place necessary policies and programs and have set ambitious targets towards having women making up 50% of our workforce and leaders by 2030,” Jane Karuku remarked on her listing.