Martin Ochieng is the CEO and Managing director of Sasini PLC group, one of Kenya’s biggest agricultural conglomerates dealing in the exportation of tea, coffee, avocados, and macadamia.
In the four years Martin has been at the helm of the 70-year-old company, he has steered it from knee-deep losses to a multi-billion profit company.
This is his journey as told by WoK:
Phenomenal career
Ochieng is the firstborn and the only son in a family of four. He began his phenomenal career after graduating from Moi University in the 90s with a first-class honors degree in biological science.
His initial ambition was to become an epidemiologist.
After his graduation, he volunteered as a research scientist at the National Museum of Kenya.
It was after working there for a few months that he received a call inviting him to work as a salesperson for the giant pharmaceutical company 3M Healthcare.
His rise to the top was almost meteoric. He moved from working for 3M Healthcare to working for Pfizer, an American pharmaceutical, where he held various leadership positions.
The company also sponsored him to Oxford Brookes University in England to pursue a degree in Strategic Marketing and Management and later a Master of Business Administration.
He was then sent to South Africa to oversee the company’s business operations in Cape Town. From Pfizer, Ochieng rose to become a Managing Director at Tyco.
He was also the CEO of GHM group in South Africa before heading to SGA Security group, where he was the Managing director before he was appointed Sasini CEO in March 2019.
Sasini
Martin joined Sasini at a time when global tea and coffee prices, the main sources of revenue for the company, had plummeted to rock bottom levels.
Judging by the way things were going, Ochieng knew that the company was headed for a mega loss. True to his analysis, Sasini lost sh 337 million in 2019.
However, the worst was yet to come.
In 2020, barely a year after the CEO had taken office, the first Covid case was reported in the country.
The company faced a grim outlook considering the lockdowns that were subsequently imposed within the country and the international market.
Luckily, Ochieng had previous experience working with multinational organizations facing pandemics like these. Through his leadership, the company enforced strategies that enabled them to weather the pandemic.
By the end of that financial year, Sasini, whose vast estates span the counties of Nyamira, Kericho, Kiambu, and Bomet, recorded a net profit of sh 12.6 million.
By 2022, the profits had risen to a staggering sh 1.17 billion, the company’s highest in seven years.
Leadership
According to Ochieng’, his leadership skills were honed after his father’s death while he was still in college. He became the default family leader, to whom his mother and siblings turned for guidance.
His ambition and grit also motivated his sisters, who pursued lucrative careers abroad. However, he says that his workload as CEO is no different from when he was a sales agent.
“The higher you rise, the more the workload increases. Although now I have people to help me, it can be challenging to create time for myself,” he said in an interview.
He unwinds by working out at the gym, cycling, and playing golf.
Surprisingly, he is the one who cooks for his family, a legacy he says he inherited from his father, whom he describes as a superb cook.
He also chairs the corporate governance committee of Maseno Alumni Investments Ltd.
Salary
While WoK has no conclusive data about Martin Ochieng’s current salary, he reportedly earned a monthly salary of sh 2.4 million when he joined the company in 2019.
Sasini employs CEOs on two-year contracts, and their salaries are reviewed annually. Therefore, it’s probable that Ochieng’s salary has increased.
Other benefits enjoyed by a Sasini CEO include medical cover, pension, club membership, as well as travel and other expenses incurred in the course of performing duties.
