By Prudence Minayo
Nancy Matimu was appointed the first female CEO of Multichoice Kenya in December 2019. With more than 15 years in the corporate world, she has helped in uplifting and transforming businesses to global standards.
According to her LinkedIn profile, she has held general management and specialist roles with as high as US$2 billion P&L responsibilities. The experienced professional has held various top roles in Safaricom, HFC, Airtel, and Mastercard among other top organizations. For her contribution to the digital economy, she was recognized as an honoree in the top 100 most influential women in Africa 2020.
Here is her story as told by WoK.
Education
She has a Bachelor in Environmental planning and Management from Kenyatta University, and a diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. She also attended a Multichoice chairman Top Leaders Program at Harvard Business School Executive Education, an Advanced Management Program and Chief Executive Program from Strathmore Business School, and Global Strategy and Innovation at both INSEAD and IESE Business School.
Career
In the first decade of her career (from 1993 to 2003), she worked as a systems operator in different companies, such as, ICN Toshiba, SPS, Insight Technologies, Fintech, ELCI and Telerosa. She then joined iWayAfrica Kenya Limited where she served as head strategic sales and marketing Africa, and CRM Africa Assistant General Manager. She was among the team that expanded iWay satellite broadband from 10 African countries to 32.
In 2008, she joined telecom giant, Safaricom as head of Safaricom home and content/ consumer/products/ enterprise products and innovation.
From 2011 to 2013, she worked as the general manager marketing and head of products and innovation revenue management at Airtel. Here, she helped steer the organization in terms of mobile data and VAS menu. She co-founded and served as managing partner of Serrari group from December 2017 to May 2018.
In 2018, she joined HF Group as the chief digital officer. In April the following year, she joined Mastercard as Vice President, Head Market Development Sub Saharan Africa.
In December 2019, she became the first woman to be made the Managing Director of Multichoice Group Kenya. During her leadership, she has enhanced the company’s operations throughout the country. They have expanded their operations to regions outside Nairobi and in 2021 it was recognized among the top 25 brands transforming the lives of Kenyans.
During the 2021 Kuza awards organized by the Communication Authority of Kenya, Multichoice Kenya received five awards, including winning the subscription broadcasting service award.
Nancy also serves as the vice chair of the university council board and chair business development and strategy at KCA University. She is also a member of the global board of trustees for education SubSaharan Africa (ESSA).
