Roger Mugisha
20 November 2007
Kampala — MORE than 500 delegates from the Commonwealth nations are at Sheraton Kampala Hotel for the Commonwealth Business Forum.
The forum, which attracts global business leaders, heads of government and industry leaders, will help highlight Uganda and East Africa's position as a trade and investment hub.
Vision Reporters bring you the profiles of speakers expected to talk at the summit.
ALEXANDER CUMMINGS
By Roger Mugisha
Alexander B. Cummings is president and chief operating officer of the Africa Group of The Coca-Cola Company. He is responsible for the company's operations in Africa, which encompasses 56 countries and territories in Africa.
The Coca-Cola System in Africa has 888 million consumers and employs 55,000 people in 160 bottling plants. Born in Liberia, Cummings split his early years between his home country and the US. He joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1997 as regional manager in Nigeria. In 2000, he was named president of the Company's North and West Africa.
He assumed his current role in March 2001. Coca-Cola is one of the world's most successful companies. It is the largest consumer goods' provider in Africa.
Prior to joining the company, Cummings held several positions with The Pillsbury Company in the US. As vice-president of Finance for Pillsbury International, he had financial responsibility for a growing $1.2b international branded food business with operating companies in 16 countries.
As chairman of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, Cummings is also on the Boards of the African-America Institute, Africare and Clarke Atlanta University. He has served on the Advisory Board of The African Presidential Archives and Research Centre, The Corporate Council on Africa and The Centre for Global Development's Commission on US Policy toward Low-Income Poorly Performing States.
He is also a member of the Executive Leadership Council. Cummings holds a B.S. degree in Finance and Economics from Northern Illinois University and an MBA in Finance from Atlanta University.
ALBERT ESSEIN
By Emmanuel Ssejjengo
Albert Essien, the executive director of Ecobank Transnational Incorporation (ETI), will present a paper on Access to Commonwealth markets at the Commonwealth Business Forum. And he is one man who will attract any business-minded ear.
He has held the position in such a highly-regarded bank since 2005. This gives him authority over the group's subsidiaries in the West African Monetary Zone. It is not only that position that will make his voice highly regarded during the forum. Essein is also responsible for the development t of Ecobank's business in Eastern and Southern Africa.
His visit should yield immediate results and could mean opening up an Ecobank branch in Uganda soon.
The bank is a leading private Pan-African banking group with subsidiaries in 18 West and Central African countries. It was established in 1988. By 2005, it had grown to 162 branches with 2,602 employees across 13 West and Central African countries.
The same year, the group generated over $236m (about sh400b) in revenues from wholesale and retail banking services and products and had a balance sheet of $2.2b (sh3,700b).
Essien has steadily been growing in the world of business. Prior to his current position, he served as the country head, deputy managing director; country risk manager and manager of the corporate Banking Department of Ecobank Ghana Limited.
JAMES SMITH
By Nigel Nassar
James Smith is the man who loses a great deal of sleep everyday trying to figure out ways of keeping Shell UK afloat. As the oil group's chairman for the entire United Kingdom market, Smith's normal day does not involve only sitting there and being the boss.
He has to oversee all the operations of Shell UK, a thing that involves a lot more than just writing the employees' annual letter communicating the company's previous year's performance and sitting in meetings.
Smith has worked with Shell since 1983. Throughout his stay, he has worked in all the group's major businesses, including oil, business development and gas production.
His recent designation was head of executive resourcing, which mainly involved ensuring there is a highly talented and diverse group of leaders for the top 200 jobs in Shell.
Until the end of 2003, he was on the global board of Shell Chemicals as head of technology, strategy and sustainable development - a role he took on after building a career in upstream oil and gas production.
He lived for four-and-a-half years in Southeast Asia, in Malaysia and Brunei. He has been extensively involved in Shell business in a number of Middle Eastern countries and in the US. In addition, he was managing director of Shell's downstream business in Brunei and chaired Shell's global catalyst business during a period of restructuring for profitability. Smith has a degree in physics and is a chartered accountant.
He worked with Accenture before joining Shell. Married with one son, his hobbies include golf, skiing and hill-walking. One of the most important ventures Smith is undertaking is trying to find sources of new energy as part of Shell's scenario planning strategy; following the anticipated doubling of energy requirements in the world in the coming decades.
MAGGIE KIGOZI
By Irene Nabusoba
DESTINY has its way in people's lives, but no one can understand this better than Dr. Maggie Kigozi. As a graduate of medicine from Makerere University, Kigozi practiced her profession in Uganda, Kenya and Zambia, but made a successful U-turn to the private sector, riding her way to become the executive director Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) in 1999.
Founded in 1991, UIA is a government body that promotes and facilitates investors in Uganda. Kigozi has added a plus to women empowerment by steering UIA to great heights. To date it has licensed over 2,000 companies, with a total planned investment of about $5.87b (sh9,980b) and a total of 192,684 planned employment.
Having worked as a marketing director of Crown Bottlers (Pepsi) Ltd, Kigozi was elected board member of Uganda Manufacturers Association, where she played a key role as chairperson of the Sector Committee in advising government on private-sector-friendly policies.
She overseas 20 professionals in charge of attracting and facilitating investment from specific countries in priority sectors. UIA also won the Corporate Location Prize for the best investment promotion agency in Africa and the Middle East recently.
The Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting will simply provide a one-stop shopping centre for investors - a game she has grown to master. "There are over 1,000 people expected to attend the business forum," she says. "It is the time to showcase Uganda's potential."
Kigozi knows that the authority's work is crucial in the economic development of Uganda and she is proud of the investors she has 'individually pulled to Uganda.' But she has had her own challenges, like losing her husband, Eng Daniel Sserwano Kigozi and having to play the single-working-mother. "Facing your challenges and working hard at what you believe in enables one to overcome challenges," she says.
But who inspires Maggie, the true package of 'beauty and brains', as her fans picture her? Nelson Mandela "He was able to guide South Africa through the difficult period when there were many changes taking place," she explains.
True to her word, responsibilities have not deterred Maggie from taking on several other roles. She is a girl guide, a passion that once saw her hold the position of chief commissioner of the Uganda Scouts Association. Kigozi urges young entrepreneurs to have a vision for the people in their countries, as well as the continent.
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