Standing in the Hall of Fame

CIO East Africa recently introduced to its portfolio of awards, the CIO100 Hall of Fame, aimed to fete the outstanding professionals in the East Africa’s IT space.

First of its kind in Africa, the award was inducted by Harry Hare, Chairman and Publisher CIO East Africa in the presence of Andrew Karanja – Director CIO East Africa and  Joe Mucheru, the Cabinet Secretary for Ministry of ICT in Kenya.

“This is to award the IT leaders who have significantly contributed to, and profoundly influenced the IT discipline, the use of technology in business and the advancement of the CIO role,” said Harry Hare.

The CIO Hall of Fame was first created in 1997 to spotlight the outstanding members and would 22 years later, in 2019, be introduced in Kenya for the East Africa region and for the first time in Africa.

“The award is a responsibility bestowed on the winners to mentor the junior and upcoming IT professionals,” added Hare.

CIO East Africa inducted its first class of honorees into the CIO Hall of Fame – cohort one – during 2019 CIO100 Symposium and Awards, held at the Lake Naivasha Resort in what was its 9th anniversary.

This elite group (Cohort one), has a reputation for leadership among their peers and outside entities such as industry experts and have shown a positive influence on the IT profession and/or advancement of the CIO role.

Successful nominees have been previous CIOs and current ones, with at least 8-10 years’ experience in CIO positions at mid-sized to large enterprises. 

The first cohort comprised of Dr. Fernando Wangila, the current CIO with NTSA who is strategically and operationally accountable for the National Transport and Safety Authority’s ICT Department and the delivery of the Authority’s agreed outcomes, targets and objectives. Dr. Wangila holds a Ph.D. in Business Innovation and Technology Management from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.

The second successful candidate is Kenneth Ogwang, the CIO at East Africa Breweries limited.

Ogwang holds a Masters Degree of Business Administration from the United States International University and has been the Head of IT with BAT for 7 years before moving to AEBL, where he currently is the head of Diageo Business Services (DBS) for EAstern and Southern Africa.

Jack Maina received the honorary award, joining the cohort 1 hall of fame. He has been with Britam for more than 8 years now, and is currently the group COO in charge of Group operations, Customer service and Technology in  Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, Malawi and Mozambique. Prior to joining Britam, Maina was the Head of IT at Safaricom for 6 years.

George Njuguna was feted among his peers for the Hall of Fame awards. He is currently the CIO at Safaricom prior to which he held the same position at HF bank, even winning CIO of the year 2018 while at HF.

The double alumnus of the Geneva college holds  a masters degree in Strategy and Finance and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) in Management Information Systems. George has a rich experience working in the IT space of the banking industry.

John Barorot has over 20 years progressive experience in the ICT and Telecommunication industry, directly linked with a strong track record of attaining key business goals, innovation, policy development and implementation; strategically applying knowledge and skills to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in high paced organizations.

Currently, he is the Chief Technology Officer with Telkom Kenya. He holds a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) in Strategic Management and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering Technology/Technician both from the Moi University. He was awarded the Hall of Fame honorees. 

Kevin Kinyanjui specializes in IT Strategy analysis and definition, alignment of IT and business, transformational leadership, project and stakeholder management, operations management, creation and innovation and business executive leadership. He has been in the CIO role in busy commercial environments since 1995 and currently is the CEO at DUO Tech Limited.

Kinyanjui served as the CIO with Kenya Airways for 13 years. He has an Executive Development Programme qualification from Gordon’s Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Wainaina Mungai, the President of the Internet Society (ISOC) Kenya Chapter, is interested in internet governance and in discussing more about how to solve infrastructure problems and how to use universal access funds and policy on broadband as a utility for this mission. He has a passion for innovating approaches to the application of communications technology in business and socioeconomic development.

He was formerly the Head of ICT at Royal Media Services for 4 years where he led the ICT for Efficiency and Effectiveness in Media projects,  involving applications development for newsrooms, election monitoring, audio/video streaming and HR Systems.

With a Masters Degree of Communications Management from the Buckinghamshire New University and a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering from Moi University, Mungai was named into the Hall of Fame, closing the first cohort at 7 inductees.

The seven satisfied a panel of judges and were deemed fit for the CIO100 Hall of Fame 2019 Award.

The Hall of Fame shall, going forward, be an annual event in which all the outstanding CIOs, previous or current shall get inducted as noted Harry Hare.

Congratulations to the 2019 inductees of the Hall Of Fame.