President
William Ruto made major appointments to the boards of various state agencies Friday
through a Gazette Notice.
In
the latest appointments, the head of state named Shaka Kariuki as the new Chairperson
of the Competitions Authority. Kariuki will steer the operations of agency for
a period of three years.
Mr.
Kariuki serves as Co-CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Kuramo Capital
Management LLC, an Independent Investment Management firm driving catalytic
private institutional capital to fast-growing African businesses to generate
attractive returns and positively impact local communities.
Kuramo
Capital has offices in New York City, Lagos, and Nairobi. KCM is the General
Partner of the $500 million Kuramo Africa Opportunity Funds (KAOF) with
commitments from leading US endowments, foundations, and pension plans
including the largest pension fund in Africa.
KAOF
has direct and indirect investments in 200 companies in 30 sub-Saharan African
countries in sectors such as Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, Infrastructure Power,
Agribusiness, Technology, and Financial Services. As the pioneering
fund-of-funds for sub-Saharan Africa, Kuramo Capital has had a tremendous
impact in leading catalytic capital into the sub-Saharan Africa private equity
ecosystem.
Since
its inception in 2011, Kuramo Capital has served as an anchor investor in 15
first-time indigenous private equity funds and has played a significant role in
raising over $3 billion toward investing in sub-Saharan African companies.
In
his role as the Chairman of the Investment Committee of Kuramo Capital, Mr.
Kariuki leads Kuramo Capital’s investment activities across Africa.
Additionally, Mr. Kariuki’ leads Kuramo Capital’s Board Governance strategy
across all portfolio companies given his extensive Board experience.
Mr.
Kariuki currently serves as Chairman of TransCentury Limited, Vice Chairman of
GenAfrica, Vice Chairman of Platcorp Holdings, and Vice Chairman of Sterling
Capital Limited all in Kenya. Mr. Kariuki also serves as Executive Chairman of
NAS Foods in Ethiopia, and he is on the Board of Leon Business Solutions in
Zimbabwe, Sepfluor in South Africa, and Maku Holdings LLC, an affiliate of
Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC), the largest Agribusiness company in
DRC.
Previously,
Mr. Kariuki served in several leadership roles for over 10 years at the $9
billion Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators (DMBA), in Private Equity, Fixed
Income Portfolio, and Domestic and Emerging Markets across asset classes. Mr.
Kariuki also headed the investment efforts of DMBA Affiliates in Developed and
Emerging Markets (UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Philippines, Samoa),
including Africa. Prior to DMBA, Mr. Kariuki was a Senior Member of the Global
Finance team at Agilent Technologies where he managed finance teams in Asia,
Europe, Japan, and the USA. Prior to Agilent, Mr. Kariuki was an Associate in
the Investment Banking Division of First Security van Kasper. Mr. Kariuki also
worked at Choice Hotels International in the mergers and acquisitions
department.
Mr.
Kariuki currently serves on various Advisory Boards of companies in Africa and
Europe.
He is a Board Member of the Marriott School of Management at Brigham
Young University in the USA and a founding Board Member of the Kuramo
Foundation for Sustainable Development, which serves to increase the economic
empowerment of female entrepreneurs in Africa.
He
is the former Chairman of Deseret First Credit Union in the USA. Mr. Kariuki
received a master’s in government from Harvard University and holds a B.S. in
Economics, and MBA with an emphasis in Finance from Brigham Young University.
