He moved to Africa in 2006 as the Governance Director, and eventually to Kenya in 2010 to work as Safaricom CEO where Vodafone Group is the largest shareholder.
Regarding his rise in a European company where being black meant being a minority – the Safaricom CEO said he chose to see it as a positivity.
“From when I moved to UK, I was the only black kid in the classroom and I could see that as a handicap. Even when I started to work, I was always the one who was not white. I could have chosen to see it as being as a victim but I looked at it as an opportunity and told myself I was the special one.”
“When the company was looking for someone black to go to South Africa, I was the only one they could find. When they wanted a black person to come here (as Safaricom CEO), I was the only one they could find,” he said.
Over the past nine years, Collymore has pushed Safaricom from its strong position when he took over from Michael Joseph and made it even stronger.
In the 2009/2010 financial year, the company had a pre-tax profit of Sh21 Billion which grew to Sh63.4 billion as of the last financial results released in March this year.
Wambui Kamiru Collymore
Apart from being the Safaricom CEO, Collymore was involved in many aspects of the Kenyan society. For example, in 2015, he declared his wealth as a way of encouraging the private sector to assist the government in the fight against graft. His performance led to his appointment in the boards of various state corporations.
A descendant of African slaves shipped to the Americas during the Trans-Atlantic trade, he arguably had the best years of his career in Africa where he served as CEO of the largest telco in East and Central Africa.
