Michael Joseph Named Safaricom Acting CEO Following Bob Collymore’s Death

Michael Joseph has been appointed as the acting Safaricom Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to replace Bob Collymore, who died on Monday.

Joseph was picked as the interim CEO following a special board meeting called by Safaricom Chairman Nicholas Ng’ang’a on Monday.

“Mr. Joseph will hold this position until the board communicates in due course, on a permanent appointment,” Safaricom said in a statement on Tuesday.

Joseph was Collymore’s predecessor and left the telecommunications company in November 2010, having served as the CEO since July 2000.

During his reign, the 67-year-old steered the company from a subscriber base of about 20,000 to more than 16 million subscribers.

Joseph has been serving as a Non-Executive Director in the Safaricom board since September 2008.

Collymore, 61, succumbed to cancer at his home in Nairobi on Monday morning.

He was set to leave Safaricom in August this year but the company’s board extended his contract by one more year.

Collymore took over Safaricom in 2010 and is credited for overseeing the launch of mobile cash transfer service, M-Pesa, which has helped the company become East Africa’s most profitable company.

In late 2017, Collymore took a nine-month medical leave to seek cancer treatment in the United Kingdom.

Collymore was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia- a type of cancer that starts in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow.