The only listed sugar processing and manufacturing company, Zambia Sugar Plc, has announced the appointment of a new Group Finance Director following the resignation of Craig Taylor.
“In accordance with Section 3.59(b) of the Lusaka Securities Exchange Listings, the Board of Directors of Zambia Sugar PLC wishes to announce the resignation of Mr. Craig Taylor and appointment of Mr. Doug Kasambala as the Group Finance Director and member of the Company’s Board effective 1 February 2020”, read a statement issued by Company Secretary, Mwana Mutimushi by order of the Board on 31 January 2020 in Lusaka.
Stakeholders in the sweetest company in Zambia will recall that Craig was appointed to the coveted role of Group FD in July of 2019, according to SENS announcement issued on 31st July 2019. Craig had replaced Mohammad M.H. Abdool-Samad who resigned from the role in the same month.
Doug arrives to take up the role that took over 6 months (following Mohammad’s exit) to find a suitable candidate as Craig held the position and a board seat in an acting position for the duration. “It was agreed that a suitable Group FD would take time, hence appointing him (Craig) to a board position” according to a source close to the matter. Craig now returns to his substantive position.
Doug enters the role with an academic resume that has CIMA qualifications, a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science (University of Malawi), and an MBA in Finance (University of Nottingham). His resume further exposes a finance man that is well rounded. “Doug joins Illovo from KPMG UK where, as a Director in their Corporates – Finance transformation practice, he led the manufacturing finance capability”, according to Doug’s profile shared with Financial Insight by Zambia Sugar. “Doug has spent five years with KPMG, and prior to that, was a Finance transformation consultant with IBM for three years”.
Zambia Sugar will be looking at his extensive experience in managing complex financial systems as they seek to extend their value creation run post the 2019 Financial Year that saw the company declare a Dividend in over 4 years. “He’s led large complex finance and management information transformation projects at large blue-chip FTSE-25 multinational corporations including BP, Glaxo SmithKline, AstraZeneca, and Associated British Foods group”.
Furthermore, at Unilever, Doug held the role of Finance Director responsible for Transformation which included accountabilities such as the implementation of global usage-based pricing and cost recovery for enterprise services. This is in tune with Zambia Sugar’s current path of prudent expenditure and they seek out more value being created through cost efficiency.
“The Board is pleased to welcome Mr. Kasambala and is confident that he will add immeasurable value to the Company”. With Raphael Chipoma being appointed in December 2019 as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), the “Doug and Raphael combo” will make for an interesting financial year at the sweetest company in Zambia in 2020 and beyond.
