The Chairlady
Susan Mudhune holds the distinction of being the first female Chairman of a listed company in Kenya, but looking back on her journey that was never supposed to be her path. Or was it?
Daughter of a pastor, Susan was brought up to be a person of impeccable integrity and respectability. Church was important but living a life exemplified by discipline and morality even more so.
A bright student, Susan joined boarding school at Ng’iya Primary and then proceeded to Alliance Girls for her secondary school. From there it was off to pursue a degree in education, which led to a teaching job. But the profession was not for her, and after two years she wanted to try something else. The something else was banking and Susan found an entry position with National Bank of Kenya – it was 1978 and that move turned out to be the beginning of a rewarding career. Susan stayed on with NBK for 22 years rising through the ranks through continued dedication, exhibiting the principles her father worked hard to inculcate in her years before.
In 2001 she was appointed to the Board of Kenya Commercial Bank, one of the nation’s biggest banks, a behemoth that was struggling with a non-performing loan book and multiple governance challenges. To her surprise she found that she was the only banker on the board. Nevertheless, it was a prestigious appointment and one that allowed her to exercise the learnings of her decades in banking. Then came 2003 – the sitting Chairman retired and it was time to appoint a new one. In terms of board tenure she was almost the youngest, but in terms of banking experience she outstripped everyone else. Susan recalls how other women who were on the board were the first to nominate her for the big seat, laying waste to the adage that women are their own worst enemies. It was by no means an easy election but again principles and experience won against gender bias and seniority and in 2003 Susan Mudhune became Chairman of KCB – a company listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
When her appointment was announced there were rumours that with a female Chair the share price would drop – instead the market rallied and over time stock prices grew. Hostility though was something she had to contend with in the boardroom with some men referring to the chair as “this little girl” to her face. Thankfully Susan is the kind of lady who rises above and she focused on her job – stewarding the board back to centre which she did by instituting new governance principles, ensuring that board committees met their mandate with the executive and bringing in new blood to the board. Under her five-year tenure the bank rallied, became profitable and expanded to new countries. Susan has moved on from KCB to other institutions such as Safaricom and Pan African Insurance, but she has been mindful about making space for other women on boards through an initiative she founded called Pink Progress. She has been mentoring and providing support to women in the corporate sector, and enabling the idea of women on boards to be normalized so no one else has to suffer the indignity of being called a little girl in the boardroom.
In retrospect, perhaps that is exactly what the journey was all about – leadership by example instilled in her parents’ humble home and taken all the way to the Boardroom. Hongera Mwenyekiti Susan Mudhune – career banker, leader by example.
