Companies

Juliana Rotich to head chemical firm East Africa office

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Ms Juliana Rotich. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Global chemical firm BASF has appointed Juliana Rotich as its Country Cluster Head for East Africa.

She was previously a member of BASF’s Global Sustainability Advisory Council until April. The firm is tapping her skills in technology and entrepreneurship to grow its footprint in the region.

“I am excited to join BASF and the opportunity it has offered me to grow the company footprint in East Africa,” said Ms Rotich.

“Ms Rotich’s role as will entail leading the operations in the region, focusing on a strategic plan to meet and exceed customer expectations with BASF’s innovative products and solutions,” said vice president for BASF in Africa Michael Gotsche.

Ms Rotich co-founded BRCK and headed up the not for profit affiliate where she led partnerships; a position she held until February 2017.

She was also a consultant for Novato Africa, driving partnerships that led to the first aeromobility start-up competition in East Africa.

She also co-founded Ushahidi, a technology company which focuses on building free and open source software used to change the flow of information worldwide.

“The appointment of Ms Rotich is evidence of the quality of local talent to help spur business growth in Africa,” said Mr Gotsche.

The Top-40-under-40 finalist holds a BSc degree in Computer Science from the University of Missouri, Kansas in US.

MIT Media Lab Fellow, TED Senior Fellow and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

She was also appointed earlier this year by ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru to be part of a taskforce exploring the use of distributed ledger technology and artificial intelligence for development in Kenya.

In a recent reports by CNBC, BASF is set to acquire agricultural businesses and assets worth about Sh900 billion ($9 billion) from drug maker Bayer.