A few weeks ago, rumors were milling that Jumia’s co-CEOs Raphael Afaedor and Tunde Kehinde were getting ready to depart from the company they helped grow. Turns out the rumors were true – the company just announced, via an official statemet, that it has two brand new CEOs – Nicolas Martin and Jérémy Doutté. More after the click.
As TechLoy reports:
Both CEOs are foreign. Martin, likely from France, is an MBA from INSEAD, France and joined JUMIA from McKinsey & Company where he previously worked as a senior engagement manager. While Doutté, 30, also likely from France and also an MBA, but from Harvard Business School has always been a Rocket guy, starting way back in May 2011 as an intern for Dafiti in Brazil. After his MBA in June of 2012, he has served as Managing Director for JUMIA operations in Morocco and Egypt. Before then, he worked at as an associate at McKinsey & Company.
As fas as we know, both entrepreneurs have not lived or worked in Nigeria before now and may have little or no knowledge of the Nigerian market, so it is not clear why the company has decided to bring in foreign expertise and talent to run its e-commerce operations in Nigeria.
However, it is possible that both CEOs are merely replacing Afaedor and Kehinde’s place, for the time being, until the company finds people with strong knowledge and experience of the local terrain, especially since major competitor, Konga with strong local knowledge, expertise and execution has posed a serious threat to the company.
Read the rest of the story, here.
