Lee Aguko

Aguko Foundation is non-religious, not for profit entity with a focus of making a difference in the lives of others. These could be individuals, communities and the society as a whole.

My overall duties and responsibilities revolve around;

• Establish and maintain policies that are in line with ethical standards and accountability, managing risk, performing due diligence and implementing operational best practices.
• Design and develop collaborative projects and partnerships with community providers, corporate entities (driving CSR initiatives) and other like minded organizations.
• Establish diverse funding streams and long-term plans to best support mission and goals of organization.
• Building relationships with internal teams and managing diverse volunteer groups from various locations.
• Spearhead innovative approaches to resource allocation and strategic planning.
• Oversee preparation of marketing materials; copy, images, videos, emails and other collateral.
• Acting as Executive Director, double hatch as liaison for our Board of Directors with investment advisors and financial representatives.
• Acting as Executive Director, double hatch to assist Board of Directors with development and management of annual budget.

Some my achievements in this role include;

Driving initiatives in Education and Health sectors that saw over 2,000 girls receive sanitary kits and 8 scholarship awards donated from different partners. Target is to encourage over 90% if enrolled girls to complete their primary school level.

Mastercard is one of the Global leading card schemes in the world with key focus on digitization of payments at a global scale.

My role involves designing and implementing digital payments business model which include;

• Own and drive Strategic Imperatives and Business Development initiatives across EEMEA with specific focus on strategic digital partners which include MNO’s, Fintechs, MTO’s, PSP’s in Africa.
• Leading the commercialization of a complex signed digital partner Group deal in Africa that fostered collaboration between teams (both internally & externally) and successfully launched various solutions (VCN, QR, XB Remittance, CVPs on health and youth, BNPL) across 6 out of 14 client markets that generated over $18.6M in sales revenue within the first year.
• Successfully championed creation and launch of the first MNO/Telco playbook that guides MNO's on ABC's of card scheme program. This reduced training time for non-traditional card scheme partners by 50%.
• Successfully led internal strategic pricing review for a digital partners that has led to on boarding of >100K acceptance merchants across various strategic focus markets.
• Drove collaboration of consulting (advisors) projects between Mastercard and client/partners that drove various initiatives (Launch pad, CLM and Marketing campaign designs) that increase market brand awareness by 30% and increased a $0.9M worth of new line of revenue stream for Mastercard.
• Leading proactive strategic multi-country (UG, TZ, DRC, Congo B, Nigeria, Gabon, KE, ZM, MW) multi-partner (client, partners and regulators) engagements that fostered collaboration and ensured successful solution deployments in various markets.
• Own strategic complex key account relationships with relentless focus on customer that has ensured growth of business beyond our core contractual scope.
• Increased division sales revenue with strategic territory expansion and acquisition of 5.7M new customers.

Safaricom is a Global telco giant in Africa (part of Vodacom Group & Home to MPESA Africa), with a digital strategy that aims to position Safaricom as the brand of choice across the globe. My key responsibilities and duty revolved around;

• Generating new business and referral clients in partnership with financial advisors, products and marketing teams both at HQ and branch level.
• Worked with Products and Marketing departments to facilitate communication and deliver personalized solutions to customers.
• Through solution selling in one Key account client (in healthcare), managed to deliver our first SD-WAN solution that cut customer connectivity cost by 50% and improved their business systems efficiency two fold.
• Introduced Mpesa (mobile money) merchant platform to one of our top retail customer as value addition that saw onboarding of 350 merchant locations that processed over 3M monthly transactions.
• Successfully deployed QR code for clients in retail & services industry where we launched the first tap and pay solution that deducts funds directly from the customer wallet.
• Developed and implemented, in collaboration with marketing and product teams, favorable pricing structures balancing Safaricom's core objectives against customer targets.
• Identified and pursued valuable business opportunities to generate new company revenue and improve bottom line profit.
• Represented company and promoted products at conferences and industry events.
• Consistently achieved client satisfaction (100% NPS) and loyalty by establishing collaborative relationships, facilitating needs assessment.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies is a leading connectivity, innovation and intelligent technology company across 13 countries, primarily in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa, that is building a digital future for Africa. Put simply, we connect people.

My regional role at Liquid includes;

• Exceeded targets by building, directing and motivating high-performing sales team of experienced Territory Managers and an expansive regional dealership network across 46 Counties.
• Managed and motivated sales team to increase regional revenue contribution by 85% YoY.
• Established and maintained 60 Key accounts, in expanded territory of 46 counties by contributing $3.8M in sales revenue MoM.
• Coached new sales teams and new dealers/partners in product specifications, sales systems, sales incentives and selling techniques, significantly increasing customer satisfaction (NPS) ratings.
• Developed sales strategy based on research of consumer buying trends and market conditions that saved $0.2M by implementing cost-saving initiatives that addressed long-standing problems.

iWayAfrica Kenya is part of iWayAfrica Group which is a leading Pan-African corporate data provider. Our expertise lies in designing, installing and operating networks to suit customers’ requirements.

My role at the company included;

• Monitored metrics and developed actionable insights to improve efficiency and performance.
• Reinforced established quality control standards and followed procedures for optimal customer interactions.
• Used consultative techniques to understand customer needs and make strategic referrals to business partners.
• Maintained statistical database of customers using Solid (CRM system) for types of customer complaints, resolutions offered by organization and satisfaction rating by customer.
• Produced and implemented customer satisfaction guarantee program that enhanced Customer relationships which directly resulted in 99% customer retention rate (almost zero churn rate for 16 consecutive months).
• Created activities and engagements to enhance customer experience, knowledge and patronage.
• Developed strategic processes for sourcing, negotiating, recruiting, and managing dealers under targeted key accounts.