Job Title: finance director
Company: Weetabix East Africa
Dr Sebastian Nthama is the finance director of Weetabix East Africa.
He began his career in internal audit and risk management at British American Tobacco, where he spent more than sixteen years in progressively senior roles across the African continent and beyond. He joined BAT's Northern Africa Area as area audit manager in January 2000, based in Cairo, before returning to Nairobi in 2003 as area accounting manager.
In 2004 he was posted to Blantyre as finance director for the Malawi operation, and by mid-2005 had taken on the Horn Africa finance manager role, overseeing Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and the Somalias. He was appointed group financial controller for East and Central Africa in January 2009.
In 2014 Sebastian moved into change management as general manager of BAT's Change Programme (TaO). He subsequently served as head of audit from September 2015 before his appointment as head of finance for the Operations Business Unit in April 2017.
Sebastian left BAT in April 2019 and founded Heri Water as chief executive officer from May 2019 to August 2021, building the beverage company from the ground up and taking responsibility for strategy formulation and execution across the organisation.
From September 2021 he served as finance director at Awash Wine S.C. in Addis Ababa, before joining Urysia as chief financial officer in August 2022. He also took on a non-executive director role at Bourne Recruitment in April 2023, a position he continues to hold.
Sebastian joined Weetabix East Africa as finance director in November 2023.
Work
Nov 2023 – Present: finance director, Weetabix East Africa
Apr 2023 – Present: non-executive director, Bourne Recruitment
Aug 2022 – Oct 2023: chief financial officer, Urysia
Sept 2021 – Aug 2022: finance director, Awash Wine S.C.
May 2019 – Aug 2021: chief executive officer, Heri Water
Apr 2017 – Apr 2019: head of finance, British American Tobacco
Sept 2015 – Mar 2017: head of audit, British American Tobacco
Jan 2014 – Sept 2015: general manager, Change Programme (TaO), British American Tobacco
Jan 2009 – Dec 2013: group financial controller, British American Tobacco
Jun 2005 – Dec 2008: finance manager, Horn Africa, British American Tobacco
Jan 2004 – May 2005: finance director, British American Tobacco Malawi
Jan 2003 – Dec 2003: area accounting manager, British American Tobacco
Jan 2000 – Nov 2002: area audit manager, Northern Africa, British American Tobacco
Education
PhD (Finance), Moi University, School of Business and Economics
2008 – 2010: MBA (Finance), University of Nairobi
1990 – 1993: BA (Finance), Moi University
1995 – 1998: CPA(K), Strathmore College
Weetabix East Africa
Weetabix East Africa is a fast-moving consumer goods company and a market leader in the breakfast cereal category in Eastern Africa. A subsidiary of the Weetabix Food Company, which was established in 1932, the company manufactures and markets a range of cereal brands across the region.
