BAT West and Central Africa - Meet the Leadership Team

Yarub joined Rothmans in 1996 as a Management Trainee. His career began in TM&D with roles in Yemen and Saudi Arabia followed by numerous roles in Brands across both the Middle East and the Lucky Strike IBG. In 2009, Yarub moved to Egypt as Head of Marketing and in 2012 to Kazakhstan as Area Head of Marketing Caucasus & Central Asia. Yarub then spent a year in EEMEA Region as Marketing Deployment Manager before moving to Nigeria as West Africa Marketing Director in October 2016. He was appointed Area Director for West Africa Area (now West & Central Africa Area) in April 2019.

Yarub enjoys travelling, good food and exercise. He is married and has two sons.

Demola joined BAT in 2003 as a Marketing Representative and has since held various roles in Trade and SP&I across the Area. In 2013, he was appointed into the role of Head of Sales & TM&D and led the team to its first year of volume growth after a period of decline. In June 2016, Demola moved to South Africa as Senior Brand Manager for Benson & Hedges and Rothmans. He later joined the Pall Mall IBG in Globe House in December 2017. He was responsible for supporting key markets in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa in continuing to build Pall Mall and strengthen BWAP leadership. He was appointed Marketing Director, West & Central Africa Area in May 2019.

Demola enjoys music and plays drums in a band. He is married and has three children.

Pat is a lawyer who joined BAT in February 2019 from Diageo where he worked for 13 years in various legal roles in Ghana, Kenya (covering East Africa), South Africa (covering SA, the Southern African Development Community, India, and the neighbouring markets) and in the UK as Emerging Markets M&A Counsel (supporting Mozambique, Angola and Ethiopia).

He joined the BAT Group as Group Head of Corporate Compliance where he played a critical role in developing and embedding the Delivery with Integrity Compliance programme for the Group.

In March 2022, Pat joined the BAT West and Central Africa (WCA) Area Leadership Team, being appointed Area Head of Legal, WCA.

He is married with 2 children and enjoys meeting new people and experiencing different cultures, working with talent to realise their development aspirations and in his personal time travelling and participating in triathlons.

Sergio joined BAT Mexico in 2007. His career began in the Reward COE with roles in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and the global Reward team in the UK. In 2012 he moved back to Mexico as Talent Manager, and then moved to the UK as AmSSA Talent Manager. In 2016 Sergio moved to Colombia and was appointed HR Director, then HR Director for SANCAR Area (Central America & Caribbean). In 2019 Sergio moved to Romania and was appointed Head of HR for Global Business Services. Sergio was then appointed HR Director for WCA in December 2021.

Sergio is trained on Industrial Engineering, Masters in Marketing and also has an Executive MBA degree from the London Business School. He has some cross functional experiences in TM&D as Area Sales Manager and Digital Transformation. He is a passionate HR professional who enjoys driving high performance, innovation, digital transformation and a great place to work.

Sergio is married with 2 children. When he is not working, he enjoys travelling, practicing tennis, surf/swim, or a good barbeque with friends and family.

Freddy Messanvi is the General Manager for the West and Central African Markets in WCA. He is responsible for driving the business and growth strategy for the markets in the patch namely: Ghana, Gambia, Togo, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Cameroun, Gabon, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”) and Liberia.

Freddy joined BAT in 2001 as a Management Trainee in the Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Executive Department in DRC. He rose through the ranks and has held several leadership positions in Regulatory Affairs and Legal within the West African Area having worked in several markets including DRC, Senegal and Nigeria. In 2015, Freddy was appointed as the Area Head of Legal and External Affairs, a position he held until his appointment in January 2020 as the General Manager for the West and Central Africa Markets.

Freddy is a commercially driven lawyer by training and experience, he is also passionate about BAT’s continued leadership position in the Area. Freddy brings these qualities to provide business -focused solutions to drive the marketing and business strategies for the markets in his patch.

When Freddy is not working for BAT, he enjoys his daily fitness routines, discovering new places, understanding the mechanisms of machines, watching movies and is also a connoisseur of white wines.

Alberto started his career in the Brazilian Food Industry and joined BAT in 2006 as a Management Trainee. He has since held several roles in Operations such as Leaf, Planning, Maintenance, Quality, Manufacturing, Logistics and EHS, in Brazil, Southern Cone Area and Americas & Sub Saharan Africa Region.

Alberto is an Electrical Engineer, with a background in Computer Science, with two Masters in Business Administration, in Fundacao Getulio Vargas and Fundacao Dom Cabral.

A Portuguese native speaker, Alberto loves watching football, playing tennis and mountain biking in his free time.

Nomore Mapanzure holds a Bachelor of Accountancy (Honors) Degree from the University of South Africa. He is a Chartered Accountant (ICAZ and SAICA).

He joined the British American Tobacco Group in 2004 and has held several senior finance roles in various BAT markets.

Nomore is currently the Head of Finance for the BAT West and Central Africa Area.

He began his career with BAT in 2004 as Treasury Manager in BAT Zimbabwe. Since then, he has held several finance roles covering Operations, Commercial Finance and Cluster finance roles which included Head of finance for Tunisia, Libya and Sudan (an acquisition) in North Africa, Head of Finance Southern African Markets, and more recently Marketing Finance Controller for East and Southern Africa.

In these roles, he has successfully executed strategies that have enabled the markets he supported to profitably navigate volatile operating environments and mitigate negative impacts to BAT.

Nomore is married with three boys.

Odiri was promoted to the position of External Affairs Director for West and Central Africa Markets effective 1st July 2021, responsible for driving the external affairs and communications strategy in line with BAT Group positions within West and Central Africa Markets.

Odiri is a lawyer, holds a master’s degree with Honors in International Relations from the University of Kent at Canterbury, England and a Chartered Secretary. She has over 20 years working experience cutting across Oil and Gas, Telcom and Tobacco Manufacturing sectors.

She joined BAT Nigeria in July 2006, as a mid-career recruit and rose through the ranks holding various positions within the Legal department, last position held was Head of Legal for the West Africa Area. She was subsequently appointed Head of Government Affairs, West Africa Area (WAA), following the Legal and External Affairs merger.

In 2018, Odiri was seconded to the BAT Indonesia within the Asia Pacific Region, as the Head of Marketing Legal Indonesia, and subsequently as Senior Regulatory Special Projects Manager.

In December 2020, Odiri was appointed to the Americas and Sub Sahara Region, as Senior Regional External Engagement and Campaign manager.

Odiri is married with two lovely daughters. She is a runner and cyclist who is also passionate about investment, Interior designing, cooking, and baking. She also enjoys meeting people and mentoring younger ladies to climb up the corporate ladder.

Edgar Nyamweya Okioga was appointed Area Head of DBS for WCA on 1st April 2022. His career in BAT started in 2008 as a Service manager, he has since held other positions including Regional service manager, East Africa Markets Cluster Lead and East and Southern Africa (ESA) Digital DNA Lead, before his current appointment.

Some of his notable achievements include successful experimentation of Citizen Developer Programme which is now a global programme. He researched, developed, and influenced, the roll-out of a BAT global cultural diversity learning programme with impact globally. Others include the recognition of BAT Kenya in 2021 as Company of the year by CIO Africa and the creation of ESA Transformation Squad responsible for a global first Line of Sight engagement platform.

Edgar holds an MBA from South Wales University, a MSc in Information Systems and a Bachelors in Civil Engineering from the University of Nairobi. He has over 20 years’ experience in technology and is passionate about digital transformation and people first culture.

Edgar has a family with a beautiful wife and two kids. He is a fitness enthusiast and enjoys gaming and cycling.