Nigerian Breweries Plc has announced the appointment of Nkechi Runsewe as Human Resources Director, effective August 1, 2026.

She joins the company from The HEINEKEN Company where she served as global head of talent management, a role in which she strengthened leadership pipelines across the business, significantly improved succession readiness and advanced performance and development frameworks across HEINEKEN operating companies worldwide.

Runsewe brings a career spanning senior leadership roles across some of the most prominent multinational companies operating in Africa and globally.

Prior to her global role at HEINEKEN, she held leadership positions at Diageo, Etisalat and M-Net Africa, accumulating deep experience in talent management and organisational development across the telecommunications, media and fast-moving consumer goods sectors.

Her appointment to Nigerian Breweries represents a return to the African market for a professional whose career has been defined by building people systems and leadership capacity at scale.

At HEINEKEN, where her role covered the company’s global operations, Runsewe was a visible advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, championing what the company describes as its EverGreen talent ambitions and speaking publicly about the intersection of diverse representation and organisational performance.

Her work on the company’s DEI agenda was reflected in HEINEKEN’s progress across its regional operations, where more than 65 percent of management teams were composed of regional nationals according to the company’s own diversity reporting.

Runsewe succeeds Grace Omo-Lamai, who retires on July 28, 2026 after nearly a decade of distinguished service as Human Resources Director at Nigerian Breweries. Omo-Lamai, who was appointed to the role in 2018, built a significant legacy in the company’s people function, having previously held senior HR roles at Airtel Africa across Nigeria, Congo Brazzaville and Kenya, and as director of human resources at Nigerian Bottling Company before joining the HEINEKEN family.

The appointment reflects Nigerian Breweries’ continued practice of drawing on HEINEKEN’s global talent network to strengthen its leadership team at a pivotal moment in the company’s development.

The brewery recently reported a historic return to profitability in 2025 after consecutive years of losses, posting group revenue of N1.46 trillion and a net profit of N99 billion, underscoring the importance of strong organisational and people leadership as the company positions itself for the next phase of growth.