Nigerian Breweries plc has appointed Nkechi Runsewe as its Human Resources director succeeding the retiring Grace Omo Lawal.
She joins the company from Heineken where she served as global head of talent management where she strengthened the leadership pipeline elevating the company’s high-performance culture and ensuring it remains connected to its people through employee listening.
About Nkechi Runsewe
Nkechi Runsewe is a certified Global Talent Management Leader (GTML) with a track record of partnering with leaders to proactively identify, develop & retain talent to embed high-performance and transform businesses.
With multi-industry experience across Consulting, Media & Telecommunications, Financial Services and Consumer Goods, she started her career as a Management Consultant at Accenture and have held Senior Management and HR Leadership roles at Etisalat, M-Net Africa, Diageo and currently at The HEINEKEN Company.
Rich Corporate Experience
Nkechi Runsewe currently serves as the Global Head of Talent Management at The HEINEKEN Company since March 2023. In this role, she shapes and co-leads the company’s global agenda across Talent & Performance Management, Succession Planning, Leadership Assessments, and Employee Listening to drive growth and deliver the EverGreen2030 ambitions. As Global Business Process Owner, she oversees governance for annual Performance Management, Potential Assessment, People Review, and Pulse Survey processes. She also manages critical leadership succession pools, standardizes Global Senior Leader Assessment & Development Centres, and leads employee listening initiatives to sustain engagement.
Prior to her current position, she worked at Heineken as Regional Talent & Leadership Development Manager, AMEE (Africa, Middle East & Eastern Europe) from September 2021 to February 2023. She served as the Talent & Leadership Development Centre of Excellence Lead, driving the global talent and leadership agenda across Talent Management, Learning & Development, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and Culture & Engagement. She managed end-to-end the UNLEASH regional talent accelerator program and played a key role in building a thriving regional Talent Management Community of Practice.
At Diageo (2019–2021), she held two roles: first as Head of Talent Engagement, Nigeria (May 2019 – September 2020), where she led the Talent Engagement function, secured top talent, strengthened succession pipelines, and advised on the multi-year talent plan while optimizing the global employer brand. She then served as Global Talent Manager (September 2020 – July 2021), supporting talent strategies across Africa, APAC, and global functions. She acted as Change & Communication Lead for the pilot of Diageo’s Talent Marketplace in East Africa and contributed to the Inclusion & Diversity Taskforce.
She previously worked at FBNQuest as Head of Talent Management and Organisational Development from February 2017 to April 2019. In this capacity, she led Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, and Organizational Development initiatives across the group. She designed and launched the flagship “Step Up!” Leadership Development Program and implemented various employee engagement initiatives including Wellness Day, Cultural Day, and team-building activities.
Earlier in her career, she was Human Resources Lead, M-Net West Africa at MultiChoice Group from August 2014 to January 2017. As a pioneer HR Lead, she had end-to-end responsibility for HR functions across Nigeria and Ghana, championed employee engagement initiatives that improved survey results by +16 percentage points, and led organizational Talent Review, succession management, workforce planning, and recruitment strategies.
She began her HR leadership journey at Etisalat Nigeria, where she spent four years. She served as Manager Resourcing and Partnering (Talent Acquisition & HR Business Partner) from May 2012 to August 2014, supporting the Commercial Department, and earlier as Specialist, Performance Management from September 2010 to April 2012.
