Jumia Group Co-Founders, Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara Step Down as Co-CEOs
Jumia Group co-founders, Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara have stepped down as Co-CEOs of the e-commerce firm. The two co-CEOs announced this in separate LinkedIn posts.
According to a company statement, Francis Dufay, the Executive Vice President for Africa and former CEO of Ivory Coast, will now serve as acting CEO in place of both co-founders.
The supervisory board also announced the appointment of Francis Dufay and Antoine Maillet-Mezeray to the Jumia Group’s Management Board. Maillet-Mezeray, who has been with Jumia Group for over six years, has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Finance & Operations after driving the company’s finance function and “further developing it in a public market context.”
For the past eleven years, the two outgoing CEOs have presided over the affairs of Jumia, the only African publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. They have overseen Jumia’s pan-African expansion across 11 countries, as well as its product journey, which now includes a marketplace, JumiaPay, its payment arm, and a logistics platform.
Commenting on the Co-founders’ exit, Jumia’s board chairman, Jonathan Klein said “We thank Jeremy and Sacha for their leadership over the last decade to envision and build a company that became the leading pan-African e-commerce player. As we look ahead to the next chapter of Jumia’s journey, we want to bring more focus to the core e-commerce business as part of a more simplified and efficient organization with stronger fundamentals and a clearer path to profitability.
“We look forward to working closely with Francis, Antoine, and the leadership team to execute these objectives and continue on our mission of offering a compelling e-commerce platform to consumers, sellers, and the broader Jumia ecosystem in Africa,” he concluded.
Jumia Group CEOs’ Farewell Message
In a farewell message posted on his LinkedIn page, one of the outgoing CEOs, Sacha Poignonnec, wrote “To my Jumia family and friends, to all of you who have made it possible, the day has come to open a new chapter for Jumia and a new chapter for me. In a way, it’s with a heavy heart because I will miss everything about Jumia, but at the same time every founder needs to pass the flame one day, and I am so grateful for having had a chance to build this great company for the last 11 years. We have achieved so many amazing things, but it will be hard to make an inventory, here is not the place and the time; and there is still so much to do.
While Jeremy on his part said “I’m excited to share that I’m leaving Jumia after 11 amazing years. I am immensely proud of what we have achieved together over those years: we have changed the lives of millions of people in Africa. We believed that the Internet would make everyday life on the Continent better. Jumia Group started e-commerce when no one believed this would work. We scaled Jumia, expanded in many countries, attracted the best talents, developed a thriving marketplace, built a unique logistics business, and pioneered online payments. Also, we listed the company on the New York Stock Exchange. We contributed to accelerating entrepreneurship with our network of alumni. More importantly, we have created a unique work culture, grounded in powerful values. Our values overcome people and strategies and make Jumia such a special company.”