Salem Cheman‘s move from Uganda Breweries Limited to dfcu Bank is an interesting one, not least because of the experience he brings into his new role.
Cheman has joined dfcu as Innovation, Go-to-Market and Commercialization Senior Manager, ending an eight-year stint at Uganda Breweries Limited where much of his work revolved around trade quality, sales force effectiveness and improving commercial execution.
It is also a move across two very different industries. Cheman has spent much of his career in consumer goods, where success is often determined by how well a business understands its customers, gets products into the market and turns strategy into sales. At dfcu , he will now be applying that experience to banking at a time when financial institutions are increasingly competing on innovation, customer experience and the ability to bring new products to market faster.
His new mandate includes leading the bank’s innovation, go-to-market and commercialisation agenda, developing fintech solutions and strategic partnerships, and supporting new products and banking ecosystems.
Before joining dfcu, Cheman had been with Uganda Breweries since 2018, most recently as Trade Quality and Sales Force Effectiveness Manager.
His time at the brewer followed earlier commercial roles with Diageo, where he worked as Key Accounts and Reserve Brands Manager, and Ranx Uganda, where he served as Route to Customer Manager.
That career path is perhaps what makes the dfcu appointment particularly noteworthy.
Rather than coming through the traditional banking route, Cheman arrives with a background built around customers, distribution, brands, sales teams and commercial performance.
At Uganda Breweries, his work included strengthening sales force effectiveness, trade and process quality and commercial execution. Earlier in his career, he was involved in the commercialisation of the reserve brands portfolio, adding another layer to an experience largely shaped by taking products and propositions into the market.
The move comes as the definition of innovation in banking continues to widen.
For banks, the challenge is no longer simply developing digital products. It is getting customers to use them, finding new revenue opportunities, building partnerships and creating services that fit into the everyday lives and businesses of customers.
That puts go-to-market and commercialisation closer to the centre of the innovation conversation.
Cheman’s own career has followed an unconventional route. A University graduate with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Biochemistry, he eventually found his way into sales and commercial management and has spent more than a decade building experience across route-to-market strategy, key accounts, customer management and sales effectiveness.
The move to dfcu now gives him a different canvas.
For Cheman, the shift from breweries to banking may look like a significant change of industry. But viewed through the lens of his career, there is considerable continuity: understand the customer, build the right proposition, get it into the market and make it work commercially.
The products have changed. The commercial challenge has not.
