Hannah Wanjiku Karuru

Job Title: chief people officer

Company: Capwell Industries

Hannah Wanjiku Karuru is the chief people officer at Capwell Industries.

She joined Capwell in December 2025 and is responsible for shaping the group’s people strategy to support growth, execution excellence and organisational resilience.

Before joining Capwell, Hannah spent more than six years at Chloride Exide as head of human resources.

Earlier in her career, she spent over six years at Kenafric Industries, first as human resource business partner, before stepping into the role of human resource manager.

She began her HR career in operational and programme-focused roles, including HR officer at Del Monte Foods and human resource programme coordinator at Global Enrichment Foundation, managing end-to-end HR functions and supporting organisational restructuring, performance management and HR systems development.

Work Experience

Dec 2025–Present: chief people officer, Capwell Industries
2019–2025: head of human resources, Chloride Exide
2016–2019: human resource manager, Kenafric Industries
2013–2016: human resource business partner, Kenafric Industries
2012: HR officer, Del Monte Foods
2010–2012: human resource programme coordinator, Global Enrichment Foundation

Education

2016–2018: MBA in human resources management, KCA University
2011–2012: higher diploma in human resource management, Institute of Human Resource Management, Kenya
2006–2010: BSc in cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics, Kenyatta University

About Company

Capwell Industries is a regional manufacturing group with operations across East and Central Africa. The company produces fast-moving consumer goods spanning food, hygiene and personal care categories, with a focus on operational excellence, strong brands and long-term talent development to support sustainable growth.

HR leaders at CHRO Launch challenge organisations to rethink talent and leadership

What keeps people in an organisation when opportunities are everywhere? At the CHRO East Africa Launch, attended by more than 100 HR executives from across the region, Felix Ochieng of Liberty Kenya Holdings and Hannah Wanjiku Karuru of Capwell Industries challenged leaders to rethink talent retention, leadership development and the strategic role of HR in building organisations fit for the future.

31 July 2026

Four HR leaders trace their route into the profession

Ask most people and culture leaders how they ended up in HR and the answer is rarely a straight line. For Sarah Omaya, director of HR at Acorn, Laura Oliwa, head of people, culture and administration at Amref Flying Doctors, Eva Ng'ang'a, people and culture manager at Amadeus East Africa and Hannah Karuru, chief people officer at Capwell Industries, the profession arrived sideways.

24 April 2026

What raising an autistic child taught Hannah Karuru about agile organisations

Raising her autistic son reshaped how Hannah Karuru, CPO at Capwell Industries, sees people at work, pushing her to question rigid ideas of talent and build space for different ways of thinking. In her world, leadership is less about polished strategy and more about patience, attention and designing organisations that actually fit the humans inside them.

27 March 2026