Jack Ngare, the managing director of Microsoft’s Africa Development Centre in Kenya has joined Google Cloud’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) as a Technical Director.
Ngare has more than 15 years of experience in various business functions including management, telecommunications, financial services and emerging technology. Prior to his work at Microsoft ADC, he was the MD at Finserve Africa, and held positions at Stanbic Bank, NIC Bank, as well as spending seven years at British Telecom with assignments in the UK, Saudi Arabia, Peru and Japan.
He holds a Master’s degree in management from Harvard University, a Master’s degree in advanced computer science and a Bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Leicester.
“Google Cloud’s Office of the CTO not only helps our customers create their future with technology, but also guides Google on what challenges the world’s enterprises are trying to solve,” said Will Grannis, Chief Technology Officer. “We are thrilled to have Jack join our growing team and bring his expertise to companies based in Kenya and around the world.”
As the MD Finserve Africa, Mr. Jack Ngare introduced the Jenga Payment Gateway to allow firms to online and mobile payments from a host of payment channels such as American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Diners, JCB, Union Pay and other card associations from 180 countries, and from mobile wallets from 7 countries across East & Central Africa such as Alipay and Wechat.
He worked with many entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs to take advantage of the firm’s open APIs, to design innovative products and services that are now boosting businesses across the region. Launched in September 2017, Finserve’s APIs have supported many developers including those managing airtime sales, logistics, payments, cash management services among others.
At Microsofts ADC, Ngare President was recently part of the uneiling of the $27 million Microsoft Africa Development Centre, which aims to bolster the Government’s quest to secure high-tech jobs in the digital space for the youth. The ADC is among other development centres across the globe that are geared towards training world class engineers who will create global products and services and has already employed more than 450 engineers in Kenya as well as 500 employees in other areas. The Africa development centre employs about 570 engineers working on identity and network access, mixed reality, Microsoft 365 as well as connected services and experiences.
As a technical director, Ngare will help Google Cloud’s Office of the CTO (OCTO) to foster collaborative innovation between Google Cloud and its largest, most strategic customers. Google Cloud is a global team of senior technology experts and former enterprise CTOs who works with customers on digital transformation. OCTO brings a blend of experiences from both inside and outside of Google to balance their approach and helps customers understand and take advantage of the full breadth of innovation that Alphabet offers. The team also advises Google Cloud and Alphabet on emerging trends across products, industries, geographies and components.
“As Google Cloud builds its presence in Africa, I am honoured to join this growing team to better support local businesses,” said Jack Ngare. “With the growth of digitization, it is more important than ever to help companies use technology to modernise, scale, and reach their customers’ needs.”
