Formidable challenge awaits Juliana Kagwa at the Uganda Tourism Board

JULIANA KAGWA is one of the most recognisable figures in Uganda’s marketing sector.

Famed for her role in almost single-handedly introducing the Heineken brand to the Ugandan beverage industry in the early 2000s, she has held several high-profile positions in the corporate world.

And just when she had slipped off the radar to purse her academic calling in food science as a regional marketing guru, Juliana, as she is commonly known in corporate circles, has bounced back as the new executive director of the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), a role that has thrust her back into the national limelight.

We take a look back at her trailblazing career and what Ugandans should expect of her UTB tenure. here is a new face of Ugandan tourism. Juliana Kagwa is the new driving force behind Uganda’s tourism growth to ensure strategic promotion, stakeholder synergy, sustainable practices and resilient management to boost the sector’s economic and cultural impact.

She replaces Lily Ajarova, who left in March, 2025. In the corporate world, it is well-known that you don’t have to look for Juliana. She will always come to you. Also, you better find a way to avoid her if you don’t have the perfect excuse. She may have the look of a 25-year-old, but the charm, aura and charisma of Juliana, a wife and mother of quadruplets, has been around the corporate world for more than half a golden jubilee!

Many, especially the middle-aged people may know her as the face that introduced them to Heineken and several Uganda Breweries products, but there is much more about Juliana than one can imagine. Her most recent posting was group marketing and sales director at Seed Co International, a regional farming entity that operates in several sub-Saharan African countries.

But here is a Makerere University graduate of food science, who originally dreamt of becoming a communication specialist but only joined the marketing industry at the allure of her first working opportunity.

“I always used every chance to market stuff right from high school at Namagunga [Mt St Mary’s College Namagunga] to university. However, my goal was always to be a scientist but I found comfort in marketing because it was my first opportunity after leaving university,” she recalls.

This was in the early 2000s. She never looked back. Her first stint at Uganda Breweries (UBL) elevated her to stardom and she became a marketing celeb. A few years later, she spearheaded entry of the Heineken brand in the country, a move that catapulted her to the top corporate echelons.

What stood out and continues to stand out about Juliana is the rare mix of beauty and brains. This may sound flattering but that’s it. She has that extraordinary gift of being able to pitch an idea with seamless ease. Reflecting on her career in a recent interview, she said she believes in the mantra that there’s a season for everything in life.

“In marketing, it is all about numbers. In farming, there is a time to plant, there is a time to sow, there is a time to reap, there is a time to, you know, celebrate. So, for me, life is all about seasons,” she said, in reference to the different positions she has held.

On this background, Kagwa inherits a well-documented underfunded tourism sector still occasionally affected by insecurity, disease outbreaks and poor animals-community relations.

“This time in my life, in my career, I feel like it is the time for me to start evolving towards what I will ultimately call is my purpose. Tourism! What I’m supposed to ultimately leave as my stamp or my legacy, as a child of Uganda, as a daughter of this soil, I think for me, it’s that season, it’s that time. So, that’s all it means.”

“There was a time for me to be on the front page or whichever social event, whichever concert there was, there was a time for me to lead from the camera, lights and action perspective. This is my time now, my season, to lead in another space in a director’s position.

“Eventually, I aspire to do, you know, and work with society, work with grassroots on sustainability, not just for Uganda, but for Africa. I think for me, this is my time, my season, to make my mark on Uganda’s tourism image,” she says.

Owing to her decades of marketing, Juliana admits she is still an avid night economist and the UTB position offers her the perfect opportunity to showcase her passion.

“For years, I was used to a night economy but my new job now demands more of me during the day than it does at night. Nonetheless, I think for me, it’s just switching one pair of shoes for another but I’m still very much the same person,” she says.

So, did she miss a limelight?

“No. I’m creating my own limelight as I go in the space where I am, because just because I’ve changed roles and jobs, so to speak, doesn’t really change the core of who I am. And the core of who I am is I’m very social, very outgoing. I love people. I love a good time and I am going to do whatever it takes to promote Ugandan tourism,” she says.

“I am not a stranger to tourism. I’m not a stranger to marketing, not really. I am going to provide strategic leadership and vision, develop marketing and promotion of Ugandan tourism as well as enabling stakeholder collaboration, among other things.”

Juliana, who starts her new role on July 1, 2025, says she aims to turn around the tourism sector into a sustainable development environment, invest in research and innovation as well as enhance visitor experiences by supporting service training and infrastructure improvements.

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