Prof. Dr William T. Muhairwe is a Management Specialist trained in Economic and Business Management. He holds a PhD as well as Masters in Business Administration and Bachelors in Business Administration, all from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany. He is a Honorary Professor at Makerere University, Uganda and the United Graduate College and Seminary, Tennessee, U.S.A.

Prof. Dr. Muhairwe has been managing public companies both in Uganda and abroad for more than 19 years. Since 1998 to date, he has been the Managing Director (MD) of National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), a State Corporation that was almost collapsing due to mismanagement. Out of his initiatives, he has implemented innovative change management programmes that have successfully turned round NWSC from a loss making organization to a profit making government parastatal which is now a benchmark for best practice both nationally and internationally. As a result of the reforms undertaken, the organization was named “Employer of the Year 2003 for Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility” and again got a Golden Award for Management Excellence in June 2004 and Employer of the Year 2004 for “Productivity and Performance Management”. In 2005 URA presented to the organization with the URA Vantage Award” for exemplary Tax Compliance on the Tax Payers’ Appreciation day. In 2007, NWSC was recognized as the East Africa’s Most Respected Company in the Service Sector.

Previously, Prof. Dr Muhairwe worked for the Uganda Investment Authority as its Deputy and eventually Executive Director for 3 years and was responsible for attracting inward private investments in Uganda. Prior to that, he was the MD of the East African Steel Corporation, a Joint Venture Company between the government of Uganda and a private company (The Madhvani Group). He spearheaded the formation of an External Services arm in NWSC that presents an excellent model on how a utility can help its peers to benchmark best practice solutions, at affordable costs. NWSC External Services has become a strong platform for sharing best utility management practices in the Sub-Saharan African region and beyond. Apart from Uganda, some of the beneficiary countries include Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia, Nigeria, India, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Pakistan and Ethiopia.

He is also member of the Makerere University Council, where he is part of the team that is championing the reforms at one of Africa’s greatest universities.
Prof. Dr. Muhairwe has key competences in Strategic Planning, Policy formulation, private sector development, restructuring of ailing state companies and stakeholder management. In addition to his full-time job at NWSC, he is currently offering active backstopping support and professional input into NWSC’s external services assignments. He has also, on a number of occasions, provided professional services to the World Bank, in several assignments in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, India, Yemen and Pakistan. His input has tremendously improved performance in a number of regional water utilities. He is an internationally acclaimed speaker and has delivered papers and lectures at numerous international conferences, seminars and workshops on various issues related to management of public companies. He is also passionate about writing and is the author of “Making Public Enterprises Work”, a book that is widely read and a reference on management of public enterprises. He is Honorary Professor in the Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Computing and Information Technology of Makerere University. The United Graduate College and Seminary, Tennessee USA also honored him with a Honorary Doctorate of Professorship for his leadership and dedication to bring out the best in others and supporting the disadvantaged. Prof. Dr. Muhairwe is the founder of the Muhairwe Education Trust Limited (METL), a nonprofit organization, set up to give hope to the disadvantaged children with an opportunity to advance their career at higher institutions of learning and also promoting research.

Prof. Dr. Muhairwe has received many local and international awards among them is the 2010 International Water Association (IWA) Outstanding Contribution to Water Management and Science award, in recognition to the amazing work done with NWSC and his outstanding leadership in the water sector.