Rod Hagger

Rod Hagger was, until his retirement in 2016, the Managing Director of Limbe Leaf Tobacco Company in Malawi. He was appointed to this role in March 2012 to work closely with the Malawi Government and the Tobacco Industry in order to facilitate the implementation of the Integrated Production System (IPS) in tobacco and other crops.

In 2003 he was appointed MD of Mozambique Leaf Tobacco Company (MLT) to coordinate the formation of a new company which entailed the building of a processing facility in Tete and the subsequent training of 2,000 of its newly recruited employees. It is here that the direct contract farming system, or IPS, was developed into a successful and sustainable model with 100,000 smallholder growers. Today MLT is globally recognised as the flagship operation in the Universal Group of companies.

Rod commenced his career in the Industry in April 1974 where he was employed by BAT and began his training on the shop floor. He moved from Zimbabwe to Malawi in 1979 and after a series of employment opportunities in Leaf and Sales, he was employed by the Limbe Leaf Company in 1984 where he rose to the position of Operations Director and managed the company's largest Blue Chip Account; a position which he held prior to his appointment as CEO of MLT in Mozambique in 2003.