Helena Mzena, CEO, Jubilee Life Insurance Tanzania

Helena Mzena is Chief Executive Officer of Jubilee Life Insurance Tanzania, a position she has held since April 2021. With nearly two decades of experience in finance and insurance, she has advanced through senior financial and executive roles to lead the business. She also serves as Vice-President of the Insurance Institute of Tanzania, a role she assumed in April 2024, contributing to the development of professional standards and leadership across the country’s insurance industry. 

Mzena’s career at Jubilee Life Insurance began in January 2015, when she joined as Head of Finance. She was appointed Chief Financial Officer in April 2018 and became CEO three years later. Previously, she served as Chief Accountant at Jubilee Insurance from 2011 to 2014. Her earlier experience includes a brief stint as a management consultant at Deloitte in Dar es Salaam in 2011 and more than four years as a Finance Officer at NTT Europe Online in London, from 2006 to 2010. 

Her academic and professional qualifications span finance, accounting, insurance and leadership. She earned a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Finance and Financial Information Systems from the University of Greenwich in 2003, and a Master of Arts in Financial Management from Liverpool John Moores University in 2010.  

She is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and holds the ACPA qualification awarded by Tanzania’s National Board of Accountants and Auditors. She has also completed leadership training at Strathmore Business School. 

Mzena has continued to deepen her expertise alongside her executive responsibilities. Her additional qualifications include an International Postgraduate Diploma in Life Insurance, completed in 2021; a Diploma in Insurance from the Chartered Insurance Institute, awarded in 2023; and a Postgraduate Diploma in Leadership from Tanzania’s UONGOZI Institute, completed in 2024. 

Beyond her corporate and professional leadership roles, Mzena has expressed a commitment to supporting women in leadership and to widening financial inclusion. Her career reflects the growing importance of experienced financial leadership in enabling Tanzania’s insurance sector to respond to evolving customer needs and to expand access to financial protection.