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businessdailyafrica.com
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Linus Gitahi
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
uccess is a hard-won outcome. But the key, it appears from the women selected this year as Kenyas Top 40 Women Under 40 to Watch, is passion. A surprising number of the young leaders to have emerged in this years line-up changed careers along the way. Some turned their back on glamorous options early on. Some rose in one eld, only to rise again and more spectacularly in a second. Many shone at school. But some didnt. Yet alNearly all the most all of our Top 40 have revealed a commitment successful to further education. Briswomen one of these women tling with MBAs, diplomas reveal their has taken on chaland professional qualicalove for work tions, many have done more lenges, and preand why it than balance life and work: vailed. They have matters in they have balanced life, work broken through glass their careers and study. ceilings, juggled long hours, and devised Reading their stories, ground-breaking its hard not to be awed at solutions to seemthe dedication of these superwomen, so full of drive, ingly intractable creativity and vision. problems. And that, it seems, is what it Yet something they all appear to have takes to succeed as a women in Kenya in common is their passion for what they today. Because making it economically do. Time and again they explain their is getting harder, not easier. In the pages of this report, we also carlove for the work, why it matters, and what motivated them in choosing the ry shocking gures showing how women have retreated in the nations workforce elds they did. From the London School of Econom- in the last ve years. Maternity legislation ics-trained professional who abandoned designed to aide women in honouring economics to spread the word about their responsibilities as mothers has bitnutrition, to the venture capitalist who ten back at all women: chased down by a moved into lm production, or the oil class of employers who argue there is no industry MD who initially planned to gain to them from employing women who enter banking, Kenyas women leaders they might have to grant extra paid leave. have emerged based on key decisions they With their backs turned rmly against took along the way. taking any responsibility for the welfare Each one of them is where they are of the nations children, many SMEs have now based on choices, and what informed simply locked out women in their 20s and those choices was a belief in what was 30s from the workforce. In an economy where there a few large possible: which is why it is our privilege to honour these women. Because from or even middle-sized organisations, and them, we can all learn. For every single where SMEs drive employment, its a
shift, since 2007, that has in some years seen the number of women in formal sector jobs actually fall. Altogether, over the last half a decade, Kenyan women have moved backwards economically, now accounting for just 28.7 per cent of formal sector jobs, compared with 30.3 per cent ve years ago. For the more than half of Kenyans the wrong side of the gender line, the problem, it seems, is not so much a glass ceiling, as a glass wall: many cannot even get in. Reports both locally and globally likewise show women retreating from sectors that are now driving the world, in ICT, science and engineering. Yet Kenya has spawned now more than its global share of exceptional leaders in the ICT industry, with its own clutch of women MDs, country managers and leaders fanning out across the worlds ICT multinationals. These women, who believe its possible and nd ways to deliver on every front, are proving that the sky is the limit. Yet there are other heroes in many of their stories. A few remain single, but almost all of the women selected within this years line-up are married, and with children, and repeatedly they cite their families and their husbands as the source of their strength.
Joseph Odindo
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Marc Mwera
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Diana Mwango
PHOTOS
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BY JENNY LUESBY
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hat happens when women make up half of the workforce and they are more likely than ever before to be primary or co-breadwinners in their families? It means its increasingly crucial for women to earn top dollar for their labor. To rank the 10 best-paying jobs for women the median weekly earnings of female, full-time wage and salary workers was tabulated. Across the globe, men are still earning more across industriesabout 20 per cent more than women per weekbut women are quickly closing the gap. A slim majority (51 per cent) of workers in high-paying management and professional jobs are female, according to an International Labour Organisation report. This top 10 list is equal parts a lesson in the importance of math and science skills, a showcase for the obvious (doctors, lawyers), a reinterpretation of womens work and an attempt to forecast the high-paying jobs of the future. Chief executive came in at No.1 on our list as the top-paying job for women. Female chief executives made a median of $1,553 (Sh132,005) per week, or about $81,000 (Sh6.9 million) in 2009. However, their total numbers are still low, and they arent
earning equally to men. Women comprise just a quarter of all chief executive positions and earn 75 per cent as much as their male peers. But younger women may be moving into business more than previous generations. In 2007, women received 44 per cent of all MBAs, according to the US Department of Education, while in 1997 they earned 39 per cent, translating to a 75 per cent increase in the last 10 years. Chief executives will remain well-paid in years to come, and its a position you can work your way into, says Al Lee, director of quantitative
analysis for Payscale, an online provider of employee compensation data. Becoming a CEO might be easier than becoming a doctor. You can be a CEO at age 35, when a doctor is just getting done with training. Like last year, a career in pharmacy was a top contender. Pharmacist placed second on our list--above lawyers (No. 3) and physicians and surgeons (No. 6). Female pharmacists earned a median of about $76,500 (Sh6.5 million) for the year. Women are ocking to the eld, now holding almost half of pharmacist positions and with good reason. The BLS
average. Computer programmer, a new addition to the list, came in at No. 7. Women constitute only 21 per cent of the eld, but earn nearly equally to men. Female computer programmers earn a median of $62,000 a year, and those in the top 10per cent of the eld make a salary of $111,000. Some other upsides of the job: Most programmers work standard 40-hour The top weeks, and telecommuting 10 list is is becoming more common. equals a Plus, employers typically relesson in the quire only a bachelors deimportance gree, which is particularly of math appealing to women who and science want high earnings withskills, a out the educational investshowcase for expects the eld ment required by elds like the obvious to expand faster medicine or law. than most, with A surprising new enpharmacist positrant, occupational therations projected to increase 17per cent pists came in at No. 10. This is the by 2018. only profession on the list dominated by women, who hold 82per cent of Asking why physicians and surgeons rank lower than pharmacists? all positions. Its also the only eld in Its because the category is so large. which women earn equally to men. It includes neurosurgeons as well Occupational therapists typically as interns and residents, who make have a masters degree or higher and drastically less. Furthermore, there is earn a median of $60,000 yearly. They a broad array of specialties. Women help patients recover or improve basic often choose the lower-paying specialmotor skills so they can perform daily ties like family practice and pediatrics, tasks like dressing, cooking and eathe says, which brings down the pay ing. Plus, its an in-demand job.
PACESETTER
When projects dont seem to moving as fast as they should at the Treasury, one of the names that is often oated for possible intervention is Ms Anne Waiguru. As the Acting Director in charge of the Integrated Financial Management and Information Systems (IFMIS) and also Head of the Governance Unit, Anne is tasked with heading two crucial departments at the Treasury. But her twin roles complement each other, with Ms Waiguru seeing the IFMIS project as the ultimate solution to governance issues facing the nation. At 40 years, Ms Waiguru is one of the few younger civil servants occupying a senior position in Government, reporting directly to the PS, Treasury. She was roped in from the private sector to head the governance oce after the critical department was restructured following the departure of Mr. Githongo.
Later, Ms Waiguru headed the Economic Stimulus Programme, and has recently become the acting director of the newly formed IFMIS department when the government saw the slow pace of the deployment of the system. IFMIS has been in government since 2004, but only three of a minimum 12 modules required for eective public nancial management are being used. I was asked to fast- track its full deployment, says Anne, a mother of three. An economics graduate from Egerton University, with a Masters from the University of Nairobi, Anne started her career at the Kenya Leadership Institute as a programme ocer working on the Kenya Bribery Index. Later on, she moved to the World Bank as the Eastern African regional representative for the parliamentary network. She was charged with coordinating members of parliament monitoring World Bank
projects covering eight countries. Three years on, the World Bank seconded her to the Cabinet oce as a technical advisor on issues of governance, leadership and reforms in the public sector. I was instrumental in formulating a performance management system that saw the review of performance appraisals, and the introduction of perform-
ance contracts and the rapid results initiative, says Anne After a few years at the cabinet oce, Anne left the World Bank and joined CitiBank as a senior Public Sector Manager. I achieved my two year target within the rst six months, says Anne, perhaps indicating her track record of being an over-achiever an inclination she attributes to her Christian upbringing that made her appreciate the value of hard work. Of her recent achievements, she is proudest of her role in making the implementation of the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) transparent. As head of governance, Annes objective is to ensure the Sh22 billion programme goes to the intended projects and recipients in all constituencies in the country. With the help of Google, Anne created a GIS website that tracked the expenditure of ESP funds up to location levels, mapping all on-going and completed ESP projects on a public website. The website also gives details of ocials in charge of specic projects, contracts awarded, to who they were awarded and how much has been paid to the contractors.
EMPLOYMENT
17.6%
omen make up more than half the population of Kenya, yet the obstacles they face in rising and thriving are formidable, chief among them being their near sole responsibility for the nations children. With attitudes at every level stacked against women in balancing home and work, both legislation and shifts in society have served to move more women into poverty and out of formal work, for, far from advancing, the last ve years have seen Kenyas women move backwards economically. An instrumental turning point was the introduction of legislation in 2007 extending paid maternity leave from two to three months. Despite the laws honourable intentions, it has left them further behind men than they were in 2005. Today, womens share of formal employment is just 28.7 per cent, down dramatically from 2005, when it had reached 30.3 per cent. While 252,600 jobs were created during this period, 82.4 per cent of them went to men, with only 17.6 per cent going to women, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
Percentage of the 252,600 jobs created this year that went to women. Today, womens share of formal employment is just 28.7 per cent, down dramatically from 2005, when it had reached 30.3 per cent.
young children left with neighbours, family or older children who have dropped out of school. Many mothers also resort to leaving their children up country with their own mother while they go to the cities to nd employment. Patricia Apondi Ajouga is a single mother and widow, looking after ve children, after her husband died from alcohol poisoning and her brother and his wife died from Aids, leaving two children behind.
Global Export Processing Zone company of unlawfully sacking 24 women. It was claimed the company, which employs female textile workers, had dismissed all of the women because they had become pregnant and the company did not want them to proceed on to maternity leave. In interviews, women will often be asked about their intentions for children and their marital status, so employers can assess whether there will be any work interruption other than their annual leave. Yet a more debilitating problem still has been the general breakdown in fathers themselves taking responsibility for children. The number of children in Kenya being raised by single parents has continued to rise, seeing ever more women caught in a trap where they can only work when their own employment earns enough to pay childcare costs while they are working. Its a hurdle many fail to leap, seeing babies as young as a few months old often locked indoors while their mother goes to work. Informal child care is also widespread, with
ince time immemorial, men have been trying to gure women out. I stumbled across the following advice to men on the warning signs they need to watch out for when dealing with their female partners. (If youre a man reading this, get your scissors ready to cut this piece out and stick it on your computer screen!) My own summary is men will never gure us out. But have we as women gured out our role in the professional career front? After 10 years of employment, I came to the conclusion that Its not a mans world, its just the world. Well never be men. Well never be like men. And we need to come to that conclusion quickly for our own professional sanity. The fact of the matter is that the higher you climb in your career ladder, the more responsibility you will be saddled with. Such responsibility more often than not includes supervising a team, driving them to deliver a pre-determined target while ensuring that your team objectives are aligned with the organisations strategic targets.
DONT CRACK YOUR HEADS MEN, THIS IS WHAT SHE MEANS 1) Fine this means she is right. The argument is over. You need to shut up. 2) Thats okay - One of the most dangerous statements a woman can make to a man. Thats okay means she wants to think hard and long before deciding when and how youll pay for your mistake. 3) Nothing - The calm before the storm. This means Something and you better be on your toes. Arguments that start with Nothing usually end with Fine 4) Five minutes - If getting dressed, this means half an hour. Gentlemen dont be mad about this. Its the same denition for you when its your turn to do some work around the house. 5) Dont worry about it, I got it - The second most dangerous statement a woman can make. It means that a woman has asked a man several times to do something and is now doing it herself. (This will result in you asking at a later date, Whats wrong? For the womans response, see 3 above.)
celebrated an important milestone last year: We now have more than 1,000 women serving as partners, principals, or directorsour most senior roles. While that achievement is impressive, lets not kid ourselves: Those 1,000 talented women serve alongside 3,200 talented men holding the same roles. Thats more than three men for every woman.
Companies with the greatest female representation on boards generate a 50 per cent greater return on equity and invested capital than companies with less diverse boards.
to gender equality is important not because we want to achieve some articial goal of percentages or absolute numbers, but because companies have a responsibility to nd and develop the best people to serve their clients. Indeed, the business imperative of any diversity and inclusion eort is sustaining and increasing the bottom line. But achieving equal opportunity in the workforce wont happen until every personregardless of gender, race, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation-accepts each other for the unique and individual strengths, leadership styles and talents they bring to the table. Fortunately, we are already headed in the right direction. Just a few years ago many women had to adjust
Just a few years ago many women had to adjust their managing style just to be noticed and heard in a meeting
their managing style just to be noticed and heard in a meeting. This was certainly the case for me in the early stages of my career. Today we are seeing progress on this front, and with more women at the table womens perspectives are beginning to be respected and recognized as valuable contributions to the conversation. But in some instances it takes company-wide programmes to educate employees on the importance of gender equality for leadership roles. At Deloitte, for example, we created our Women as Buyers programme, which is designed to help our male executives become more eective at building productive relationships with female clients and colleagues by helping them understand their experiences and work styles. If we can change the viewpoint of male ex-
B R I E FC A S E
Women leaders
We need leaders who are willing to shatter the reinforced and bullet-proof glass ceiling and we need men who are willing to set aside their male ego and work as a team with women and others. If we can change the viewpoint of male executives, chances are their perspectives will trickle down to the rising generations too.
Gender diversity begins with breaking down the Norm We need to support women at every stage
Although the last two decades have been a period of unprecedented growth and achievement for women in the workforce, we have made very few inroads into the boardrooms and the executive suites of Americas leading companies: Only 15per cent of board members, 9 per cent of CFOs and 3 per cent of CEOs in the 500 largest public companies are female, according to Catalysts study on Women in U.S. Management. Indeed, given the changing workforce and the shrinking pool of highly skilled knowledge workers facing many businesses today, we must reward and retain talented, creative people--whether or not they look or sound like what weve been trained to think a leader looks or sounds like. And getting more women to excel in leadership roles requires work on the macro level through committed, top-down, organisation-wide leadership--and on the micro level, in oneon-one interactions and mentoring situations. We need leaders who are willing to shatter the reinforced and bulletproof glass ceiling and we need men who are willing to set aside their male ego and work as a team with women and others. One of the greatest challenges employers face today is that workers--whatever their gender--are building careers dierently than they used to. With women comprising more than half the workforce and traditional family structures and lifestyles changing rapidly, a cultural shift is underway. That shift is reaching deep into the workplace, yet many organisations still cling to the traditional corporate ladder, with its one-size-ts-all, linear career path. At Deloitte, people can move in dierent directions to develop their careers, following a model we call the corporate lattice. The corporate lattice is a new standard for career progression that
ecutives, chances are their perspectives will trickle down to the rising generations too.
the country that handles lots of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) cases. Among the PIL cases are the Prisoners case (to vote in last years referendum). Other PIL cases that KITUO is working on are the Bulla Fot clan Case of a marginalised clan in Garissa, the Poys Robo case of a marginalized Samburu Community, the Muthurwa case where a temporary injunction was issued against eviction of Muthurwa residents among others. Volunteer lawyers To ensure all poor people can access justice all over the country, the organization has a Volunteer Advocate scheme, where volunteer lawyers from all over the country can handle KITUO cases from any part of Kenya. It is in the spirit of Access to Justice for All that KITUO established Community Justice Centres in Kibera, Kamukunji, Shimo la Tewa, Kisauni and Nyando, to ensure the poor and marginalised can easily access justice. Legal assistance Apart from providing legal assistance, Kituo Cha Sheria is also a formidable force in extra-curricular activities, and this saw the organization capture this years UWAZICUP victory that was organized by ICJ-Kenya. Kituo Cha Sheria seeks to empower the poor and marginalised to eectively access justice and peoples rights and under Priscillas stewardship, the country can only expect more from Kituo.
Priscilla Nyokabi Kanyua, executive director, Kituo Cha Sheria. COURTESY munity Partnership that seeks to empower communities through advocacy. Kituo Cha Sheria is also the title holder of Civil Society of the Year (CSOYA) Award of 2010. Among Kituos other successes are the Prisoners landmark ruling that gave Prisoners the right to vote in last years constitution referendum. Kituo was also instrumental in the formulation of the Housing Bill, and it is also following up to ensure implementation of the Eviction Guidelines. KITUO is also the only organization in
Kituo head oce sta. This is a case of one Richard Mwasia, who together with Kituo, sued the government and Prison Authority because he is an intersex, yet had been put in prison with other men. He says the men raped him repeatedly, and thus lodged a suit, to compel the government to pay him for the human rights abuse he had gone through. He won the lawsuit and was awarded Ksh.500,000 in damages. This was not only a big win to Kituo and Mwasia, but to other intersex who suer in silence because they fear being alienated or discriminated. 4. Muthurwa Case. This is an eviction case whereby the residents of Muthurwa estate were being evicted from the land. Together with Prof. Yash Pal Ghai, Kituo sued on behalf of the residents of Muthurwa. The Judge issued a temporary court injunction restraining the respondents from further evicting them from their land, giving the residents temporary reprieve. 5. Dandora Dumpsite The residents of Dandora have for years lived with the haunting smell emanating from the Dandora Dumpsite. This dumpsite has caused several residents
Joanne Mwangi
Joanne, a professional marketer, is an accomplished rapid climber of corporate Kenyas slippery ladder. She is a successful entrepreneur who founded and manages Professional Marketing Services the racy marketing company that won the 2010 Top 100 Medium Sized Companies Pinnacle award. She is the chair of the Federation of Women Entrepreneur Associations and is the rst ever woman to head, as Vice Chair, the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Ndirangu wa Maina
Mr Maina is a marketer who has worked in a multinational advertising agency and an entrepreneur who founded and runs Consumer Insight a research rm known for its deep insight into Africas consumer trends.
Carol Musyoka
Carol is a banker who started her career as a lawyer having studied law and worked briey at a leading Nairobi law rm. Her banking career began at Citibank where she worked as a management associate. She then moved to Barclays Bank and KRep Bank, where she retired from banking at the level of Chief Operating Ofcer and Executive Director. She now runs her own private consulting and is a Business Daily columnist. Her knowledge of Kenyas corporate sector was invaluable in picking out the women to watch.
Jenny Luesby
Jenny is a professional journalist who began her career at the Financial Times of London where she worked for more than 14 years before she left for the world of entrepreneurship. Ms Luesby, a British national, who has been living in Kenya for four years, runs a media consultancy business and manages African Laughter a new media rm she founded three years ago.
Joe Otin
As the Media Research & Monitoring Director at Synovate Pan Africa, Joe is at the core of advertising and media development in at least six African countries, where his company offers industry insights. His key areas of expertise include dening best practice in media strategy, determining ROI (return on investment) from communication activities, and delivering insights from a combination of advertising expenditure data and audience ratings.
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The Business Dailys 2011 list of Kenyas women who are tipped for higher positions of inuence in the corporate, government and enterprise world. Survey nds that strength of character, focus and being able to build bridges does pay for careers
OLGA ARARA KIMANI, 36
GOOGLE COUNTRY MANAGER KENYA
Recently appointed as the Country Manager for Google Kenya, Olga Arara will take up a role as one of Googles regional leaders as well as its local spokesperson, representing the company in all of its major business development and partnership opportunities and serving as the voice of the Kenyan user at Google. Olga brings a wealth of experience to the Africa Team, as well as to Google. A trained electrical engineer with an MBA in Engineering Business Management, Ms Araras new position leverages on her extensive 15 years experience in leading the rms she has worked for in securing new business. Her new role also involves guiding the strategic direction of the internet giant at a local level. Her strategic strength was clearly apparent in her previous role as Sales Director at mobile telecommunications company, Essar Telecommunications Africa, where her job entailed delivering strategic business linkages that were integral to the growth of the company, including driving an ambitious acquisition and growth strategy for the region. Responsible at Essar for a team of 87, she was detailed with handling Retail Sales, Enterprise, Corporate, Modern Trade and Distribution Management, spread across three countries in the region. Previously, Ms Arara served in high level positions at East Africa Cables, Safaricom and LanTech in combined roles that have utilized her skills both as a marketer and as an engineer. A graduate of Manchester Business School, Ms Araras strengths lie in being able to improve margins through product penetration, more ecient and eective service delivery, and retention of existing business.
AGNES KAGURE
JESSICA COLACO
MAGGIE IRERI
JESSICA COLACO, 28
MANAGER IHUB
If you would like to know what the next big innovation in Kenyas technology space will be, Jessica Colaco is the woman to ask. In her current position as Manager of the iHub, an incubation centre where Kenyas aspiring software developers congregate, Ms Colaco has unrivalled access to the cutting edge technologies being worked on by local developers. ,The last ve years have seen Ms Colaco consolidate her strengths in the research sector and boost her networking skills, which have brought international rms like Facebook and Google to Kenya in search of the next big technology - for Ms Colaco has been instrumental in uniting young students in Kenyas universities with multi- nationals. She was a key driver of the rst-ever Nairobi Facebook Developer Garage in March 2008, an event which served as a forum for students from dierent universities and professional software developers in Kenya
AGNES KAGURE, 36
EXECUTIVE FINANCIAL ADVISOR, CF C LIFE
Agnes Kagure was recently crowned the Association of Kenyan Insurerss Insurance Agent of the Year for a second year running, beating the 333 agents from all over Kenya who qualied for the award, thanks to her tenacity and penchant for success. Having grown up in a village attending local schools, Kagures education appeared to have ended with Form Four at Kangubiri High School in Nyeri County, when her family was unable to raise the money for college education. But her thirst for reading kept her sourcing books to read, steadily building her own library of motiva-
to learn about the Facebook Platform. She was involved in conducting a baseline and follow-up survey for the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) in July August 2008, working with nine SACCOs across the region to establish the facts on the ground with regards to the income and level of education of their members. Ms Colaco also organised the countrys rst-ever Mobile Boot Camp, which served as a forum for students from dierent universities and professional software developers in Kenya to learn about the mobile phone world and its infrastructure, various mobile development platforms, seek technical support from experts, share ideas and build collaboration. Previously a research lead at SRCC, Ms Colaco has used her position at various rms to spearhead and manage their research projects, even as she has continued to court international rms to adopt Kenyan-made solutions. It was a passion that began with her own early success as the developer, whilst still an undergraduate at Nairobi University, of a system that allowed mobile phone users to view detailed street maps of Nairobi and access user-generated pointof-interest databases. The project for her nal year thesis attracted the attention ,of Google, and was among several Kenyan innovations that drew Googles Vice President for Engineering in Eastern Africa, Nelson Mattos and Google International
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MARION GATHOGA
MARION GATHOGA, 39
MANAGING DIRECTOR CADBURY KENYA
Marion is among the few female corporate executives to have featured repeatedly in the Top 40 survey, but perhaps for the last time this year. However, just as the country representative for food conglomerate Kraft Foods turns 40 in September, she is expected to have completed the ongoing integration of the Kenyan operation of the global food giant that in 2010 took over Cadbury plc. As the head of a business that is a market leader in chocolate and food beverages in Kenya, the mother of two has delivered consistent growth in the volume of sales over the last two years. Kenya is one of the important units of the African operating region for the combined unit of the two iconic brands, she says. With a degree from USIU in International Business Administration, Ms Gathoga started her career in marketing but moved on to sales where she determined to grow to become a transformational leader, impacting society positively. Apart from heading the Kenyan operation for Kraft Foods, Ms Gathoga is also a trustee at the Palm House Foundation, an education trust that nances the secondary education of deserving students and mentors them through life. She plays golf during her free time. Prior to her current posting, Ms Gathoga worked in Zambia as a Commercial Director for generic pharmaceutical manufacturing company Circle Pharmaceuticals Zambia. She previously worked at Nestle Foods (K) Ltd in Marketing and at Bayer East Africa Consumer Care as a sales leader and general manager of the consumer care business.
ORY OKOLLOH
ISIS NYONGO
women
Operations Director, Kannan Pashupathy to visit the country, where Google later set up its African headquarters. She has since devoted her career to promoting Kenyan applications. The biggest challenge is nding nancial backers, but for most of us, the applications we develop can compete on the world stage, she said.
ISIS NYONGO, 33
VP AND MANAGING DIRECTOR AFRICA, INMOBI
Isis Nyongo has been named before as a woman to watch in Kenyas Top 40 women under 40. But her latest appointment as Managing Director Africa for InMobi, the worlds second largest mobile advertising rm, is now guaranteed to ensure the young marketer cements her name in the global ICT business. She drew much attention as the business development manager of Google, where she was responsible for rolling out a row of locally relevant innovations, including the facility to send text messages from the internet. Before that, Ms Nyongo gained extensive media and tech experience while driving the launch of MTV Networks in Africa, where she was responsible for commercial relationships including distribution and sales.
She had also previously developed the marketing strategy for Kenyas rst online recruitment service, MyJobsEye, and earned degrees from both Stanford University and Harvard Business School. Even as she read her bachelors degree at Stanford from 1999, Nyongo moved into the world of fundraising, mobilising funds for the Stanford African Students Association, before moving to Harvard in 2005 for her MBA. She then built her career in both the US and Africa, working in nancial services and the cyberspace before joining MTV Networks. In her latest position at InMobi, she will be talking to local companies about their , products and localising the multi-nationals oerings to provide the best possible solutions. Its a bridging act that Ms Nyongo hopes will challenge entrenched market players and global rivals, such as Google, to help her rm win over Africas internet ,advertising space. She will be driving the entire African strategy for InMobi, -an Indian-based start-up that has already risen at near lightening speed to become a global leader - and drawing on her own experience working throughout Africa, including stints in Ghana, Uganda, ,Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa and Tanzania.
MAGGIE IRERI, 36
MANAGING DIRECTOR, SYNOVATE KENYA
If the Teacher sService Commission was recruiting in 1998, Maggie Ireri might today be a French teacher, but instead she heads Synovate Kenya, or what many still refer to as Steadman. Maggies peers say her consistency, passion to succeed and unfaultable execution of tasks are the ingredients that have seen her rise to the pinnacle of a company whose work stirs mixed emotions among Kenyans. Calm and full of self assurance, she is not amused by poor delivery or time-keeping, although has learnt much from her dealings with people of dierent cultures - from the loud table banging discussions with the Naija brothers, to the Zambians who are true African timekeepers, she says. On graduating from Kenyatta University, Maggie joined Strategic Business Organization as a research assistant, and started making presentations to senior decision-makers at an early age. She quickly hit some bias against her as a women, but put in double eort to ensure all the details were at her nger tips. Her next move, to become a research executive at Steadman, was
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er determination has seen her reap fortunes in her career, in fact any that she decided to settle on. Sue Muraya, managing director of Suraya Group Limited is yes above 40 years, but a mentor to the Top 40 under 40, she says hers is an undying re that is not easily put out. Mrs Muraya is brilliant and creative and admits that for success there should be sacrice, it is really needed and that among the best tips you need to arm yourself with. I have always demanded from myself to work harder and not really in academics, but there is also the practical beat of working hard and I got this information from my mother, she says. Being exposed to so much enable her settle on the best she wanted from herself, God has a purpose for everyone, she furthers and from this background you are supposed to choose whether you want to live or survive. The best thing that can ever happen in life is to invest in people and have people skills, make people your greatest investment that way it is hard to go wrong, they will always support you and even come up with new initiative in which you can explore, she says. Being analytical of yourself and never putting blame on others and more so than often doing away with blame is one way to achieve according to Mrs Muraya, it helps you rethink other strategies. She suggests that women in the industry of corporate and management and especially those under 40 should be principled. You should lead the life of a normal woman, be a mother, a wife and a professional and balance the act and also choose solid friends with a stable character not those who lead you into a dierent path that you never had an idea and that may end up messing you. Top of her game Mrs Muraya has always stood out as a woman on top of her game in any discipline and she has since moved from fashion to real estate to put Suraya Group. Being impacted by the people around her and determined to do everything she does with a passion has led to the major milestone that her organisation is experiencing. You should agree to have a vision and should not agree to be in a comfort zone, you need to converse in stages and you also need to make it as a woman in a long term business, do not look at the present rather the future, she adds. The beauty of interaction can enable ones major success and that is Murayas advice to the top 40 under 40, give an ear and pick what suits you, do not rubbish people. Make sure that on a daily or weekly basis you nd time to review the dierent occasion that have taken place and why they exactly did, she says.
Sue Muraya
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MONICA MATIRI
believes this is the only secret to a successful business. The owner of a two- year-old long-distance transport business, she is now pushing back the boundaries of being the women boss, with two trucks and rising, and a long road behind her since her days as a hawker. Her life journey has been far from smooth, but she appreciates each lesson she learnt along the way. She began her working life as a cateress, while waiting to join university, but then turned to selling charcoal and hawking popcorn to supermarkets and theatres to make a living, after dropping out of employment in order to take care of her sick mother. Interrupted sessions at University followed, through of lack of school fees, seeing her nally complete a degree course in education at Daystar University, through private study, some 8 years after she began the course at Moi University. She had, in the meantime, worked formally as a journalist at Baraka Fm, Family Radio and Hope Fm, but harboured a dream of going into business. She nally quit her job as a journalist
ANGELA AMBITHO, 39
MANAGING DIRECTOR, INFOTRAK HARRIS
When you think of opinion polls, Infotrak Harris is sure to come to mind. Meet Angela. Ambitho, the founder and CEO of one of the most acclaimed and authoritative pollsters in Kenya. Ms Ambitho knows few boundaries to success, believes in her dreams and thanks her parents for the lessons they instilled in her to never waiver in her focus. A graduate of University of Nairobis school of humanities and social sciences, her expertise spans marketing, business administration and strategic management. Prior to starting Infotrak, she spent 10 years with another leading research company. By the time she was just 24 years, she held a senior management post. At 28, she was the managing director.At which points, with an MBA under her belt, she turned to full-scale entrepreneurship. With education, skills and experience, I was ready, she said. Six years on, Infotrak provides research in Kenya and across East and West Africa, with a second oce in Nigeria. Angelas mission in life is to empower, motivate and inspire people into having happier and productive lives through education and honesty. She has many statements that dene her personal mission, but most importantly she believes in God, who guides her through her daily pursuits. As with all businesses, she acknowledges the challenges in having sucient working capital,
NJERI NDEHI, 36
Head of Corporate Banking, CfC Stanbic
Managing a team that is charged with the responsibility of growing CFC Stanbic Bankss corporate lending book puts Njeri Ndehi in one
NJERI NDEHI
ANGELA AMBITHO
15
ALISON NGIBUINI, 35
FILM PRODUCER, FOUNDER AL IS ON PRODUCTIONS
Alison Ngibuini is a born story teller who has spent the last ten years working as a lm ,and television producer creating lms to inspire positive change in Kenya. Her mantra is conception and projection, by turning concepts into reality, and imagination and vision into documentaries and lms. Inspired as a child by lms like The Ten Commandments and Macbeth, in 2003 she founded and became Managing Director of Al Is On Production Ltd, which has ,since become one of Kenyas leading production houses, specialises in what she calls behavioural change communication. At 35-years-old, the dening moment in her career to date was launching SIRI an educational drama series now in it 4th cycle and funded by US-AID to target both urban and rural audiences. Kenyas top educational series, the show uses drama to highlight issues of reproductive health to spur behavioural change. Alison also produced SHUGA targeting 16-24 year olds with the aim of increasing their personal risk perception of contracting HIV, as part of the HIV-free generation campaign. I have experienced moments where people
SYLVIA MULINGE, 34
GENERAL MANAGER OF ENTERPRISE BUSINESS, SAFARICOM
Making tough career choices right from university can be the rst step to success, if Sylvia Mulinge is anything to go by. For when Ms Mulinge turned down an oer to take a Bachelor of Medicine course at Nairobi University and instead opted for a Bachelor of Food Science and Technology she began on a road to her job today, as the General Manager of Enterprise Business at Safaricom. The 34-year old, an alumni of Mary Mount
SYLVIA MULINGE
16
JULIE GICHURU, 37
TELEVISION ANCHOR
Julie Gichuru is well-known as a media personality. Less well known is the background in law and business that saw her enter the media with a fresh perspective and a determination to contribute to the development of the industry. Julie earned her Law degree and an MBA from the University of Wales in Cardi - specializing in World Trade Law and International Business after studying at Loreto onvent Msongari and Imani School, Thika. But on returning to Kenya, she shied way from the local judicial system, which she felt riddled with corruption and ineciency. Passionate about justice and the stories of the Kenyan people she decided instead, in 1999, to go into the media. With her legal and business background, she was quickly taken on by KTN,
ALISON NGIBUINI
walk up to me and tell me after watching an episode of SIRI they want to take an HIV test, or someone saying an episode they watched of SHUGA has made them reconsider their lifestyle. Stories that I tell through lm help people to view the world through a universal approach and I hope that many people are able to change their lifestyles positively. This has a domino eect as it helps to steer change not only through oneself but spreads through society, said Alison, who has managed to package reproductive health issues into a palatable but thorough and thought-
SAKINA HASSANALI
Agency in Africa in the worlds most prominent global real estate awards. Sakina cites consistent innovation, learning new tricks of the trade and keeping in the know on related global advancements as her pillars to success.
JOAN NJOROGE, 39
MANAGING DIRECTOR ENGEN AFRICA
At 39, Ms Njoroge is among the few female executives to have penetrated the male domain of the oil industry. Across the 22 aliates of Engen Africa, she is the only female MD, now leading one of the ve largest Engen aliates. Her recent appointment as the head of Engen in Mauritius, which is a new addition to the groups portfolio, sees her charged with fully integrating and transforming the Mauritian operation to increase shareholder value. This challenge follows from four years as General Manager of Engen Petroleum in Burundi, where, with a background in marketing, she helped take the company to market leadership with a 60 per cent market share. Last year, she was a top three nalist for the prestigious leadership award at Engens International Business annual gala event. A graduate in Education from Kenyatta University, Ms Njoroge, who also holds an MBA from the UKs Leicester University, decided to quit teaching after just three years. However, she joined the oil industry purely by chance, after attending a career fair in London. She went hoping for an interview with Citibank, which was recruiting students based in the UK. Instead, I interviewed for two dierent companies, amongst them Engen, she says. She started at the Engen head oce in South Africa, where she held dierent posts for six years,
SAKINA HASSANALI, 27
MARKETING MANAGER, HASSCONSULT
Perhaps one the youngest marketing managers in corporate Kenya, Sakina Hassanali is the women who launched the countrys rst property index, the HassConsult Property Index, which is now the most widely cited real estate tracker in the Kenyan market. After graduating from Cardi University in the UK, where she studied Economics and Management, she joined Redsky Advertising as an account manager. In 2007, she then moved into the family-owned business, at a time when she says investments in some segments of the property market were clearly founded on misinformation. Even before she launched the property index, she had revamped the HassConsult website as a centre of real estate industry information, adding detailed proles on every Nairobi suburb, offering average land prices, building regulations and listings of local features. She also created a real estate news platform, drawing together the best of the information available everywhere on the local real estate market. It was only then that she went public with the agencys very rst residential property price index, after cataloguing 17 years of its own internal data and drawing in IT experts and market analysts. The index changed market decision-making by readers of the information, and this prevented over-investment in certain segments, which had earlier caused gluts in the market, she said. According to Sakina, the core of marketing is communication with the consumer, with her position as marketing manager enabling her to inform both buyers and investors in the property market on the best deals. Though she joined the rm when it was already a visible player in the local property market, it has been her innovation in the property index and marketing that last year saw HassConsult voted as the Best Real Estate
JULIE GICHURU
JOAN NJOROGE
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DOROTHY GHETTUBA, 32
CEO/PARTNER SPIELWORKS MEDIA
Having switched career from an early start in nance, Dorothy Ghettuba is now one of Kenyas rising lm producers already picked out in Canada as one of its top 20 emerging lm makers and, at just 32, the CEO and cofounder of lm production company Spielworks Media, responsible for many of Kenyas more prominent shows. Dorothy got o to a ying start academically, attending Alliance Girls High School before reading Communications and Political Science at St Andrews University in the UK. She then went to work at venture capital company Jeerson Partners in Toronto, before moving to the Alberta Cancer Board in Edmonton. But three years ago, she moved into the creative arts, and has since produced several documentaries, four television shows and has a row of lms in development. As the Executive Producer, I oversee all the companys productions. I have produced several projects on TV, including Block D, a 13-part, 30-minute drama series on KBC, as well as Higher Learning, a drama series on NTV and SAINTS, the medical drama currently airing on NTV and Zuku. I was also the Executive Producer behind the Know Your Constitution Drama Series that was broadcast across all the ma-
In Kenya. she worked for Software Technologies Ltd, emerging as a guru in Oracle Financial Software and working with institutions like KCB and National Bank. But I had a dierent calling, said Sona, regardless of the nancial windfall the career guaranteed. She began to gat increasingly interested in nutrition and how food could be used to heal, and one day, after conducting training with the Finance Ministry she simply called it a day and decided it was time to take the plunge. She went back to school to study nutrition for 4
SONA PARMA
DOROTHY GHETTUBA
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KANINI MUTOONI,35
FOUNDER MYAZIMIA MICRO FINANCE SOFTWARE COMPANY
When she rst appeared in the Business Dailys annual ranking of Kenyan women who are running on the fast lane in their careers, Kanini was the Audit Director at private bank Kleiwort Benson in London. But rather than keep enjoying the perks and comfort of being at the top of a big corporation, Kanini left the job in December 2010 for the world of entrepreneurship. Her rst act in the eld was the launch of myAzimia.org, a software company aimed at micronance institutions and peer to peer lending sites that require a technology platform for their lending operations. In February 2011 Kanini launched Inuka.org a micro-nance platform dedicated to facilitating lending to female owned businesses in sub-saharan Africa. Kanini says this second venture is her way to giving something back and playing a part in building the African continent. The 35 year old steadily scaled the nancial corporate ladder in the past 10 years during which she delivered audit services to corporate clients in Nairobi and a number of European cities. The hallmark of Kanini has been one of setting new records everywhere she goes. She was promoted to director at Kleinwort Benson within 10 months of joining the company -- a feat that takes most people 10 years or more. And it isnt only at Kleinwort that she has been shinning. While working in London for Merill Lynch, Kanini was promoted to vice president just nine months after joining the global nancial giant.
HITAL MURAJ
HITAL MURAJ, 38
HEAD OF NETWORKING ACADEMY, CISCO EAST AFRICA
In her role at Cisco East Africa, Hital Muraj has earned widespread recognition as an expert in driving public-private partnerships and in working with the youth in under-served areas, for she is the manager responsible for implementing Ciscos education initiatives and strategy across East and North Africa. Working with non-prot organizations such as Inveneo and the Aga Khan Foundation, her mission has been to nd ways of using the power of ICT to address basic human needs, such as health care and education. Her programmes have been so successful that they have attracted senior Government attention across the region, focused on replicating her models. Among many other initiatives, Ms Muraj is credited with the launch of the worlds rst Cisco Networking Academy for the deaf, which has enabled a traditionally forgotten group of people to get access to ICT Education to empower them for the future. Ms Muraj is not only committed to working with girls, women and the youth in un-
EVA KIPLAGAT
years. Her passion for nutrition studies was not dampened by the rigours of having to y back and forth to the UK to do coursework and complete clinical hours. On completing the course, she founded Nutrition by Sona, a health clinic that advises clients on quality wholesome diet and its eect on preventing illnesses and allergies. Her daily routine sees her giving personalized treatments and reports for clients. Professionally, she cites British Nutritionist Patrick Holford as her inuence, and her father as her biggest role model due to the integrity and honesty he instilled in her. She also writes for the Nation, Cosmopolitan, Eve and has made appearances on TV stations including KTN, M-Net and NTV. She is registered with British Association of Nutritional Therapists and Nutritional Therapy Council, both UK bodies. And, there is now no chance of her ever going back to being an economist. (then Deloitte &Touche). I enjoyed the work immensely and remember thinking that this is what I wanted to do A former student of Alliance Girls, she was born in Nairobi, but grew up in Meru. She graduated from Daystar with a degree in Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in marketing. She then worked at Promotion Dynamics as an executive assistant, where she managed marketing promotions and public relations. Her hard work and competence brought rewards and in 1996 she landed a job at Scan Group as a Marketing Account Manager, a job she held up to 2000. She then worked with AMREF as donor co-ordinator for two eyars. Here, I got exposed to the world of NGOs and the private sector, says soft-speaking Eva. By that time, Eva had also earned a Masters degree from Leeds University in the UK, and later joined Uchumi supermarket as Marketing Services Manager, where she was charged with championing customer-centric initiatives. It was a newly created role and provided an excellent opportunity for her to lead. Eva then worked at Consumer Insight as associate research director for a year, responsible for sales and the marketing of syndicated research studies, managing research projects and day-today client management. In May 2007, she nally registered her own company. It wasnt easy: she had limited resources and had to multitask across many roles, such as sales and marketing, operations, nance and accounting. Customer Consultancy was also entering a unique eld that was not so popular in the Kenyan market at that time, presenting Eva with an uphill task in changing perceptions. But I am happy today when I hear executives of our leading companies talk of customer satisfaction, she says smiling. Its a dream come true.
EVA KIPLAGAT, 39
CUSTOMER SERVICE CONSULTING COMPANY
Eva Kiplagat, now 39 years old, sits at the helm of her own organization, the Customer Service Consulting Company, intent on revolutionizing the agenda of Kenyan businesses to become customer-centric instead of money-centric. When a customer is satised by the service, the money will ow in, she says. Her personal and corporate vision is Transforming Africa through Service Excellence. I get goose bumps when I say this out loud because I am aware of how bold it is, she says. Evas interest in consultancy started when she was an undergraduate at Daystar University and working part-time as an Associate Assistant for various consultancy companies, including Deloitte
KANINI MUTOONI
19
MS PATRICIA KIWANUKA, 34
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT VP PINEBRIDGE INVESTMENTS EAST AFRICA
Patricia Kiwanuka, 34, knows about risk, and gain. As one of Kenyas rst generation of actuarial students, she later moved on to some of the regions largest funds, most recently growing PineBridge Investments to over $1bn (Sh91.8bn) in assets under management. As the head of Africa business development and the Vice-President for PineBridge Investments in East Africa, which she joined in 2007, she co-ordinated the launch of the rms operations in Uganda the same year, and is responsible for the client service and business development for the multi-national rm across the entire SubSaharan Africa region. Last year, the fund passed the $1bn mark on the back of the successful transition and rebranding from its previous prole as AIG. I love my job, because every day is an interesting experience. My role in business development has developed to include marketing, client service and general oce administration. I also look at developing new products and possible entry into new markets as part of the rms growth strategy, she said. The main challenge, she says, is the increased competition in fund management with only a limited number in the region of the medium to large size institutions that are the target clients for fund management. There are now 17 registered fund managers in the Kenyan market, but most of the growth in the private sector has been in the SME segment. Like in most other industries, we are currently facing the challenge of price undercutting. It is our hope that as clients become more aware of the technical aspects of investment and fund management, this will form a key part of the evaluation criteria, making pricing less signicant in terms of evaluation, she said. Ms Kiwanuka, who attributes her success to hard work, Gods grace, support from family and lots of luck, began her career in 1999 with Alexander Forbes Financial Services (EA) Ltd as an actuarial student, advancing to become an Actuarial Consultant. Her duties included actuarial valuations for insurance companies and retirement funds, the facilitating of training workshops and providing support in the development of new business lines. Patricia holds an MBA (Finance) and a BSc in maths and statistics from the University of Nairobi. She sat her actuarial exams with the Institute of Actuaries, UK and is currently enrolled as a Level III candidate under the prestigious global CFA programme for chartered nancial analysts
PATRICIA KIWANUKA
the managing director of Proctor & Gamble East Africa is just one of the many conrmations that she deserved to be on the Business Dailys list of women to watch three years ago. This latest appointment has made her a lady of many rsts. Apart from being the rst female MD of her company, she is also the youngest MD in its history, and the rst to take on her current role within such a short span of time working for just one employer. Ms Sangale was rst recruited to join the P&G oce in Kenya as a graduate recruit something over a decade ago, and has since worked her way up the company to become the regional Managing Director for the Sh240 billon company, responsible for growing its inuence among consumer brands in the region. She now leads the multinationals operations in four East African countries, handling 54 distributors and over-seeing 30 direct reports. A graduate of USIU and later Oxford University, she joined Procter and Gamble on its University Recruitment Program, and describes herself as the ultimate P&G citizen. P&G is the worlds number one FMCG company, with an estimated turnover of $3bn a day. Its range of products includes sanitary pads, diapers, detergents, hair and beauty care products. Ms Sangale worked for P&G in South Africa, Nigeria and Poland, managing its brands, before taking up her current assignment based in Nai-
ANNE MURAYA, 39
AUDIT PARTNER, DELOITTE CONSULTING
In the aftermath of the global economic meltdown that was mainly attributed to heavy creative accounting and nancial engineering on Americas Wallstreet, a debate has been raging as to whether
SUZANNE KILOLO-KADENGE, 33
INVESTOR RELATIONS MANAGER, SAFARICOM
In a year when turbulence has been the most enduring characteristic of the economy, Suzanne Kilolo has certainly not lacked issues to iron out with investors. It was in this period also that Safaricoms long serving chief executive Michael Joseph bowed out handing over the mantle to the hands of Bob Collymore and the tari wars in the key voice market went a crescendo wracking investor nerves. But Suzanne has remained focused on nding new and better ways to communicate with shareholders easing the mammoth task of handling the more than 700,000 shareholders. Under her leadership, Safaricom has continued to strike many rsts in investor relations. It all began two years ago when the company held its rst AGM. With eyes on costs, Safaricom pioneered the payment of dividends to shareholders through the popular mobile money transfer platform M-Pesa and for the rst time sent out electronic versions of the annual report. The innovation eort climbed a notch higher this year with last months live streaming on the web of the announcement of annual results a move that like the payment of dividends through
ANNE MURAYA
ADEMA SANGALE, 34
MANAGING DIRECTOR, PROCTOR AND GAMBLE SUZANNE KILOLO-KEDENGE
Adema Sangales promotion last year to become
ADEMA SANGALE
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ROSA NDUATI-MUTERO , 31
PARTNER AT A&K
For the 31-year-old commercial lawyer Rosa Nduati-Mutero, the decision to make clients the central focus of her every legal assignment has paid o big time. She is today ranked as a leading corporate lawyer by Chambers Global 2011 and IFLR1000, the two international legal publications that rank lawyers according to clients review. Rosa joined Anjarwalla & Khanna (A&K) Advocates one of the largest law rms in Kenya, with 45 lawyers - as a trainee pupil, and quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the rms 12 partners, aged just 29. Among her responsibilities in the Corporate and Commercial department, Rosa handles mergers and acquisitions and was at the centre of one of the largest M&As ever seen in the local banking industry, when in 2007 her department successfully nalized the process of acquiring 24.99 per cent stake of Equity Bank by British Private Equity rm Helios Investment Partners for $178.7m (Sh14 bn). It was the most challenging assignment of my career. Its record size meant we had to work extra hard to convince regulators (CBK and CMA) to let it proceed, with due diligence taking up to two months to conclude, recalls Ms NduatiMutero. But even before undertaking this task, Anne was already an achiever in her own right. By 2005, she had qualied both as a Certied Public Accountant and a Certied Public Secretary just two years after graduating with a law degree from the University of Nairobi. She was seconded to the UK-based law rm of Stephenson and Harwood in 2008 to work directly under the head of the Corporate Department and thereafter took assignments in Burundi, DRC Congo, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Ethiopia. Behind her easy smiles, Rosa is a workaholic, a committed Christian and a mother. The third born in a family of three girls, she attributes her rapid career progression to the strength of her relationship with her husband and to the strict childhood discipline instilled by her mother, who
FAITH BASIYE-OMOLO
quality time with them. I spend most Sundays with my daughter and husband and whenever Im travelling I get the latest ights so I can spend more time with the family before I leave. I also try to attend all my daughters school functions. Having supportive siblings also helps a lot. health. Since returning to Nairobi, Dr Yatich has worked for the African Population & Health Research Center in Nairobi and on the US-led programme PEPFAR, training health care workers in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care. Yatich, whose BSc was in environmental health, says her success has been achieved through determination and hard work, going back to her primary school days in Baringo county, and thanks to the support of her parents. Together these saw her concentrate on one thing long enough to achieve it, she says. Among her proudest achievements was being able to nancially support an HIV-positive Zambian girl orphaned by HIV at the time she was working in Zambia. She challenges everyone to do something in their circumstances and with the little they have in order to make a dierence.
FAITH BASIYE-OMOLO
AUDIT PARTNER, DELOITTE
As one of Kenyas leading fraud busters, Faith Basiye-Omolo, 38, chairs the Fraud and Security Committee of the Kenya Bankers Association and leads a forensic department at KCB lauded as one of the best in the industry. Born in Nairobi, the eldest of 3 girls and 3 boys, Faiths leadership skills and sense of responsibility were instilled during her primary school days at the Catholic Parochial School in Nairobi and Victoria Primary School in Kisumu, she says, and entrenched at Loreto High School, where she was a prefect for most of her four years. Having graduated in law from the University of Nairobi, she was admitted to the bar in 1998, an event she describes as the highlight of her life. For the next two years, she practiced commercial law at Archer and Wilcock, before joining the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority as an investigator, where she was trained by leading international investigative agencies, and involved in the investigations of major corruption cases. It was a signicant move, marking a specialism that she has made her own. She has since emerged as a leading advocate for the anti-fraud profession, and was among the rst Kenyans to be certied as a Fraud Examiner by the Association of Certied Fraud Examiners (ACFE) (USA), and now sits on the local board as a Training Director. She is also an active member of the Law Society of Kenya. Her career posts, likewise, have been concentrated in the ght on fraud. She spent two years at KPMG as an Assistant Manager in Forensic Services, and in 2006, joined Safaricom as a Fraud Manager where she says, with pride, that she put the department on the path of best practice. In 2007, her restless feet led her to KCB Bank, where she set up the forensic services department to manage fraud risks and investigations across the groups subsidiaries in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Southern Sudan. She is married to a Nairobi Advocate and Management Consultant, Amos Omolo and they have a daughter Amy Imani Omolo. I always try to create time for my family and do my best to share
DR NELLY YATICH, 33
RESEARCHER, KEMRI
Dr Nelly Yatich had earned a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Alabama in the US by the time she was 29. Now the country director for the University of Washington, attached to the Coptic Hope Center for Infectious Diseases, she is driving programmes designed to curb the rise of HIV/AIDS and other epidemics. Its a mission she says is driven by the preventability of so many diseases, from HIV/AIDS to Malaria. She now works ceaselessly to inuence policy making and contribute to the improvement of government programmes aimed at dealing with preventable diseases. Dr Yatich spent 8 years conducting epidemiology research for her Doctorate in Public Health, before returning to Kenya at the beginning of last year. She has worked in many of the countries worst hit by HIV/Aids epidemic such as Botswana, Zambia, Burkina Faso, and Benin. Her work has been recognized by the Phi Beta Delta, an international honor society dedicated to recognizing scholarly achievement in international education by giving them scholarships, and Delta Omega, which honors excellence in public
NELLY YATICH
21
ANGELA WAKI, 30
CORPORATE LAWYER & PARTNER, COULSON HARNEY
Corporate deals have been fewer and far between in the past 12 months, but that has not prevented Angela Waki from holding rm to her fame as an enduring deal maker. A partner at law rm Coulson Harney, Angela continues to play a pivotal role in big corporate investigations and match-making for big ticket mergers and acquisitions. In the past four years, Angela has been part of the deal makers who have helped midwife big ticket acquisitions such as Essars 50 per cent purchase of the Kenya Petroleum Reneries Limited from the Kenya government.
ANGELA WAKI
22
CAROLE KARIUKI, 36
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, KEPSA
Carole Kariuki, the 36-year-old CEO of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), always wanted to have an impact. Even as a child she wanted to change lives for the better. Today, as one of the countrys leading lobbyists and programme formulators, she represents the interests of one of Kenyas largest constituencies. After graduating in Economics and Sociology, from Nairobi University, Carole joined Barclays Bank of Kenya, where she came to the managements attention as one of three sta who helped navigate the backlog of customer transactions brought on by the bankers strike in 1998. The bank oered her the chance to join its management trainee programme, but it was an oer she turned down, feeling her service to the bank was fullled. She instead pursued her interest in leadership by joining the leadership training programme at her church, Nairobi Chapel. The programme gave her valuable knowledge in leadership, fund raising, managing projects and people, and saw her devote the next two years to fundraising events, project cycle, team work and development work. She was then awarded a full scholarship for both her masters and PHD at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, USA where she graduated with a Masters in Public Administration and International Aairs, but decided to postpone her PHD and return to the country to be part of the change taking place in the rst half of the last decade. She returned to Kenya with the Sagamore Institute for Public Policy and Research on a programme in Eldoret. The programme took her to South Africa and later Rwanda and in 2005 led to a partnership with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance. She later joined the small team at KEPSA in the programs department, primarily to develop partnerships between the private sector and government to inuence Kenyas public policy and economic agenda. In 2008, Carole consulted for Africa Development Assistance to assist constituencies in developing strategic priorities for development and in January 2010 was conrmed as KEPSAs CEO. My greatest challenge is dealing with the perception of being a younger CEO than most and that I look younger than my age, she says.
BANCY GAKURU
where she headed the Marketing function and did HR duties within the Admin department as an Administrator, before joining Mabati Rolling Mills as the Human Resources Manager and then to Seven Seas Technologies as the Chief Talent Ocer. While at Brookhouse, Ms Gakuru was nominated to be part of the Council of International Schools accreditation team for Africa -- a team that visited schools around Africa to evaluate the schools for accreditation and re-accreditation. This role saw her participate in the evaluation of the International School Lusaka Zambia and International Community School Abuja, Nigeria. Ms Gakuru also takes pride in the fact that it was during her tenure at Mabati Rolling Mills, that the company won the coveted Company Of the Year Award. Away from ocial duties, Ms Gakuru is keen to extend her mentorship skills and is a member of Soaring Eagles, a group of like-minded individuals who support mentorship initiatives and support each other to build leadership through book sharing and management experiences.
JANET KABIRU, 39
HEAD OF TAX AND TREASURY, BAT
Appearing on the list of Kenyas women to watch for the third time in a row, Janet has proved to be a seasoned climber of the corporate ladder. Last year, when she featured in the list of Top 40 Under 40 Janet was the head of Tax and Treasury for Sub-Saharan Africa at the cigarette maker BAT. Now 39 years Ms Kabiru role has expanded to include heading the Indirect Tax department of BAT for Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa-EEMEA. This role puts on her shoulders the responsibility of developing and implementing BATs indirect tax strategy for the region. The mother of two says key duties in that role includes helping BAT maximize the benets of import and export incentives and that indirect tax risks across the EEMEA are eectively managed. EEMEA comprises of 86 markets with an annual turnover of GBP3.6 billion and is home to 8 of the groups strategic factory hubs. As head of Tax and Treasury, Janet also oversees
HARPREET UBHI, 30
PARTNER AT FIGIS & DALY ADVOCATES
Rising to become a partner at Daly & Figgis, one of Kenyas oldest law rms, at the age of 30 makes Harpreet one of the most outstanding candidates in Kenyas list of women to watch. An ardent reader of books on a broad range of subjects, Harpreet joined the more than a century-old rm in October 2003 as trainee pupil but has quickly climbed the ladder since she was conrmed as a regular employee ve years ago. In the legal eld, you really have to work smart before you can get your way up, she said. Eevery new client comes with dierent demands and the property lawyer says she has managed to tackle each on their own merit. Apart from her work at Daly & Figgis, Harpreet sits in the Conveyancing Committee of the Law Society of Kenya. Born and brought up in Kenya, Ms Ubhi prefers to weigh her professional growth against her peers of Asian origin most of who are still struggling to free themselves from the shackles of patriarchy that has limited their participation in modern economy. Women are strong creatures and in future, I would like to work closely with those involved in helping them realise their potential, says the graduate of UKs Cardi University Ms Ubhi believes her leadership prowess evolved out of childhood assignments. She served as a prefect in school, participated in presidential award schemes and was named a model UN ambassador during her days at Brookhouse School.
JANET KABIRU
HARPEET UBHI
23
MARYANNE MWANIKI
the globe. Maryanne also remains a key player in the UN Global Compact, a policy initiative for businesses committed to aligning operations with principles of human rights, labour, environment and anticorruption. Her stewardship of the companys sustainability agenda has seen StanChart win the Best Corporate Social Responsibility in Africa award at the annual African business awards in London, ahead of other nominees Goldman Sachs, Nedbank, Bamburi Cement, and Rio Tinto. The winner has developed a wide range of programmes which have had signicant social and economic benets on local communities and employees. The programmes are having a lasting impact and have high level of replicability, the judges citation read. Maryanne is also championing cultural diversity and the gender agenda within the bank. We need to ensure that women are participating fully because of the multiplier eect it has on society. She holds an MSc from the London School of Economics.
PRISCILLA NYOKABI
growing to cover brands and portfolios across seven countries in Eastern Africa. Her appointment last year to the newly created role of Marketing Director for GSK East Africa has placed the onus of building the companys vision to enhance the marketing of its pharmaceutical products on a regional level. In her role as Marketing Director, Ms Engineer is also responsible for managing the rms demand and logistics, placing her in charge of focused team of sta who are direct reports. Ms Engineer is also heavily involved in managing the rms Sub Saharan Integration project, working with colleagues from Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius and Nigeria to integrate the newly acquired dermatology company Stiefel into GSK commercial and supply chain operations.
THRITY ENGINEER, 37
REGIONAL MARKETING DIRECTOR, GSK PHARMA EAST AFRICA
Thrity Engineer joined GlaxoSmithKline as a medical representative selling various pharmaceutical brands to health care professionals. But it was not long until her scientic academic background gave way to her career interest in marketing, a eld where she has been practicing for the last eight years. Ms Engineers job titles at GSK have shifted over the last few years, with her responsibilities
EMMA MILOYO
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