DR. NJERI GITAU – TRUSTEE

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Areas of Expertise
Global Health Systems Strengthening
Private Health Sector Development
Policy Formulation, Development And Regulatory Reform
Healthcare Financing

I am an Award- Winning Public health specialist and a Rockefeller fellow on social innovation with over 18 years’ experience in the health sector. I have wide experience and in-depth knowledge of the public and private sectors in Africa and other emerging markets. My expertise is in global health systems strengthening, private health sector development, policy formulation and development, regulatory reform with a focus on quality of care, community health systems and healthcare financing. I am currently working in the Office of the President, Kenya, Presidents’ Delivery Unit as a Senior Director, I also serve on the Global Fund Technical Review panel as resilient and sustainable health systems expert and previously worked for the World Bank Group as a Senior Health Specialist, on Health Programs in the African Region, as programme manager at AMREF Health Africa and at Ministry of Health in various capacities up to National level. I chair the board of Nairobi Waldorf School Trust, non-executive director of the Center for International Health and Biosecurity-Kenya and Board advisor to Savannah Informatics. I hold a medical degree from Makerere University, Kampala Uganda and a postgraduate diploma and Masters of Science in Public health from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – University of London. I am a mother of three, I love adventure travel, gardening, cooking, reading and I am a self- taught sommelier

While at the world bank I achieved several policy and regulatory reforms namely, The Kenya Health Act 2017 which influenced the Nigeria Health Act; a regulatory framework for quality of care and patient safety piloted and scaled up in Kenya and adopted/replicated in Uganda and Mali; Managed Equipment Scheme a transformative $500m PPP in Kenya a first in Africa now being replicated across the region. I shaped private sector integration into National Health Systems in the East Africa region through establishment and strengthening Public Private Dialogue platforms in (Ethiopia and Kenya respectively) including private sector participation in policy and regulatory reforms and received an inaugural international Public Private Dialogue award for this work. I lead several health care financing reform initiatives such as reforms of the National Hospital Insurance Fund including its’ Free Maternity Program – ‘’Linda Mama” and development of its’ Supa Cova National benefit package.

Prior to joining WBG, I was a programme manager at African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) – where I managed two large national programs focusing on strengthening the national HIV&AIDS M&E framework and health care provider capacity and strengthening organizational and technical capacity of community-based organizations through a grant making and capacity building programme. I was also the gender focal point at AMREF Kenya.

I have worked at the Ministry of health in Kenya, in the sector monitoring and planning department at national level and as a District Medical Officer of Health in charge of all health service delivery and provision where working jointly with stakeholders I transformed the district health system which had a significant impact on the health outcome indicators of the district.

As the board chair of Nairobi Waldorf School Trust I have Streamlined the Financial Management System; Steered registration of the Waldorf Curriculum with National Ministry of Education; Strengthened the academic leadership to improve quality of education; Created links for mentorship and other partnerships with the Federation of South African Waldorf Schools; Initiated Establishment of the first Waldorf High School in East Africa and Steered Development of the Strategic plan 2019 to 2024. As an advisor to the board of Savannah Informatics I advise on the policy and regulatory environment in the health sector and business development through my networks nationally and internationally. Non-executive board director for Center for International Health Education and Bio-security Kenya.

POOJA BHATT – TRUSTEE

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Areas of Expertise
Insurance
InsurTech / FinTech
Entrepreneurship
Risk Management

Pooja is a qualified actuary and entrepreneur. She is Co-founder of QuantaInsure, an end-to-end digital insurance platform and Co-founder of QuantaRisk, an insurance advisory firm. She grew up in Nairobi, Kenya and returned in 2018 to use her skills and experience in the East African insurance and financial markets.
Pooja is an Insurance and Risk Management subject matter expert. Her contributions include providing InsurTech solutions such as QuantaInsure to boost the insurance penetration rate and financial inclusivity. Pooja is a mentor for the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Kenya (IRA) Bima Lab programme.

In the United States, Pooja worked at Ernst & Young and Allianz Life Insurance. She has extensive experience in the Lloyd’s of London insurance market. In 2011, she joined Willis Towers Watson, a global Actuarial consulting firm. Towards the end of 2013, she moved to XL Catlin, a top global (re)insurer. Pooja worked across various departments at XL Catlin, including the Group Reserving, Emerging Markets Reinsurance, and Insurance Pricing functions.
Over the span of her career and education, Pooja has been awarded several accolades. In 2021, she was in the Top 10 Kenyan Wallstreet Angaza Awards (Top 10 Women in Banking and Finance across East Africa). In 2018, she was featured in the Business Daily Top 40 Under 40 Women. In 2015, she was awarded the Stars of the Future (Top 30 under 30) by the Actuarial Post magazine in the U.K. Upon graduation from Cass Business School, she was awarded the RSA technical award for outstanding academic achievement and contribution to the university.

Pooja completed a BSc degree in Actuarial Science/Finance at Drake University, USA, with the highest honours of Summa Cum Laude. She subsequently moved to London, England, to study an MSc degree in Actuarial Management from Cass Business School. In 2014, she earned her Fellowship as a fully qualified actuary from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (UK).
Outside of her career, Pooja is a strong advocate for women in business and youth mentoring. She is a Board Trustee of the Kenyan chapter of New Faces New Voices, a women in finance network. Pooja spent two years as part of the City University mentorship programme and volunteers her time to mentor undergraduate students. Also, she is a trustee of Spreading Smiles, a volunteer organisation aimed at assisting and elevating low-income communities in greater Nairobi. During her time at XL Catlin, she was part of the UK chapter of the Women of the World network (WoW). While studying for her MSc degree, Pooja was the Co-President of Cass Women in Business.

KAMUZU BANDA – TRUSTEE

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Areas of Expertise
Communication Strategy Development
Public Relations
Media & Social Media Management Trainer
Editorial Content Developer

Kamuzu Banda is the Chief Operations Officer and Team Leader at Tim-Sky Media Services Limited – a Public Relations (PR) and digital marketing company operating in East Africa.
He is a widely experienced communications and media practitioner. Prior to venturing in to PR, Kamuzu spent eight years in the mainstream media both in Kenya and the UK working in the newsroom at the Nation newspapers in Kenya and BBC Look North in Leeds, UK.
Kamuzu is very experienced in developing and executing communication strategies and plans, team management as well as client relations.
He is an elected Council Member of the Public Relations Society of Kenya (PRSK) charged with developing policies and regulation that guides the practice of PR and communication management in Kenya.
Kamuzu holds BA in Cultural Studies, Communication & Media from Trinity & All Saints College (University of Leeds) in the UK and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Corporate Communications at Daystar University.

MAKENA MWORIA – TRUSTEE

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Interim Chairperson March 2021 – Jan 2022

Areas of Expertise
Program Management
Financial Inclusion
Gender Finance
Green Finance
Strategic Planning

Makena Mworia is a holder of two Masters degrees -Masters in Business Administration, an MSc in International Securities, Investment and Banking and a Bachelor’s degree in Financial Economics.
She has 15 years’ of professional experience in the International Development and Financial Services Sectors across Africa and Europe.

Throughout her career, she has held management roles in multinational financial institutions at Standard Chartered Bank and Barclays Bank as well as local and global development organizations. She has built a track record origination and client coverage, program management, product development, strategic planning, and advisory. She has conducted consultancy roles with global development organizations such as the Cherie Blair Foundation, U.K that focus on promotion of effective development among women and SMME entrepreneurs in Africa and Asia. She is currently a Director at Kenya Climate Innovation Center, coordinating as the Program Director for €27 million European Union (EU) and Danish Government funded programs supporting green finance, innovation and women and youth led agribusinesses. Thus responsible for project strategy, coordination, and setting up Eight Regional Business incubation hubs.

She is currently the Chair of such as Standard and Mutual, a corporate advisory boutique firm and previously was the General Manager, Operations and Development at Echo Network Africa (formerly Kenya Women Holding). The Institution has had catalytic impact in the lives of women and their families through microfinance and gender programs; and is internationally and nationally recognized as a premier institution that provides women and youth with financial and non-financial services.

She is passionate about women and youth economic empowerment. Thus, spearheading catalytic development efforts coordinating programs in women empowerment, financial inclusion and youth economic empowerment; and executed catalytic social enterprise initiatives that entail effective coordination and partnership building with several global actors as well as stakeholders in public, private, and not for profit sectors.

ANDIA CHAKAVA – FOUNDING CHAIRPERSON

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Areas of Expertise
Gender lens investing
Deal sourcing and fund management
Fundraising and business development
Stakeholder management and advocacy
Partnership and women economic empowerment
Entrepreneur technical assistance; program design, management and execution

Andia Laura Chakava is an Investment professional. She is the founding Chairperson of New Faces New Voices Kenya chapter (women in finance network) and is passionate about facilitating intra Africa investment, investor education and is a global thought leader in gender lens investing. She is the founding principal of AC Advisory a gender lens consultancy firm and is currently the Investment Director at the Graça Machel Trust to co-lead the organization’s gender lens investing initiative. She was the lead consultant in a 2017 publication by the Graça Machel Trust on the “Growth barriers affecting women entrepreneurs in East Africa.”

Andia is one of the first female fund managers in the Africa region and has been instrumental in the setup of two fund management companies from inception in Kenya (Old Mutual Investment Services and Alpha Africa Asset Managers) where she served in each as Managing Director. Andia is still recognized for being one of the youngest Managing Directors of a non-family owned business in Kenya at the age of 30. She is a non-executive director of Sterling Investment Bank, East African Educational Publishers and a former board member of Echo Network Africa a $30 million grant making facility ( Kenya women holding). She is a gender lens advisory board member at the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (avpa), an investment advisory board member of Kenya women’s enterprise fund a $40 million government debt fund, an investment committee member of OPES LCEF an impact COVID-19 response facility and the incoming Chair of the investment advisory council for Canada’s Equality Fund a CAD$300 million philanthropic and investment fund.

Andia has worked with various financial services institutions – banks, fund managers and development finance institutions to create gendered programs, product solutions and new frameworks to drive more capital towards women entrepreneurs in Africa. She has also worked collaboratively with various women networks to improve their agency, upskill their member base and strengthen partnerships. She is an active member of women in investments Africa and Gender Smart initiative and a mentor at Collaborative for Frontier Finance to promote the work and highlight initiatives for first time female and diverse gender lens investment managers. Andia is also a visiting lecturer at the Bertha centre for social innovation and entrepreneurship on ‘fund development’ at the University of Capetown.

She has over 18 years’ experience in fund management and over 8 years of driving women economic empowerment goals. In 2008 and 2009 she was named ‘Top 40 under 40’ by East Africa’s business daily. In 2014 she was acknowledged as one of 50 rising stars of Africa by Africa report and in 2014 and 2018 she was named Africa’s most influential woman in financial services by CEO magazine and in 2018 won the National Diar Inclusion and Diversity Business Executive champion award in Kenya. In 2019 she was named as a ‘women to watch’ by Forbes magazine in 2020.

She holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance with merit from Cass Business School in London and an honours degree in Economics from York University in Toronto. She enjoys travelling, imparting knowledge and bikram yoga.

MUTHONI KAMERE – TRUST SECRETARY

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Areas of Expertise
Corporate Governance
Legal and Regulatory Compliance
Risk Management

Muthoni is a corporate governance specialist and Principal Consultant at Soari Associates, a professional services firm providing corporate governance, legal and regulatory compliance, risk management and company secretarial support and advisory services. She also serves as a Technical Team Member of the Kenya Capital Markets Securities Sector Working Group (National Taskforce on Risk Assessment for Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing) and as a non-executive director of a FinTech currency trading platform provider.

She has over 15 years’ experience in various sectors including development finance, financial services, mining and manufacturing and hospitality. She managed the legal function and was chief compliance officer of a Nairobi Securities Exchange listed mining and manufacturing company charged with overseeing the group’s legal, regulatory and governance affairs in Eastern Africa. Prior to that, she managed the company secretarial services division at Daly & Figgis Advocates (now known as CMS Daly Inamdar Advocates). She spent several years as the Assistant Company Secretary and Data Protection Officer at CDC Group Plc in London and held positions within the corporate secretariats of several private and public listed companies in the United Kingdom. She also spent several years as an analyst at Euroclear Bank in Belgium.
She is a Founding Trustee and the Trust Secretary of New Faces New Voices, a non-profit women in finance network in Kenya, with responsibility for advising and providing support on legal, governance and administrative matters, programme management, capacity building and forming strategic partnerships. She champions the Leadership and Diversity Series in partnership with the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

Muthoni is a UK qualified Chartered Governance Professional and Chartered Secretary, member of The Chartered Governance Institute (UK), The Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (UK), Institute of Directors (Kenya) and Women on Boards Network (Kenya). She holds a Master of Laws in Banking and Finance Law and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from University College London and the University of Hull respectively.

VALENTINE NJOROGE – TRUST TREASURER

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Founder & CEO, dadasphere Media Ltd

Areas of Expertise
Writer
TV producer
Journalist focused on feminist storytelling

Valentine Njoroge is perhaps most famous for being a radio presenter in Kenya’s top 3 stations; and then publishing a sex column named Ask Valentine for about 10 years in The Star newspaper, also in Kenya. Currently she is the executive producer and co-presenter of The Loop on K24 (a national TV station in Kenya). The Loop is a current affairs show, focussed on feminist issues and it airs every Friday at 9pm. She is also a feminist commentator, discussing issues affecting the African woman and you can see her on BBC Africa’s #TheSheWord. The show airs in over 10 countries across the continent.

A gifted storyteller and communicator Valentine has worked in all forms of media throughout her 17 year career. From television production for MNet (The Patricia Show) to presenting various shows on local stations, and print where she started as a columnist and rose to features writer.
In the course of her writing career, it became clear that Kenyan women needed a space to discuss business, money and wealth creation and Valentine responded by launching Valentine’s Weekly, Kenya’s first women’s newspaper. It was during the life of the paper that she was invited to join the founding trustees of NFNV Kenya.

Valentine is also a founding member of The Graça Machel Trust’s Women in Media Network.
She is also the founder and CEO of dadasphere Media, a media company that creates platforms for African women to share their stories. The platforms include events, TV shows and digital content.

Valentine has built a career having difficult and sometimes taboo conversations in an honest, yet palatable manner. She is an alumnus of The State University of New York at Buffalo where she studied Computer Science and Philosophy. She is a passionate yogi who loves reading and is raising her son as a feminist.

WANGECI GITATA-KIRIGA – VICE CHAIRPERSON

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Areas of Expertise
Global Supply Chain & Certification
Market Systems Development
Sustainability & Climate Action
SME Development
Gender Lens Programming & Investment

Wangeci Gitata-Kiriga is a lawyer by training and a women’s champion at heart. She has focused her energy over the last 10 years on rural livelihoods and improvement through certification and trade across Africa. Eight were as part of the senior leadership of Fairtrade in Africa. Growing up in a coffee farming community has rooted Wangeci’s interest in agriculture as well as experience in the vulnerability of farmers. This disadvantaged position of farmers is the narrative that she is working very hard to change and is partnering with different organisations to do so.

A market systems development expert, Wangeci has seen first-hand the difference that fair pricing and inclusive business models can have on farming communities and supply chains. A former representative on the Fair Trade Advocacy Organisation board based in Brussels and a board representative of Common Cause Georgia, Wangeci believes in using her voice to improve representation at the table.

Working with smallholder farmers across 33 countries in Africa and the Middle East called for innovative ways to connect with and deliver services to certified groups. Leveraging on mobile technology platforms, partnering with practitioners of climate action and collaborating for results led Wangeci to continue working in the sustainability space in her consulting.

Inspired by the late Nobel Laureate, Prof Wangari Maathai, who believed that like the humming bird, we can all play our part, no matter how small, Wangeci is currently an advisory board member of Peperuka Foundation, New Faces New Voices Champion, Girls 4 Girls mentor and founder of Kijani Group, where she is leveraging her experience in agricultural trade to contribute to the progress of agri-based households, the Kenya Big Four Agenda and the SDGs.

CAROLINE AMSTRONG-OGWAPIT – CHAIRPERSON

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Areas of Expertise
Financial Services
Property Financing
Project Management
Change Management

Caroline Armstrong-Ogwapit’s expertise lies in financial services with a focus on property financing. Her experience in this space traverses the banking industry and the provision of housing within the public sector. She also brings a wealth of experience in project management and change management providing an ability to not only innovate and problem solve, but to successfully implement. She sees things through a solution-driven lens and focuses on the beneficiary impact as she delivers. She has often been not only the youngest, but also often the only woman, in many settings and has been able to gracefully overcome the biases that those two elements created and is proud of the career she has created. She has an ability to rise above gender bias yet to use the innate gifts her gender gives her to create a collaborative approach and achieve the desired outcomes. She believes that she should make the path of others easier than the one she walked herself, and is keen to share her experience and knowledge to create access to opportunities, particularly for women.

Her 25-year career spans two continents, five institutions, local and multinational companies, both the public and private sector, and the consultancy space. She started her career as an intern while still in university, and through sheer hard work steadily rose through the ranks achieving
C-suite level roles as well as various non-executive Board seats. Voted as one of Kenya’s Top 40 Under 40 women, she has had many firsts and has been responsible for half of the sub-Saharan Africa region, and for teams ranging from 4 people to over 430 people across multiple countries. Her experience covers financial services, property development, aviation, and corporate social investment work.

She has unique 360-degree experience having held key roles within the leadership team and holding board seats at the same time. Having started her career at the bottom and having risen to the top leadership levels, she has the unique ability to think strategically yet delve into the detail and to be focused yet to see different perspectives. Her leadership skills, strategic thinking and problem-solving ability enable her to translate broad concepts into specific actions that will have the greatest and most long-term impact.

In addition to her role as an NFNV Trustee, she serves as a Non-Executive Director on the following boards:-
Kenya Airways (KQ) where she remains the youngest, yet longest serving, director after having been recently re-elected to serve her third term. She chairs the Board’s Human Resources Committee (HRC), which, among others, is responsible for all leadership recruitments and importantly the union engagements, which has meant involvement in the resolution of various difficult situations.
JamboJet is a low-cost carrier operating within the East African region and holds the largest domestic market share. Caroline has the privilege of being KQ’s chosen representative on the board in order to ensure that objectives and strategies are aligned whilst optimizing efficacy of resources and capacity.

National Housing Corporation is a key player in the delivery of the country’s Affordable Housing Programme a key pillar in the nation’s Big 4 Agenda. She chairs the Board’s Finance, Strategy & Business Development Committee that is responsible for driving the strategic, funding and revenue generating activities and ensuring that the overarching vision of Housing the Nation is lived.
AIB Axys Africa, a stock brokerage, was formed in June 2020 after the merger of AIB Capital and Apex Africa and is majority owned by the Axys Group based out of Mauritius. She is honored to serve as the first ever woman Chairperson in the history of both companies. The company is focused on utilizing technology to enable access to the capital markets, especially for the youth as they begin their wealth creation journeys.
In addition to the above roles, Caroline serves on the Advisory Board of The Room. The Room is a newly-formed member of the African Leadership Group, an organization started by Fred Swaniker, the key founder on a mission to create 3 million African leaders and to introduce African talent to the world and to new opportunities.

Having often been the only woman at the table and having worked hard to achieve success in male dominated industries, she knows the obstacles many women face, and even worse, the limitations they place on themselves. She is a believer that success can be bred through collaboration not competition; it is WE thinking not US vs THEM thinking that truly creates lasting change and benefit.