Introducing Qhala's New Board Members
Three years ago, we started out with a very ambitious goal ; to support Africa’s mid-level and large enterprises in their digital transformation journeys to help them improve their customer experience and solve complex human problems through technology. Today, the vision remains so? clear as we introduce our new board members who bring strong strategic experiences from a broad range of industries to help us explore new business opportunities, align our internal systems and tap into new markets.
Join us in welcoming our new board members highlighted below:
Name: Caroline Mbindyo
Title: CEO
Company: Amref Health Innovations
Background:
Caroline is an experienced leader at the intersection of global health, innovation, technology and international development. She has extensive experience in driving complex program deployments in multiple countries, finding, testing and scaling innovations and developing new business opportunities through public and private partnerships in emerging markets. She has over 20 years of experience running and growing entrepreneurial ventures in the nonprofit and commercial space and applying innovative approaches for profit, purpose and sustainability.?
Caroline is also a Board member of Equalize Health and D-Tree International.?
Name: Ron Magnus
Title: Chairman of The Board
Company: Kentegra Biotechnology Holdings LLC
Background:?
Ron Magnus is the founder of FMI’s Leadership and Organizational Development practice. This practice is focused on developing the strategic capability of leaders worldwide serving some of the largest engineering and construction firms in the world. Ron also serves on several boards as a director and trusted advisor.
Since joining FMI, Ron has not only pioneered FMI’s global growth initiatives — which currently include Southeast Asia, Europe, Canada and the Middle East — but also created the Leadership Institute, which is the industry’s premier leadership development program focused on improving the quality of individual and corporate leadership for the construction industry. The Leadership Institute has 10,000-plus alumni in industry positions of influence that are committed to building a better future for the industry.
Ron graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a bachelor’s degree in international affairs. He has a Master of Arts in religion from Liberty University and was nominated and accepted as a Wharton Fellow participant in 2004 and conferred alumni status in 2008.
Ron was awarded as a Top Global Consultant for Influence for 2018 by Consulting Magazine in London. Ron was also inducted into the National Academy of Construction in 2022.
Name: Wanjiku Mugane
Title: Senior Advisor?
Company: Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers
Background:?
Wanjiku Mugane is an Entrepreneur with strong integrity, leadership, teamwork and creativity providing financing solutions for client needs. Wanjiku is a strategic thinker and well-experienced in business development, deal execution, operations and administration. She is also an effective communicator with the ability to motivate teams to deliver.
Wanjiku is the Co-founder of Eagle Africa Capital Partners 2016 a company that undertakes Corporate finance advisory and patient capital investing. She is the Co-founder of First Africa Group and served as CEO of the East Africa regions from 1994-2009 First Africa Group is an African cross-border corporate finance advisory business (present in Johannesburg, Nairobi and Lagos). She later sold this business to Standard Chartered Plc in 2009. She has also held the CEO position in East Africa at Standard Chartered Securities, corporate finance advisory 2009-2012.
Wanjiku is an LLB graduate of the University of Nairobi and an LLM graduate from Georgetown University majoring in commercial law jurisprudence and practice.?
She has been a Member of the Standard Chartered Bank Kenya Executive Committee, which oversees the Bank's Kenya business (2009-2012).
She also has significant non-executive directorship experience gained on the boards of large Nairobi Securities Exchange listed companies as a main board member, as chairperson of board committees and as chairperson of the Board of Trustees of a Pension Fund.
Wanjiku is a Moran of the Burning Spear Kenya National Award conferred in 2003 in recognition of the pioneering role played as a woman in enterprise in developing Kenya’s Capital Markets.?
Name: Eunice Embeywa
Title: Partner?
Company: LUMALLAS ACHIENG' & KAVERE ADVOCATES
Background:?
Eunice is a Corporate commercial legal professional with a mixed skillset encompassing legal, accounting, audit and business administration. Experienced in corporate commercial practice, legal compliance, corporate Governance and Board management.
Some of her previous roles include Manager Legal Services Postal Corporation of Kenya where she spearheaded the negotiation and finalization of the contracts for integration by local banks and other partners into the Postal Corporation of Kenya e-payment platform dubbed “the Switch”.
Eunice served as Secretary to the Board Taskforce on Postal Corporation of Kenya Properties whose recommendations led to the strategic management of the Corporation’s property portfolio increasing revenue collection, minimizing waste, and offering legal solutions to longstanding property disputes
She is currently a Partner at Lumallas Achieng' & Kavere Advocates where she supports the Company Secretarial practice of their Clients by assisting them to set up business entities that suit their objectives, designing their corporate governance structures and documenting relevant policies and procedures, handling legal compliance including filing relevant returns within prescribed periods.
She has an executive MBA from the University of USIU and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Nairobi.
Name: Tony Chen
Title: Partner
Company: Verdant Frontiers
Background:?
Tony has enjoyed 20+ years creating new businesses, launching five companies with multiple exits. Tony and his family lived in rural Kenya for three years, where he built a portfolio of 15 Kenyan companies. Tony Chen is currently?a Partner at Verdant Frontiers a company that invests early-stage capital to build portfolios of large-scale businesses to deliver compelling returns for investors and life-changing jobs in Africa.
Some of Tony’s previous accomplishments include:?
Name: Dr Deborah B.
Title: Senior Business Leader
Background:?
Deborah is a? Senior Business Leader with subject matter expertise in leadership, management and consulting in both public and private sectors including, Energy, Technology and E-commerce.
She facilitates the development and implementation of cross-functional business growth, development, corporate relations, sustainability and Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) together with government and investor relations, branding, marketing & PR.
Dr, Deborah Blinks Moore is a proactive and diligent leader with top-notch skills in streamlining information, prioritising strategic goals, and approaching issues with a creative, independent, and analytical mindset.
She operates in fast-paced delivery environments, supporting delivery that optimizes functions and delivers strategic implementation leading to the strengthening of people, processes, and procedures to effectively govern core organizational activities.
She is a seasoned member of the board able to leverage a wealth of skill and experience to provide strategic oversight to ensure accountability to unite executives under a shared vision. She works to elevate business and people development, growth, and profitability.?
She has held several notable positions before as EVP of Corporate Affairs ESG, Brand/Marketing at Puma Energy, Director of International Corporate Affairs EMEA Alibaba Group, Director of Communication EMEA at eBay and the former Global VP Communications at Shell Retail.
Dr Deborah Binks Moore has an extensive educational background starting with her Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Liverpool, PhD in Microbial Physiology and Biochemistry from the University of Dundee and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biochemistry and Molecular biology from the University of Edinburgh
Name: Joram Mwinamo
Title: CEO
Company: SNDBX
Background:
Joram Mwinamo enables entrepreneurs, organizations and individuals to find what they are uniquely positioned to excel in globally. He has skills in organization development, business strategy development and Implementation, leadership development, entrepreneurship development, organisational culture
He is a board member of Amnesty International Kenya, the Leadership Program Manager of USAID/Mercy Corp where he brought together over 14,000 youth across the country and is also serving
Name: Dr. Shikoh Gitau
Title: CEO
Company: Qhala
Background:
Shikoh is the CEO of Qhala, a Digital Innovation company that catalyzes digital transformation capabilities for organizations across Africa. She has over 10 years of experience in the Research, Design, Implementation, and Management of Digital Technologies. She has established expertise in both African and Emerging Markets specialising in solving problems in Agriculture, Education, Health, Payments, Retail and Renewable energies.
She is responsible for the set-up of Safaricom Alpha, a first-of-its-kind corporate innovation hub in Africa. Where she worked as the Head of Products – Innovation and acted as the Chief Innovation Officer. Shikoh also led Safaricom’s foray into becoming a digital company, by putting together a strategy, and cross-functional teams to execute the strategy.
Previously, she worked with Africa Development Bank (AfDB), where she was leading and advising governments across Africa to adopt ICT for service delivery, she developed the Digital Government Blueprint, a strategic document to guide governments in digital transformation, now adopted by Smart Africa and already under implementation in Kenya. She has also worked with Google and Microsoft in their emerging markets teams. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her efforts in influencing Business and Government as well as Technology.
Shikoh sits on various boards in ICT companies and contributes to a number of steering committees and think tanks on Africa and technology. Shikoh holds a PhD and MSc in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Recently, she was appointed to the COVID-19 ICT Advisory Committee 10 set up by Joe Mucheru former Cabinet Secretary for ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs to facilitate containment of the spread of coronavirus in the country using information communication and technology. She also is part of the COVID-19 Modelling team, informing the Government of Kenya's policy formulation using Data.