Highlight of the week (HOW)! - Catch your biggest stories here.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Former President of Liberia.
Women are not new to leadership; think of Margaret Thatcher, the longest serving British Prime Minister and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first elected female head of state in Africa. This goes to show how women are just as qualified to lead as men.
Every International Women’s Day serves as a reminder that much still needs to be done to achieve equality in the workplace. However, today’s story is not about underrepresentation but rather about celebrating women who have overcome the barriers and bias to break the proverbial ‘glass ceiling’ to take up leadership leadership positions and dominate roles previously considered to be for men.
1. Rita Kavashe, Managing Director, Isuzu East Africa. Rita joined the automotive industry in 1995 when she joined General Motors East Africa (currently known as Isuzu East Africa) as a Sales Representative.
2. Sylvia Mulinge, Chief Customer Officer, Safaricom. Before joining Safaricom in 2006, Sylvia had had a remarkable corporate career at Unilever as the Regional Brand Manager, laundry division, based in South Africa.
3. Carole Kariuki, Chief Executive Officer, KEPSA and Non-Executive Director, East African Cables. As a corporate executive, Carole has amassed a wealth of experience in leadership which has seen her sit on several boards including IS (Internet Solutions) Kenya and Special Economic Zones Authority, Kenya where she is the board chair.
4. Sheryl Kara became the first woman to be elected by Facebook’s board of directors as the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook. Before joining Facebook, Sheryl was already winning at Google as the Vice President of global online sales and operations.
5. Sanna Marin, Prime Minister, Finnland. Her popularity across the world is because of the fact that she was the youngest Prime Minister in the world and her coalition government is only comprised of women all under 40 years.
6. Karun Mungai, Artist. Being listed on the annual Forbes Africa 30 under 30 as a game changer is no mean feat. Karun earned the right to be on that list in 2019 under the creative category. Karun, who was formerly part of Camp Mulla, has graced many stages locally and internationally.
7. Lorna Irungu, Managing Director, Gina Din Group. Lorna is no stranger to Kenyans especially those who loved the Omo Pick-A-Box and Club Kiboko shows in the late 1990s which she used to host gracefully. Her story is very inspirational since she overcame crippling kidney failure and three kidney transplants to start her own company Siwa Communications. In February 2018 she was appointed as the Managing Director of the dominating Gina Din Group, a public relations and communications firm.
More and more organizations are playing their part in ensuring equality is achieved, even at the C-suite level. Our friends at Burn Manufacturing are leading the pack with 60% of their 300 employees being women. (Psst! They’ve got over 10 job opportunities open).
