The African Leadership Academy (ALA) has appointed a Kenyan as its third Chief Executive Officer.
NAIROBI, GAUTENG, SOUTH AFRICA, July 9, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ — The African Leadership Academy (ALA) has appointed a Kenyan as its third Chief Executive Officer.
Bilha Ndirangu who was appointed on June 15, becomes the first Kenyan and first woman to head the academy, succeeding the institution’s co-founder, Chris Bradford.
Prior to the appointment, Bilha was the CEO of Africa’s Talking (AT), a Pan-Africa mobile technology company that supports software developers to bring their business ideas to life and build them to sustainable ventures.
In the seven years she worked at AT, Bilha oversaw an incredible growth of the company from a workforce of about eight to over 100 employees and grew its presence in over 20 African markets.
The new ALA CEO also worked as the Senior Project Manager of Dalberg Global Development where she conceptualized and saw the initial implementation of Equity Foundation’s Wings to Fly Scholarship project that has up to date supported more than 26,000 needy and bright Kenyan children to access secondary and university education.
Ms. Ndirangu brings a wealth of pan-African experience derived from years of working on various project across the continent. Some of the countries in which she has worked include Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Canada, USA and Switzerland.
The ALA Board of Trustees Chair, Khumo Shongwe, said that Bilha’s experience in building a pan- African company and working with senior leaders across the continent has uniquely prepared her to lead the African Leadership Academy.
Upon her appointment, Bilha said that Africa presents a lot of opportunities and has great untapped potential encapsulated in her richest resource; her youth. She went on to add that no nation will be able to thrive in the future without technology and so now is the right time to raise the right leaders and global shapers who will secure Africa’s place at the table.
“Coming back to Africa was informed by what I saw then, that is even clearer now; the need for Africa to embrace her true identity and leverage our competitive advantage at the global stage” said the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School’ graduate, adding that she believed in young minds and their role in transforming and building Africa.
She said that ALA offers the kind of education that every African child deserves and is optimistic that the academy will expand the impact on its education model across Africa.
Bilha has been hailed as a role model for ALA’s students as she is seen as one who embodies the academy’s values of integrity, curiosity and excellence.
“We are honored to see her step into the CEO’s role at ALA and we know that she will lead the academy to new heights and strengthen our track record of pan-African impact” said Fred Swaniker, ALA co-founder, pointing out that Bilha was the exact type of leader that the academy needed.
Her appointment came following a rigorous exercise aimed at identifying a talented individual to take that role.
“This was one of the most rigorous recruitment processes I have ever seen in my career. She exemplifies all the attributes that the ALA CEO in this day and age requires; youthfulness, business acumen, laser vision and pan-African cooperate leadership experience ,” remarked Brian Waweru, an Alumni representative in the academy’s Board of Trustees who sat in the search team.
Mary
Glass House PR Ltd
Info@glasshousepr.co.ke
Visit us on social media:
Facebook
Bilha Ndirangu appointed first woman, first Kenyan CEO of Africa Leadership Academy
You just read:
News Provided By
July 09, 2021, 17:09 GMT
EIN Presswire’s priority is source transparency. We do not allow opaque clients, and our editors try to be careful about weeding out false and misleading content. As a user, if you see something we have missed, please do bring it to our attention. Your help is welcome. EIN Presswire, Everyone’s Internet News Presswire™, tries to define some of the boundaries that are reasonable in today’s world. Please see our Editorial Guidelines for more information.