Susan Mboya facts for kids
Susan Mboya is a successful business leader and someone who helps others through charity work. She is currently a top advisor for Navigators Global, a company in Washington D.C. She also owns several businesses in hotels and entertainment.
Susan Mboya has worked as a senior executive for more than 25 years. She held important roles at big global companies. For five years, she was the Global Director for Oral B Oral Care at Procter & Gamble. From 2008 to 2011, she was the General Manager of Coca-Cola South Africa. She also used to be the President of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation. There, she helped empower women in business.
Susan Mboya is the daughter of two important Kenyan leaders. Her father, Tom Mboya, helped found the Republic of Kenya. He was a well-known leader, educator, and government minister. Her mother, Pamela Mboya, was a respected diplomat. Susan Mboya was also the former First Lady of Nairobi County, which is Kenya's capital city. She serves on several company boards, including as Chair of Liberty Group.
Susan Mboya started the Zawadi Africa Educational Fund. This is a non-profit group that gives scholarships to bright girls in Africa. It helps them go to top colleges and universities worldwide. The goal is to train future female leaders from Africa. This program is inspired by a similar one her father started in 1959. That program helped many African students, including Barack Obama Sr. and Professor Wangari Mathaai, study in the U.S.
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Susan Mboya's Career Journey
Susan Mboya has been a senior leader in global business for over 25 years. She started her career at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio. There, she worked as a Brand Manager, then an Associate Director, and finally a Director. She worked in different areas, including paper products and oral care.
In 2008, Mboya joined The Coca-Cola Company. She became the General Manager for the Southern Africa region. Later, she became the President of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation. In this role, she created strong partnerships between companies and governments. These partnerships helped fund and support the foundation's projects. She raised over $120 million for the "5by20" initiative. This initiative helped empower more than 700,000 women. She worked with international groups like USAID, "GETF", DFID, TechnoServe, MercyCorps, and the International Finance Corporation.
Zawadi Africa: Helping Girls Succeed
Susan Mboya is the founder and president of the Zawadi Africa Educational Fund. This non-profit organization helps young women get a good education. The program is based on her father's "student airlifts" from the 1960s. Those airlifts helped over 800 students from East Africa study at American universities. Zawadi Africa continues this legacy by providing scholarships and leadership training. It helps academically talented girls from Africa attend top colleges around the world.
First Lady of Nairobi County
As the First Lady of Nairobi County, Susan Mboya led many important programs. She supported education and welfare for children. She also championed programs that helped empower women and girls. Her work included promoting women's health and protecting the environment in Nairobi.
Awards and Recognitions
Susan Mboya has received many awards for her work. In 2003, she was honored by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) Hall of Achievement. Ebony Magazine named her African American Marketer of the Year in 2004.
In June 2009, Lakeland University gave Mboya an honorary doctorate in humanities. This was to recognize her humanitarian work. She was also the main speaker at Meredith College in 2016. This honored her efforts with the Zawadi Africa Education Fund. In 2016, The University of Massachusetts (UMASS) in Boston also gave Mboya an honorary doctorate. This award recognized her work with the Zawadi Africa Education Fund, her efforts to empower women economically, and her charity work in Africa.