Chris Mureithi is a highly sort after executional speaker, author of three books (What Makes You Special, The Shallow End and The Realities of the 21st Century) corporate trainer, a contributor in the Daily Nation and an entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Premiere Group Limited an outfit that offers consultancy and training services on corporate and personal development, with a key focus on growth. The Vision for Premiere Group is “Growing Africa by Growing Africans”.
Chris helps organizations build an environment of growth and peak performance through employee engagement and development. He is an investor in happy endings. He believes that we can all do better tomorrow than we did yesterday: If that was not so, what then do we need tomorrow for? Chris also believes that when we stop growing we automatically start dying and therefore we have to deliberately take control of and responsibility for our own growth. Chris Holds a Bachelor of commerce degree (First class Honors) and a Masters of Science in Marketing. He previously worked for safaricom in the Enterprise Business Unit where he was a Corporate Account Manager by the time of his departure.
As a public speaker, Chris combines a sense of humour, wit, great stage presence, a depth of content and his own life experiences to deliver electrifying, deeply inspiring and authentic executional talks to his audiences while keeping them on the edge of their seats and that is entirely because they are interested not because they want to stand up and leave. He has perfected the art of entertaining while educating. He has spoken in notable forums such as IHRM national conferences, the biggest convention of HR practitioners in East Africa.
Chris has handled diverse groups and always exceeds expectations. His clients, range from corporations, churches, academic institutions, government, NGOs and individuals. Some of the notable organizations that he has consulted for include but not limited to Safaricom, Equity, KCB, IHRM, World Bank, EABL, Sanlam, Amaco Insurance, UN, NACC, Central Bank, KRA, Nairobi International School, Makini Group of schools, International schools of Kenya, Engage, Kenya Airways, Qatar Airways, Swiss port, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM , American embassy, Embassy of Angola, various county governments etc. He has also spoken at the global platform of TED Talks.
Umra Omar is a native of Pate Island in the Lamu archipelago. She was raised in Kenya and went on to earn degrees from two prestigious American schools. After completing graduate school and working in Washington, D.C., Umra decided cubicle life was not for her. She returned to Lamu to further explore her purpose. Umra learned about a life-saving medical aid project that had been abandoned because of security concerns. In 2015, she launched Safari Doctors. Umra was selected a CNN Hero in 2016 for her work.
But Umra’s calling to implement solutions to tackle issues and implement solutions began much earlier on, during her studies at UWC Atlantic College. Umra took part in Go MAD- Go Make a Difference. She began by raising awareness back home on health issues, fundraising through various creative events. The feeling of making a change stuck with her and eventually brought her back home.
Safari Doctors is all about making the journey for change- literally travelling by sea and road to the most remote parts of the county to improve access to healthcare among marginalized communities. What is now an internationally recognized team of local staff and international medical volunteers, was once just a determined woman and a dedicated nurse on a motorbike. Umra will discuss what it is to have a calling and a desire to make a change, she’ll share the organization’s humble beginnings, and how students like those at ISK can and should believe in their potential to implement solutions to the issues and problems they encounter.
Having lived on the Kenyan Coast for seven years, Dipesh became addicted to trash. He was obsessed with what else one could do with all the flip-flops and discarded bottles that he picked off the beach. For a few years, he had a lot of fun building giant size sculptures (have a look at Mfalme the Whale) from thousands of flip-flops as well as houses, water tanks and other structures from plastic bottles. Alas, his children, he was told, could not spend their lives picking trash, and school fees had to be raised, so he and his family left the coast and moved up country where he currently runs an outdoor adventure company near Mt Kenya where its far too cold to wear flip-flop. Dipesh is current also the Director of Rift Valley Adventures which specialises in outdoor adventure and education school trips and expeditions.
Ian Oluoch is the co-founder and CEO of Greenchar. Greenchar provides Eco-friendly charcoal briquettes to households and institutions in Kenya. Growing up in rural Kenya, Ian experienced firsthand the devastating effects of using charcoal and firewood to cook on traditional cook stoves. Ian has always believed that those closest to the problem are the closest to the solution. For his work at Greenchar, Ian has received numerous awards including winning Global Minimum’s Innovate Kenya Competition, SOCAP Scholarship in San Francisco, Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program, Sidney Family Foundation Best Pitch Award and the Ye! Community Boost Camp in Amsterdam. He attended Watson Institute, the world’s first incubator leading to a degree for the world’s best social entrepreneurs. Ian is a highly energetic, adventurous and enthusiastic individual, with a range of entrepreneurial experience and passion.