KENYA: KIDERO'S WIFE; SUSAN MBOYA ON MAKING IT BIG IN CORPORATE WORLD

KIDERO'S WIFE; SUSAN MBOYA ON
MAKING IT BIG IN CORPORATE
WORLD
It’s a privilege to come from a
famous and probably rich family.
Some of us wouldn’t work a day in
our lives if this kind of luck came
our way and we would become
versions of Paris Hilton the heiress
of the Hilton Hotels.
Meet Dr Susan Mboya Kidero. What
maybe stands out are her last two
names. Kidero and Mboya, she’s
been Susan Mboya for long until
she acquired her governor
husband’s name Kidero in August
2011 when the two tied the knot.
Some go ahead to say the most
important male influence in a girl’s
life is her father. Just take a look at
the woman who wowed us in court
Kethi kilonzo, and who did she have
to learn form? Her father.
Her Accomplishments
An accomplished woman in her own
right, Susan is a graduate of the
University of Connecticut where she
studied pharmacy. She later went on
to earn her Master’s and Doctoral
degrees in industrial pharmacy from
the Massachusetts College of
Pharmacy. She was once the global
marketing director for Oral B Power
Brushing at Proctor & Gamble, and
led a team in developing and
executing an African American
strategic plan for Proctor &
Gamble.
A woman of accomplishments she
has proven to be. Being the
recipient of Ebony Magazine’s 5th
Annual Outstanding Women in
Marketing and Communications
Corporate Marketing Award and was
the first employee of Proctor &
Gamble to make it to the American
Advertising Foundation’s Hall of
Achievement for young
professionals under forty.
As if that’s not enough, she is an
executive for Coca-Cola and just
recently she was named to chair
Liberty Insurance board.
The insurance firm said it tapped
Susan Mboya-Kidero, an executive
of Coca Cola, to chair its board as
Mr Kiereini continues to reduce his
presence in corporate Kenya’s
boardroom.
Dr Mboya-Kidero will join Nelius
Kariuki of Kenya Re and Uchumi
Supermarkets’ Khadija Mire as the
only women serving as chairpersons
among the 61 companies listed on
the NSE.
From a speech during the Alpha
Diva Fever Mentorship Luncheon,
we gathered this much about Susan
Mboya Kidero.
What does she believe in?
I believe deeply in this ability for an
individual, to be powerful beyond
measure… as I have seen it played
out time after time. As someone
who has seen and experienced many
disappointments in life, I have often
been guilty of “thinking small”,…
based on pre-determined measures
of my potential. The school you
attended. Your grade point average.
Your job. Your age. That’s what
defines us right?
But time and time again, I have seen
these paradigms proven wrong; I
have seen them ripped to shreds,
and put back together in a way that
makes them unrecognizable. And
most often, I have seen this happen
when one individual makes up his or
her mind to defy the odds.
About her father Tom Mboya.
I always knew that my father came
from very humble beginnings, and
like many of your parents no doubt,
worked hard to get through school.
My father was educated by catholic
priests in his village, and had to
drop out of school at 16 in order to
work, so he could pay school fees
for his younger siblings
I don’t know what my father saw,
what his vision was. I am sure he
expected that these young people,
who were going to college as he had
never done, would come back to
Kenya and form the post
independence government,
becoming cabinet ministers, vice
presidents, university Presidents
and so they did.
Was she always ambitious?
I didn’t have any grand ambitions. I
only planned to follow my fellow
students into the world, get a job,
settle down and get married. To be
honest, that’s all I was ever
expected to do, and I was perfectly
fine with that. But life has a strange
way of ignoring what was meant to
be and throwing curve balls that you
never see coming, and before you
know it…you’re so far off course
you have to re-chart all over again.
When did all that change?
Just as I graduated from college the
Kenya Government changed hands,
and suddenly my comfortable
existence was gone. House, cars,
everything and my Mom was
“retired”. Suddenly I was in graduate
school, fending for myself… but as
fate would have it, I was offered a
teaching assistant-ship, and so
became independent of my family,
living on my own in Boston at the
tender age of 21.
There you have it, a successful
career woman with beauty and
brains to match.