Our speakers for 2021 are yet to be announced...
In the meantime take a look at the esteemed speakers we welcomed to the stage in 2018:
Benard Odhiambo
Graduated with Bachelor of Science degree from Kenyatta University and Currently finalizing Master in Business Administration, Strategic Management from University of Nairobi. A UNIDO certified Subcontracting Partnership Exchange Advisor. Previously worked with Center for Independent Research as a field/research supervisor then moved to KenInvest as an Investor Services Officer, facilitation before being deployed as a Business Development Services and Subcontracting Partnership Exchange Advisor within the same organization. Represented Kenya in a number forums including Trade and Investment Seminar in China, BDS for Industrial promotion program in Japan, World Bank Investment Empowerment program for Counties in Kenya among others.
Dickson Kariuki
GEA
Dickson is a brilliant technical sales and support Engineer with a knack for quick problem solving and brilliant interpersonal skills. Experienced in industrial equipment sales and after sales support. Passionate about delivering value for customers money for a win-win relationship
Rafael Pires
Over 23 years of successful delivering outstanding positive results across multiple projects in the most varied organizations, in Europe and in Middle East, providing leadership, guidance and positive results, under unique challenging conditions.
Areas of expertise include:
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Since May 2017 Rafael has been General Manager - Business Development Manager of SYMAD
SYMAD is a Global Plastic Packaging Technical service company. SYMAD mission is to provide the Best Technical Advice and Support to Plastic Packaging and Food Companies across Mena Region, allowing them, to have best cost base for the Plastic Packaging. There target customers are accross Mena Region, such as: plastic Packaging Companies; Flexible Packaging Manufacturing Companies and Food Companies who need in advice or want to optimize their packaging process, and improve shelf life.
SAMUEL MATONDA
KENYA ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS
Mr. Matonda has diverse experience spanning 2 decades; across all the 14 manufacturing sectors. He has worked in Agriculture;
Industry, Trade & Cooperatives; Education and in the County Governments. Prior to Joining the Kenya Association of Manufacturers to head the Sectors Development docket, Mr. Matonda had served as an Export Market & Product Development
Manager at the Export Promotion Council.
Joseph Nyongesa
Joseph Nyongesa-Graduate of Industrial Engineering Missouri USA, Worked in Unilever Kenya for 20 years in Packaging, Factory Management, Product development, Engineering. Carried out major packaging transformations and innovations in Unilever. Has worked as a consultant in U-chumi Supermarkets on own label brands and strategy, operations optimizations and introduction of Barcode systems. Has been in-volved in setting up GS1 Bar-coding systems in East Africa for 10 years ending up as CEO of GS1 Kenya. Has been awarded Fellowship of the Institute of Packaging UK .Is an International and National Packaging Consultant for many UN agencies. He consults and trains many SMEs in East Africa to better their packaging and enter the formal retail chains.
He is currently President Africa Packaging Organization, Board Member WPO, Secretary General Institute of Packaging Professionals Kenya and Managing Director Global Packaging Technologies Ltd. He also consults organizations on operations and strategy. He sits at KEBS on Packaging Standards committee. He has travelled all over the world in pursuit of the best packaging benchmark for Africa.
Waringa Njonjo
MMAN Advocates
Waringa Njonjo is a Partner at MMAN Advocates and heads its Commercial, Construction, Energy and Infrastructure practice groups. She has been part of several advisory teams providing legal advice relating to infrastructure projects (roads, pipeline and energy) including PPPs, and providing advice on corporate structuring, land rights acquisition, regulatory compliance, preparation and negotiation of project documentation and project finance documentation.
In addition, Waringa has acted as lead counsel on numerous mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions, to both local and international clients over the years.
With over 12 years' experience in corporate and commercial law, her practice also includes a developed competition law (particularly merger control) and corporate advice practice. Waringa is qualified in two jurisdictions, being a Barrister-at-Law, England and Wales and an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She has been ranked for several years by internationally recognised rating firm Chambers Global, as one of Kenya's leading commercial lawyers and 'rising star' in Financial and Corporate law by international ranking directory International Financial Law Review (IFLR1000).
HIMANSHU VELJI DODHIA
A BUSINESS EXECUTIVE WITH 23 YEARS OF MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE IN LOCAL KENYAN FIRMS ENCOMPASSING:
- Executive manager of a vertically integrated textile‐manufacturing firm, Spinners & Spinners Limited, Nairobi, Kenya.
- Director of Chainlink Products Limited, Nairobi, Kenya.
- In‐depth experience in International Business Management, marketing, supplier relations, and human resources management as a trainer and motivator for change management.
- Knowledgeable in the Kaizen (lean) concepts of Continual Improvement such as 5 S systems, VSM, Cellular Manufacturing, One Piece Flow, TPM, TFM, TWI, Hoshin Kanri (X‐ Matrix), KANBAN and IMS systems and ISO: 9002 procedures.
- The 5 S systems have been implemented in Kiswahili as 5 K systems.
- Consultant with the Kaizen Institute – Africa.
- Director of Cronus Consulting Limited, Nairobi, Kenya.
- KPO Team Leader and greenfield projects lead with Bidco Africa Limited
Educational Background:
- BSc. [Double Degree Program] in Marketing and International Business Management from University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, U.S.A. [May 1993].
November 2013 to Present:
- Project coordinator and liaison with all OEM partners, local government offices, certification bodies, RUJWASCO, Kiambu County, WRMA, KEBS, KIPI , NEMA, MENR and the current interim Chair of the KAM PET Sub Sector.
- Project Lead and follow up and collaboration with new projects and establishing new partners.
- Initiation of Warehouse Management System for the Bidco Industrial Park.
- Lead new projects on Noodles, 3B in coordination with respective Team Leaders.
- Developing and maintaining required statutory norms for the projects undertaken. Lead in ensuring all procedures and documentations are followed as required.
DAYO OGUNSOLA-GISLER
AFIDEP, SWITZERLAND
Founder and CEO of Dayo Consulting, Initiator, CEO member of the Board of AFIDEP, Dayo O. Ogunsola-Gisler is an accomplished business
leader with extensive global development experience within the education, textiles, construction, IT, telecom and facility management industries.
Dayo along with his business consulting organization have been bridging the divide between Sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the global
business community— accomplished by fostering positive change through investment, management consultation and training.
Since founding the organization, Dayo has personally overseen a series startups, investments and seminars addressing the importance of
entrepreneurship, and engaging the connection between the community and professional enterprise through vocational training; along with
the initiation of the Top Business Associate (TBA) program, and building a relationship between university students entering the market, and
the professional environment they’ll soon inhabit. Seeking to further his mission with his firm, Dayo is spearheading its involvement with the
Private Public Partnership Conference, which aims to bring together Sub-Saharan Africa and the global business community— an event that’s
notably supported by European and global organizations including UNCTAD and IFC.
His rare combination of both senior management skills, and extensive expertise within information management, Dayo has specialized his
career by instituting business growth & development through strategic planning, budget analysis, and accurate forecasting. His academic
background and professional study of marketing finance, and business policy also diversifies his ability to command and lead organizations;
all while having an innate understanding of both the financial and infrastructure (IT) aspects of a successful enterprise. Before founding Dayo
Consulting & AFIDEP, Dayo worked with Telsys Systems (FOXFON) AG where as their global business development manager he focused on
opportunity and analysis resulting in refocused operations, and an expansion project in excess of $10M. He has also acted as interim CEO and
board member for Swisnic LTD, elevating the company to eighteenth of over five-thousand global competitors for the World Bank “Lighting Africa”
competition.
More currently, Dayo acted is the initiator and CEO of the African Infrastructure Development Partnership (AFIDEP). The Swiss collective offers
alternative and progressive approaches to African development— aiming to curb the troubling issues of poverty, migration, and terrorism through
collaborative investment and ushering the promotion of indigenous participation and empowerment. Leveraging his seasoned career, over two
decades of experience with infrastructure and IT, and his passion for the cause, Dayo continues to be a true asset to the organization.
Dayo O. Ogunsola-Gisler holds an MBA from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, and an HND from Yaba College of Technology,
Lagos, Nigeria. With his forward thinking and meticulous dedication to projects under his leadership, Dayo has fostered successful and lasting
business relationships throughout Europe, North America and major African countries.
PAULINE ACHAYO
NIELSEN
Pauline Achayo is a Senior Research Manager with Nielsen, with over 10 years’ experience in the research industry. With expertise spanning
across the Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Telecom industry, she is skilled at both qualitative and quantitative methodologies of research.
Pauline has gained wide experience in the field of information and measurement from working across East Africa and the Middle East.
She has also worked on both the Client Service as well as the Operations side of the business, where she built a solid experience within
the research matrix..
Prior to joining Nielsen, Pauline worked at Steadman now IPSOS/ Synovate. Pauline holds a Business Administration in Marketing and a Diploma
in Journalism and is based out of Nairobi, Kenya.
KEIRAN SMITH
MR. GREEN AFRICA
Keiran is of Swiss-African American origin and has studied business administration at HWZ University of Applied Science Zurich. An energetic, engaging and entrepreneurial individual. Having a well connected and broad social network, he interacts easily with people from all social and economic backgrounds with varied interests. He co-founded Mr. Green Switzerland - a recycling company which offers a pick-up service for households’ and small businesses’ recyclable waste. His hands-on approach, his learnings from founding a disruptive start-up company as well as his financial services experience from Bank of America - Merrill Lynch has equipped him with the skills to drive and focus on the relevant steps in scaling up Mr. Green Africa.
SACHEN GUDKA
SKANEM INTERLABELS NAIROBI LIMITED
Sachen Gudka is a graduate from The London School of Economics, and is a Chartered Accountant by profession, having qualified
with Price Waterhouse in London. He is now the Chief Executive Officer of a diverse group of printing companies in Kenya.
The group comprises:
- The Rodwell Press Limited, one of Kenya’s oldest, largest and most reputed offset printing companies.
- Skanem Interlabels Nairobi Limited, one of the leading self-adhesive labeling companies in the East and Central African region, which is BRC certified, and part of the Skanem Group with 13 plants in 9 countries,
- The Print Exchange Limited, Kenya’s only dedicated trade printing house, with state of the art offset printing technology.
- Flexo World Limited, which is a Flexo CTP company providing digital and conventional plates for the flexo industry in East Africa.
The group exports printed material to over 15 countries in Africa and is an authorized label supplier for UK and European retailers such as
Carrefour, J Sainsbury and Tesco among others.Sachen Gudka is the Vice-Chairman of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, and the Hon.
Treasurer of the Convertors & Printers Association of Kenya.
LLYORD MWANIKI GITAU
SIBKENYA
Llyord is the knowledge and Project Manager at Sustainable Inclusive Business. He oversees the day to day operation of the Knowledge Centre and different projects. He has been instrumental in conducting research on Inclusive Business in Kenya which sought to establish the challenges and opportunities inclusive Businesses face in Kenya and their Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. He has also contributed extensively to the Kenya Private sector SDGs progress report. Since joining SIB/KEPSA Llyord has grown to be a leader, a good communicator and a sustainability expert under the stewardship of Karin Boomsma.
MARIUS
Halliday Finch Africa
Marius is a retired police officer with 28 years of investigative experience. Marius has an in depth knowledge and investigative techniques in asset forfeiture, organised crime activities, cross border narcotics smuggling and commercial fraud/money laundering investigations. In his final two years of police service, Marius was appointed as the programme manager for Organised Crime and Clandestine Operations.
MR. SOUVIK DE
NIPPON GOHSEI EUROPE GMBH
Souvik De received Master’s Degree (M.Sc) in Polymer Technology from University of Applied Sciences Aalen, Germany. He has also a Post-Graduation degree in Plastics Processing and Testing Technology, which he pursued after finishing his Bachelor’s Degree in Physics and Chemistry.
He has over 10 years’ experience in polymers industry. His functional experience includes Technical customer Service, Technical Marketing and Polymer Analytics. He also has thorough knowledge of specialty barrier resins, plastics processing machinery and plastics processing techniques.
KATIA ROSALIA CASSOL
Born in Milan and currently Chief of Sales dept. for Tropical Food Machinery, a company specialized in the design and manufacture of turn-key plants for fruits. Working on international commissioned projects as Sales manager, Business developer in market such as U.A.E., AFRICA, SOUTH EAST ASIA. Strong affinity for local realities
