Business Daily fetes Kenya’s 2011 Top 40 Under 40 Men
A group photo of the Top 40 Under 40 at the awards dinner at Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi, last Thursday. PHOTOS BY DIANA NGILA
The Business Daily’s inaugural Top 40 Under 40 Men winners were on Thursday evening treated to a sumptuous dinner that was punctuated with an inspirational speech aimed at funnelling their energy and brilliance to staying focused in a changing world.
The gala night event gave the outstanding men an opportunity to interact with each other.
Each received a free hand-drawn portrait of themselves to mark their feat.
Another highlight of the evening was a key speech by Pete Ondeng, chairman of the East Africa Leadership Institute.
In his speech, titled Finding Stability in Our World of Accelerating Change, Mr Ondeng called on the entrepreneurs to take note of the ever-changing business environment and change with it.
“You must adapt to these changes, believe in the impossible, and above all act in order to be the change that you want to see in the world,” he advised.
ou are still talking about what you did yesterday, it is likely that you are not doing much today.”
In coming up with the final list, a panel of six judges went through approximately 200 nominations they received following a two-month window in which Kenyans were to nominate deserving persons.
Using a set criterion, the judges sifted through the names and came up with the final 40.
They were looking to see if the nominated persons were good decision makers, had a significant area of influence, were innovative, and also if they showed potential of excelling even further than they already had.
Interesting statistics
Winners were also picked because they were deemed to have inspired other people and had a good track record in the area of corporate social responsibility.
Some of the individuals who were featured in the December 16 pull-out of the Business Daily were: Zack Matere, a farmer from Eldoret, Mike Macharia who is the Seven Seas Technologies founder and CEO, and Ken Njoroge the Cellulant CEO.
Others included Mellech Engineering MD Gerald Wamalwa, and Dr Gachao Kiuna, the TransCentury CEO.
One of the judges, Consumer Insight MD Ndirangu Mwangi, shared some of the details that stood out about the nominations they received. “Forty five per cent of all nominations received were from men, 34 per cent from women, while 21 per cent were from people who did not indicate their gender,” said Mr Mwangi.
He also revealed that 16 per cent of the nominations were made by the candidates’ wives with majority coming from other women. Mr Mwangi said that 49 per cent of the nominations were from men who were fronting themselves for the award.
“These are interesting statistics. Nominating yourself was within the rules and therefore such nominations were deemed valid,” he said.
Other judges included Carol Musyoka, Ndirangu wa Maina, Jenny Luesby, David Kinyua, and George Lutta.
This was the first edition featuring outstanding men in the country, a spin off from the Top 40 Under 40 Women that has been featured severally. Nation Media Group CEO Linus Gitahi urged the winners to use their success and positions to help uplift their societies.
“We have a lot of hopelessness among our societies and it is up to men like you to take responsibility and become role models to these people,” Mr Gitahi said.
