The African Leadership Academy has appointed Bilha Ndirangu as its CEO making history for being the first African, the first woman and the first non-founder CEO.
Bilha has replaced the institution’s co-founder, Chris Bradford to become the first Kenyan and the first woman to head the institution.
She assumed the office on July 1, 2021, after being appointed following a meticulous recruitment process that identified her merit, experience and personal attributes to assume the CEO's position.
Brian Waweru, an alumni representative in the academy’s Board of Trustees who sat in the search team acknowledged that indeed the recruitment process was rigorous and Bilha was apt for the appointment.
“This was one of the most rigorous recruitment processes I have ever seen in my career. She exemplifies all the attributes that the ALA CEO in this day and age requires; youthfulness, business acumen, laser vision and Pan-African corporate leadership experience,” said Waweru.
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Before her appointment, Bilha worked with a Pan-African mobile technology company, Africa’s Talking (AT) where she was also the CEO. The company supports software developers to bring their business ideas to life and make them sustainable ventures.
AT is reported to have realized incredible growth in over 20 African markets and workforce to over 100 employees up from only 8 during her 7 years of working in at the company in the CEO’s capacity.
During her time working as a Senior Project Manager of Dalberg Global Development where Bilha is recognized for thriving in education projects, she was a very instrumental person to the conceptualization and seeing the initial implementation of Equity Foundation’s Wings to Fly Scholarship Project. The project has supported more than 26,000 needy but promising Kenyan students enabling them to access quality secondary and university education.
Speaking shortly after her appointment, Bilha intimated Africa presents a lot of opportunities and has great untapped potential in the youth whom she termed the richest resource. She also said that no country will prosper in the future without technology, therefore making this the moment to make right leaders and global shapers who will secure Africa’s place on the global table.
The new ALA CEO said that ALA offers the kind of education that every African child deserves and is optimistic that the academy will expand the impact on its education model across Africa
Bilha also said that her vision for Africa is what informed her to come back to Africa.
“Coming back to Africa was informed by what I saw then, that is even clearer now; the need for Africa to embrace her true identity and leverage our competitive advantage at the global stage,” said Bilha.
The Chairperson ALA board of trustees, Khumo Shongwe remarked that Bilha’s experience in working with high-ranking leaders across Africa and building a Pan- African country has prepared her for the leadership at ALA.
ALA co-founder Fred Swaniker also pointed out that Bilha was precisely the kind of leader the academy needed to scale the academy to new heights.
“We are honoured to see her step into the CEO’s role at ALA and we know that she will lead the academy to new heights and strengthen our track record of Pan-African impact,” said Swaniker.
Bilha is a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering holder from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She embodies the academy’s values of integrity, curiosity and excellence to take that CEO role which makes her a role model for ALA students.
Her wealth of experience includes the time working with the Mitchell Madison Group in New York City
She has been echoed as Endeavour Entrepreneur, extraordinary operator and a team builder.
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