KIW Team

Sheena Raikundalia has over 12 years of experience in the legal, financial services and impact investment sectors in Europe and East Africa, and over 5 years’ board experience with a non-profit. She is currently the UK-Kenya Tech Hub Director at the British High Commission focusing on developing the Kenyan tech ecosystem, driving digital skills and creating partnerships. Before joining the Tech Hub, she was a senior advisor with Intellecap’s Kenya office, where she provided strategic advisory services to financial institutions, start-ups, corporations, development agencies and NGOs across the African market. She is also a non-executive director with Inuka Africa, a micro-finance institution with 34 branches spread mainly in agricultural counties in Kenya. She is a U.K. qualified solicitor with a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Bristol and an MBA from Lord Ashcroft International Business School.

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Florence Kimata is an Enterprise Development and SME Financing Policy Advisor.
She has over 20 years experience in Policy Advisory, Commercial and Investment Banking within the East African Region. She served as a Business Reforms Specialist at the Ministry of East African Community and Regional Development where she successfully provided technical assistance in transforming public service delivery particularly in the approval of construction permits and registering businesses. The interventions focused on business process re-engineering and digitization of approval processes aimed at enabling the business environment for the private sector. She cascaded the reform agenda to the Counties and led the development of the Sub-National Business Reform Agenda.
Prior to her role in DBRT, she was the SME Advisor to the Cabinet Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives where she provided technical assistance in the design and implementation of MSME development policy and financing solutions. Her advisory role in Government was facilitated through a Consultancy with the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Florence is a Member of the KeNIA National Innovation Technical Committee. She has championed the Startup Kenya Agenda for the past 6 years. She provided technical assistance in the design and implementation of various MSME Development and Financing Policy initiatives such as the premier Startup Policy Hackathon, the Kenya Industry and Entrepreneurship Program, the formation of the Kenya Development Bank and the National Guarantee Scheme. She initiated the formation of the Association of Startup and SME Enablers of Kenya (ASSEK) to facilitate effective engagement between Entrepreneurship Support Organizations and Government. Florence is passionate about creating a robust entrepreneurship ecosystem through collaboration with various actors to spur the growth of innovative high-potential small businesses.
In December 2021, Florence was honored with a Head of State Commendation award for her exemplary contribution to Public Service.

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Philip Thigo is a Technology, data & public policy expert. He is the Senior Director for Africa for the Thunderbird School for Global Management, a Technical Advisor at the Presidency on Data and Open Government and Senior Consultant for UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa. He was recognised by Apolitical as one of the World's 100 most influential people in digital government in 2018. He is currently a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Regional Action Group for Africa. He is an Advisory Board Member of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Nairobi Hub, MercyCorps Agrifin Initiative, SwahiliPotHub and the Chair of the Board of Mtoto News, an award-winning digital platform based in Kenya that uses technology to make children and their issues visible. He was recently appointed as regional ambassador for the Global Block Chain Business Council for Sub Saharan Africa. Philip was honored at the 50th Anniversary of the Academy of Achievement as Delegate.

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Eric is a consummate leader, an Intrapreneur and enabler with 17 years’ professional experience of working with donors, public, private, academia, and non-state stakeholders across Africa to create support for young people in pursuit of education, science, technology, innovation and economic empowerment. He is adept in all facets of program development, including government engagement, creation of strategic partnerships, and facilitating cross-sector collaborations. He promotes and pursues the intersection between the public, the private and the non-state actors (the triple helix) as accelerators towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. Currently, he works with the STEM Impact Centre in charge of partnerships, government engagement and also volunteers as the Head of the Secretariat, at the Out of School Youth Science and Technology Innovation Program. He also consults in areas of youth employability, entrepreneurship, technology, policy development and business acceleration. He has previously worked with I Choose Life-Africa, Aga Khan University Hospital, Voluntary Services Overseas and Young Scientists Kenya.
Eric has a Msc. In Education for Sustainability from London South Bank University, Higher National Diploma in Human Resource Management from the Institute of Human Resource Management, Kenya and B.A in Social Work from the University of Nairobi. He is a Metis Fellow (2021) and has undertaken a course in Leadership & Innovation from MIT (2022).

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Diligent and resourceful research, innovation and grants management professional with 10+ years’ multifaceted experience with well-established international institutions. Highly regarded as a strong strategic thinker with ability to design and implement research and innovation programs resulting into commercial success. Exceptional background spearheading grants management processes, examining donors’ rules and regulations for getting funds, filing applications and managing multiple grants. Accomplished in networking and creating valuable partnerships. Adept in absorbing new and useful information into an evolving knowledge base. My goal is to become a valuable mutual asset by providing efficient research and innovation management expertise contributing effectively to organizational success.

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Nekesa is passionate about building and supporting communities to develop innovative solutions that transform societies, protect dignity and impact economies positively and spends her personal time working with Startup and SME leaders.
As the Director of Strategy at Afrilabs, Nekesa serves as broadly responsible for supporting the executive in development and execution of a strategy that ensures a thriving innovation economy in Africa driven by the power of the AfriLabs community. Afrilabs currently has a network of 370 innovation centres spread across 52 African countries and delivers value to members through capacity building, financing, policy advocacy, and providing insightful, reliable data .
For the last decade, Nekesa has worked at the heart of Africa’s technology and innovation ecosystem. Nekesa was previously the Managing Director of the iHub, Kenya’s leading innovation hub where she led an open innovation culture that was integral in ensuring quick maturity of the Kenyan innovation ecosystem. Nekesa has also served as a Strategy Advisor at SNDBX, a collective of SME experts working together to ensure sustainable growth for SMEs across Africa by delivering targeted and affordable long term training as well as business coaching.
Nekesa has served on several boards and is currently a Board Member at Missing Child Kenya, a platform to share information about missing children across Kenya with an aim to bring them all home safe and Kiron, an EdTech nonprofit that provides quality education for refugees & underserved communities worldwide.

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