HOPE MURERA

Ms. Hope Murera is the Managing Director of ZEP-Re (PTA Reinsurance Company), a specialized institution of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) charged with the development of the insurance industry in the region.

She holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree from Makerere University, an MBA from IMD International, Lausanne Switzerland and is an alumnus of Stanford Business School where she majored in strategic leadership. Hope has over 20 years’ working experience in the insurance and reinsurance industry in Africa.

Ms. Murera, a mother of two, is passionate about girl-child education, mentorship and empowerment of women in the workplace. This has seen the ZEP-RE’s core CSR develop around supporting girl-child education in several member states. She has put in place a Young Professionals Programme (YPP) with a bias on girls. Through deliberate actions such as these, ZEP-RE has achieved gender parity across its ranks and currently 30% of the management team are ladies.

Hope sits on the Boards of African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI), the Organization of Eastern and Southern African Insurers (OESAI), Uganda Reinsurance Company (Uganda Re) and the Global Give Back Circle, a girl mentorship and empowerment organization.

ROSE MUSAU

Rose Musau is the Founder and Executive Recruiter of Preferred Personnel Africa (PPA) having started the business over 25 years ago. Her experience has seen her recruit Board of Directors, head hunt for senior and executive positions in multinational and major local companies across industries. Under her stewardship, Preferred Personnel Africa has provided outsourcing expertise to organizations in the banking, FMCG, telecommunication and Information Technology industries.

As a community influencer, Rose is passionate about helping the underprivileged gain education. Under PPA she formed The Guza Foundation, an initiative with an objective to enable under privileged children to gain access to financial support for their high school and university education. Through the Foundation, she continued to provide support to the students by paying for tutoring sessions throughout the Pandemic until they returned to school in
January 2021.

Rose contributes to several causes, both formal and informal. She was one of the first ten Kenyan mentors in Global Give Back Circle. She has supported Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), a grassroot movement that provides services and platforms for underrepresented communities in Nairobi Slums. She has been one of the major contributors to The Karen Country Club’s Benevolent Fund and makes food and monetary donations to the Nairobi Baptist Church, who have their own initiatives supporting vulnerable communities.

Rose is a motivated, self-driven entrepreneur with excellent business acumen, commercial awareness, creativity, and problem-solving orientation.

ROBERT HERTZKA

Robert is the CEO and Founder of Resorts Online, an Internet-based company that specializes in the marketing of luxury resorts all over the world. Prior to launching Resorts Online in 1995, he was CEO of a NYC-based real estate business. His duties for the Global Give Back Circle include financial account management and fundraising. Robert is a graduate of New York University.

MARGO DAY

Margo is the retired Vice President of U.S. Education for Microsoft Corp. She was responsible for the U.S. Education strategy and sales to K–12 and higher education customers across the U.S. Through partnerships, programs, and technology, Microsoft plays a significant role in helping institutions and educators transform learning that makes a real impact on educational outcomes and helps students realize their full potential.

Margo has more than 31 years of experience in high-technology and has held several exec roles at Microsoft over the past 14 years. She was a 2014 Circle of Excellence, Platinum Club Founders award winner, 2006 Microsoft Most Inspirational Woman award winner, and in 2012 was nominated for the Anita Borg Women of Vision Social Impact Award.

Making a difference in people’s lives is important to Margo. She has been deeply involved in funding the building of secondary schools for vulnerable girls in Kenya. She took a one-year leave of absence from Microsoft to focus her energies on raising funds and awareness for World Vision’s Kenya Child Protection and Education Project. This project is positively affecting 17,000 children in four areas across the Rift Valley.

Margo is the former national co-chair for the World Vision National Leadership Council for Child Protection, Board of Advisors President for the Renton/Skyway Boys & Girls Club, and past founding board member of SeeYourImpact.org.

LAURA AHTO

Laura Ahto relocated in 2018 to the US after 23 years living and working internationally.
She is a Managing Director at BNY Mellon and COO of the firm’s Asset Servicing Business. Previously, she held roles as President, CEO and Member of the Board of BNY Mellon’s Brussels, Belgium headquartered European bank, and as COO of Investment Services German-speaking and CEE region, based in Frankfurt, Germany. Laura has also, through her career, held leadership positions at Baring Asset Management, PIMCO Europe, Deutsche Bank, and Bankers Trust Company, in London and the APAC region.

Laura has been involved with the Global Give Back Circle since its founding, as a mentor to two girls- now young women- in Kenya. She has served as a Board member of the Junior League of London and is a member of PowerWomen Network. Laura has long been an advocate for gender diversity in business and supporting the development of women professionals and on the importance of inclusion as well as diversity. She has been recognized twice by Financial News as one of the100 most influential Women in Finance and appointed to the Cranfield 100 “Women to Watch” list.

Laura holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Ursinus College and a Masters of Business Administration from Cornell University.

Linda Latsko Lockhart

25 years of entrepreneurial experience, on a global basis, in change management and business development, and a desire to give back to society enables Linda to transfer commercially successful applications from the private sector to bring structure and sustainability to a critical social intervention; the empowerment of the world’s disadvantaged girls so that they can gain employment, live independent lives, and give back too. Linda has a BS from Drexel University and an MBA from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University.

JOHN TIERNEY

John is a Philadelphia-based retired Ernst & Young Partner with over 38 years of leadership, people management, strategy and planning, and client service. During his career, John served as the Leader for the Mid-Atlantic Advisory Services group, Mid-Atlantic Area Managing Partner of Assurance Advisory Business Services, Mid-Atlantic Area Leader of the Real Estate Group, Advisory People Leader for Ernst & Young’s East Central Region, in addition to serving in the National Office in a business development capacity.

For more than 20 years, John served as a coordinating partner for numerous clients in a wide range of industries in both the private and public sector.

He started his career as an Intern with Ernst & Ernst in 1975 and was admitted to the Ernst & Young partnership in 1989.

In June 2013, John retired. John is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Philadelphia Sports Congress and on the Accounting Advisory Board for The Pennsylvania State University.

DR. NANCY ONYANGO

Dr. Nancy Onyango is the Director of the Office of Internal Audit at the International Monetary Fund. She has 30 years’ experience in IT audit & consulting, risk management, internal audit, corporate governance, systems, and process assurance. Nancy also previously worked with PwC in the UK, Europe, Asia, and East Africa, and with E&Y as the Governance, Risk and Compliance Africa leader. Nancy is also a Gender Leadership specialist.

Nancy has a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA). She is also a certified public accountant, IT audit, risk, governance, and information systems control practitioner. Her doctoral dissertation was on the “Perceived Barriers Faced by Women in Ascending to CEO Positions in Kenyan Corporations”.

Nancy is a Board member of Fairtrade America. She was previously a Board member of Fairtrade Africa and Fairtrade International Board (Finance Committee) She was the Chair of the Finance & HR Committee of FTA. She also sat on the Boards of KCB Group, KCB Kenya, and Cytonn Investments Limited. She was also the first female President of ISACA Kenya Chapter and a Board member. She is a Global Give Back Circle mentor, and a mother of three sons.

CHRISTINA SASS

Christina Sass is Co-founder and President of Andela. Before Andela, Christina built education and employment programs in China, Gaza and the West Bank, Kenya, and Nigeria. Christina also directed the Program department of the Clinton Global Initiative and advised the President and CEO of The Mastercard Foundation, a 9-Billion-dollar global foundation working to advance youth learning and financial inclusion for youth in Africa.

Christina also serves on the Advisory Council of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights and as an education topic expert for the Clinton Global Initiative University annual meeting. Christina’s work has been mentioned by Forbes, CNN, The New Yorker, NBC, and WIRED. She was named as a 2014 New York Business Journal “Women of Influence,” a 2015 Business Insider “23 most innovative and inspiring women in New York City Tech” and 2015 the University of Georgia “40 Under 40” Alumni.

Christina has a BA in Ancient Philosophy from the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs) and an MA in International Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School from Tufts University.

PATRICK M. KARANJA

Mr. Karanja joined The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) Rwanda in June 2022, where he is responsible for the integration of a broad portfolio of work in Agriculture, Health, Education, Government Digitization, Jobs and Innovation.

Previously, he worked with Mastercard Foundation as a Program Partner leading Young Africa Works – a program aimed at enabling 30 M African youth secure work opportunities by 2030. Under YAW, he led strategy development and implementation in Kenya, and partnership management.

Earlier in his career, he held positions with Rockefeller Foundation Africa, Digital Jobs Africa initiative, and World Vision East Africa, overseeing a global digital transformation process to integrate ICT in organizational strategy, and managing the roll out of ICT4D in 9+ countries.

Mr. Karanja has experience in the Business Process Outsourcing sector as well as policy development as a founding member of the industry body, KITOS.

As a board member of the Global Give Back Circle, he is passionate about mentoring young people to enable them access opportunities and fulfill their potential.

Mr. Karanja is pursuing an MBA at the United States International University – Africa and is a B.A. Education graduate of Kenyatta University. He was in the first cohort of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Fellows in Social Innovation.

Global Give Back Circle leverages connectivity to create opportunities for all women to make an impact. Today, history is in the making as 3,000 mentors walk alongside at-risk adolescent girls, providing them with the tools they need to rise up as economically empowered young women who are breaking down barriers, changing the systems and leading the movement for diversity and inclusion.

Quick Links

Get Involved

400 East 59th Street
Suite 12 B
New York, NY 10022

Phone +1.212.744.6586

© 2022 Global Give Back Circle is a 501c3 organization • Privacy Policy • Terms of Use • Powered by Graphic Lux