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CATHERINE AWUOR
HEAD OF MARKETING AND CORPORATE COMMUNICATION UBA BANK KENYA
Beyond the Brand: Building Trust, Creating Opportunity, Leaving Impact
Catherine Awuor has built a career on a simple belief, that “the most powerful brands create trust, open doors and leave people better than they found them”.
According to Catherine, every brand exists because of people. People with ambitions. People building businesses, raising families, pursuing careers and looking for opportunities to move forward. Behind every campaign, product or corporate message is ultimately a human decision, to trust, to believe, to engage or to walk away.
That understanding sits at the heart of her approach to marketing. For her, the power of a brand is how it connects with people and what it makes possible in their lives. The customer who needs to trust you before choosing your brand. The entrepreneur looking for an opportunity to grow. The employee who wants to believe in the organisation they represent. The person with a disability who should not have to fight harder to access the same opportunities as everyone else. And the young professional who sometimes needs someone to recognise their potential before they can see it themselves.
If Catherine had to distil the essence of her leadership into three words, they would be: Storysmith. Connector. Trailblazer. Together, they capture how she approaches both her work and the people around her. As a Storysmith, she looks beyond strategies and numbers to find the human story that gives them meaning. As a Connector, she instinctively brings people, ideas and opportunities together, whether through partnerships, networks or mentorship. And as a Trailblazer, she is willing to challenge convention, ask what could be done differently and create a path where one may not already exist.
At the heart of all three is a simple philosophy: tell stories that give people something to believe in, connect people to opportunities, and have the courage to create what is missing.
A Pan-African Perspective on Communications Leadership
Serving as Head of Marketing & Corporate Communication at UBA Kenya, a subsidiary of UBA Group – Africa’s Global Bank, has broadened Catherine’s perspective as a brand leader. The experience has taken her beyond the lens of a single market, deepening her understanding of how brands can maintain a strong, consistent identity while building relevance, trust and influence across diverse markets and cultures.
Being part of a Pan-African institution with operations across 20 African countries and an international presence in key global financial centres has placed her at the intersection of brand, business, culture and markets. It has given her first-hand experience of the complexity and opportunity of building a unified African brand while communicating to audiences whose cultures, aspirations, customer expectations and economic realities can be remarkably different.
“Working for UBA has expanded the way I see both Africa and the role of communications,” Catherine says. “You quickly realise that there is no single African audience. Every market has its own nuances, but there are also powerful aspirations that connect us. The discipline is in protecting what the brand stands for while finding the cultural and commercial relevance that makes it meaningful in each market.”
That experience has strengthened her belief that communications must sit closer to business strategy. The role requires an understanding of markets, trade, investment, customer behaviour, reputation and stakeholder expectations, and the ability to translate these into narratives that support business objectives.
Perhaps most importantly, the experience has deepened her conviction that Africa’s diversity is not something brands should seek to standardise away; it is an advantage to be understood and harnessed. The continent’s different cultures, markets, ideas and entrepreneurial energies create an extraordinary canvas for brands willing to listen, adapt and connect.
“Africa has taught me to think locally, but lead continentally. The strongest brands understand the nuances of each market while remaining ambitious enough to connect people, businesses and opportunities across borders,” says Catherine Awuor.
Turning Inclusion from an Idea into Action
Among Catherine’s most meaningful achievements is helping champion an initiative that challenged the conventional definition of financial inclusion in Kenya.
In 2023, she led the launch of Braille Banking, an industry-first initiative designed to enable customers with visual impairment to engage more independently with the account-opening process.
At the heart of the initiative was a simple question that required an answer: Can we genuinely call ourselves an inclusive institution if some of our customers cannot independently access the same services available to everyone else?
That question shifted the conversation from simply providing access to considering the quality, dignity and independence of that access. Working in partnership with the Kenya Society for the Blind and disability inclusion advocates, Catherine helped bring together the stakeholders, conversations and visibility required to turn an idea into a practical expression of inclusive banking.
That philosophy continues to shape her approach to inclusion. Her engagement with the Kenya Society for the Blind has increasingly extended the conversation beyond accessible banking to creating opportunities for persons with disabilities to participate fully in economic and social life. It means recognising talent and creativity, creating pathways to entrepreneurship and employment, and ensuring persons with disabilities are not viewed only through the lens of vulnerability, but also for the ideas, skills and potential they bring to society.
The lesson she carries from the initiative is simple but enduring: inclusion should not be an afterthought or a campaign. It should be embedded in how businesses design products, experiences, partnerships and opportunities from the very beginning.
“Catherine’s commitment went beyond launching a product. She listened, collaborated and remained committed to ensuring persons with visual impairment could access banking services with dignity and independence,” reads a commentary from Ivan Omondi, Advocacy Manager, Kenya Society for the Blind.
The Details People May Never Notice
There is a side that rarely makes it into the final photograph or campaign report. It is the last read of a CEO’s speech before they walk onto the stage. The uncomfortable question asked when everyone else believes the presentation is finished. The logo that is slightly out of place. The headline that is technically correct but does not quite capture what the organisation wants people to feel. Those who have worked closely with her often recognise one of her defining qualities: she notices what others might easily overlook. For Catherine, attention comes from an understanding that reputation is built through hundreds of seemingly small moments.
Leaving a mark
Looking ahead, Catherine believes the future of marketing lies at the intersection of purpose, innovation and humanity.
Marketing is ultimately about people before platforms. Behind every strategy is a customer trying to build something, an entrepreneur looking for an opportunity, a person who wants to be seen and included, a young professional searching for their voice, or a community whose story deserves to be heard.
That is perhaps the clearest thread running through Catherine’s career, anchored on building brands, but also building people. Creating visibility, but also creating possibility. Opening doors, but expecting those who walk through them to open others.
“A brand’s greatest legacy is not what it says, but the trust it builds and the impact it leaves behind.” — Catherine Awuor
