#15

Lucia Musau

PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE AFRICAN ELITE GROUP

Lucia’s dejavu moment came when the firm she founded in 2010 was named “Best Boutique PR Agency in Kenya – 2020” by EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) Business Awards.

Lucia Musau has extensive experience in public relations and marketing, having carried out assignments for some of the world’s Fortune 500 corporations, NGOs, SME’s spanning across different fields and markets across Africa.

At the helm of African Elite Group as majority shareholder and CEO, Lucia Musau is known for her hands-on management style as she steers her team to greater heights and providing customer delight.

She is also an advocate of gender equality in the business arena and a great example of what is possible.

It has not always been a bed of roses during the start-up years of growing her PR and marketing agency. Nevertheless, Lucia quickly became a trusted advisor, giving guidance first to local, then regional and now global brands, most of which she has aided in achieving increased visibility and better market penetration.

The results so far achieved have not remained unnoticed. Global luxury and hospitality Fortune 100 brands are now trouping in droves to Africa Elite Group for support in their growth agendas in the regional markets that she knows so well. And soon thereafter Africa wide.

Lucia’s knowledge and commendable experience in public relations and marketing have also allowed African Elite Group to grow the service portfolio to serve different sectors such as luxury, hospitality, fintech, agriculture, retail, non-governmental organizations among others in areas of strategic communications, brand and communication planning, media training, and crisis management among other PR specialty services.

With her experience, and leading a team of enthusiasts, Lucia believes that great leadership comes with being decisive and using influence rather than making decisions herself. This has positioned her ahead of the curve at all times. Her zest to go from strength to strength is unparalleled in this very difficult sector that is dominated by global brands who have become monopolists over time.

On a personal level, ‘’Handling change, multitasking, keeping up with a busy office schedule has become second nature and as a mum and wife managing that full-time CEO position as well as holding down busy social agendas is motivated by making a difference in people’s lives”, she states.

Then came 2020’s shock and awe.  Forging ahead amidst the Covid-19 pandemic crisis is something else. And as the saying goes: when the going gets tough the tough get going.  Lucia supported her clients in successfully pressing ahead without wavering during the new realities of the global pandemic. While Lucia and her team were combating the crisis internally, on the other side they needed to enable their clients to improvise, adapt and overcome.

A key aspect of Lucia was adaptability! How are we adapting to this new world ruled by a pandemic? How are we transforming ourselves? How are we forging ahead? These are the hard questions Lucia and her team have had to contend with in order to keep their clients afloat, amid an unrelenting scourge that is the Covid-19 pandemic.

2020 was not for the faint-hearted. However, it presented unforeseen opportunities and in fact, it is exactly then that Lucia Musau accelerated her growth agenda for the group.  As the CEO, she asserts that it’s all about dealing with situations that are completely out of the playbook by being innovative and putting into high gear some hitherto unknown growth and recovery contingency strategies.

With her agility and passion for making an impact and leaving her mark, Lucia went above and beyond to access new opportunities. As a result, she added a technology services portfolio to the group services. A new chapter is now being written in the history of the company with the digital transformation. Towards this end, African Elite Group Tech was set-up in 2020. And within that one, challenging year, she acquired a team of great people with ICT, project management, and change management skills to form the digital transformation team that delivers Cloud ERP implementation services and Robotic Process Automation. And it is no surprise, to those that know Lucia well, that first successes have been achieved in both technology areas with a team of young Kenyan ICT professionals.

With her new African Elite Group Tech business line, Lucia is determined to also address the gender balance challenge in the ICT sector. More than ever before, Lucia trusts her own gut more and more and continues to build alliances that enable her to collectively influence people around her in the most positive way.

She alone makes the call, trusting her intuition, as the ultimate act of trusting herself and that is what leadership is about, she says.

In a nutshell Lucia and her team are dedicated to helping luxury brands and companies engage millennial consumers and manage media relations, including leveraging traditional and social media to optimize communications reach and impact. The firm also develops go-to-market strategies in alignment with product and brand targets of the clients.

Also on the menu is the design, implementation and execution of digital and experiential marketing campaigns, including tracking the execution of advertising creatives to ensure efficient work flow of the marketing work plan to execute campaigns in a timely manner.

Africa Elite Group also plan and manage events, including post event evaluation and reporting, manage corporate communications, including developing publication and advertising materials, support the consumer marketing function with effective luxury brand PR planning and execution.

The firm also identifies, reviews and recommend strategic sponsorships and partnership opportunities to support clients’ sustainability commitments and drive corporate visibility and reputation. Most importantly, the firm develops, nurtures and leverages strategic relationships as the guarantee for future sustainability of the diverse revenue streams.

Lucia Musau holds an MBA from USIU – Chandaria Business School, a BBA – First Class Honours degree from Kenya Methodist University and a Certificate in Design Thinking for Innovation from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Besides that, she is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations – UK as well as the Public Relations Society of Kenya-PRSK.

She loves traveling, reading, fashion, fine dining and wining, and to unwind, she loves spending quality time with her family and friends.