#25
Mary Kinyua
HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR OSERIAN DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
Mary introduces herself as a mother of two lovely toddlers who strongly believes in influencing the world one person at a time and describes herself as a bubble constructive of energy.
Mary Kinyua is serving as the Director in charge of Human Resources (HR) and Administration at Oserian Development Company where she is charged with the leadership of the organization’s large staff complement, compliance, risk management, quality management systems and corporate services for the business. She also serves as the internal coach for her business.
A 2019 top 40 under 40 female leader and the 1st Runner up for the HR Director of the Year 2019, Mary has been widely recognized for her transformative leadership in HR management and Corporate Governance. She is not only passionate about people but believes that good corporate governance is the foundation of any business and strives to integrate this in her day-to-day interaction.
A fiery brand, Mary has championed, the conversation on living wage in the industries she has worked in, been actively involved in diversity and inclusion in work places and opines that diversity is only enough if there is deliberate inclusion.
A turnaround Manager, Mary has steered organizations to great heights through change management and business processes re-engineering that continue to astound many. Mary believes strongly that there is no singular resource more important, better or superior than the other. Where a particular resource is assigned higher weighted metrics than the others, the resultant mismatch will always cause a crack in the establishment. In this regard, Mary strives to create balanced institutions through her most talented deliberations in the Boards she sits on and through timely interventions with organizational leadership.
Mary sits on corporate, non-profit and advisory boards both locally, regionally and internationally and is currently the chair of board of Fairtrade Africa. She is the immediate past chair of Fairtrade International—Germany.
In the Fairtrade leadership, Mary has championed a living wage and income for both workers and producers, under her stewardship in 2018, the fairtrade floor wage was introduced to ensure employees are paid at above world poverty rate, while she acknowledges that this is not enough, she believes it serves as a good starting point in encouraging good practices. Last year while serving at the FI Chair, Mary led a delegation to meet the Pope Francis in Italy to amplify the voice of both farmers and workers, committed to ethical practices in the world.
With over 16 years of corporate practice under her belt, Mary is undertaking her PhD at the University of Nairobi. She holds an MSc degree in Human Resources, a Business Administration degree and a diploma in Law. She has Leadership Diplomas from Nanyang Business School, Singapore and the Strathmore Business School (SBS). Mary was recently certified as an executive leadership coach. She is a member of the Institute of Human Resource Managers (IHRM), International Coaches Federation (ICF) and an alumnus of the Centre for Corporate Governance.
Passionate about sustainability and protecting the Earth, Mary spoke at the G7 Youth forum in France at the invite of the French President Macron where her message on the need for the European Community to work with the farmers and markets in the South, to make trade fair for all was well received.
Mary also sits on the Advisory Council of the COP 26 Presidency, where the members are working to ensure that the supply chains are rid of carbon emission to achieve net Zero. In the forum, Mary has actively championed for incentives across the business supply chains that ensure those who make more efforts to produce and trade sustainably are well rewarded for a safer World for all.
Focused on changing one person at a time, Mary spends her time finding sustainable solutions to business and social problems. Her contribution to the Boards she sits on has enabled her change the institutions she serves in how they view businesses in relations to the planet and the people.
During her free time, Mary loves hosting and entertaining at home. Mary is also an avid reader and is currently reading Kamala Harris’s ‘The Truths We Hold. An American Journey.’ Mary finds quality time to mentor young women in her profession as a way to make a difference in the profession and in her transformational leadership.
