Susan Eve Oguya Kutalek, commonly known as Susan Oguya, is a

businesswoman A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. She is the co-founder and former

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

of ''MFarm Kenya Limited'', an internet-based company that facilitates farmers to find the best farm implements, seeds and access to weather reports and market information. Since August 2015, Susan Oguya works as a senior designer at

Dalberg Global Development Advisors Dalberg Global Development Advisors is a strategy and policy advisory firm. Founded in 2001, the company specializes in global development. Dalberg has worked in over 90 countries with over 400 clients including governments, foundations, interna ...

, based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Background and education

She was born in the western part of Kenya in 1987. She attended Kenyan schools for her pre-university studies. She was exposed to computers when one of her uncles, who was studying in the capital city of

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

, came home with his desktop during the vacations. Later, her uncle bought her a desktop of her own. She decided to study IT at university. In 2010, she completed a four-year undergraduate course, graduating from

Strathmore University Strathmore University is a chartered university based in Nairobi, Kenya. ...

, with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

, majoring in Business Information Technology. In 2013 she was admitted to the

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (English: ''Catholic University of the Sacred Heart'', colloquially the ''Catholic University of Milan''), known as UCSC or UNICATT or simply Cattolica, is an Italian private research university founded in 19 ...

(Catholic University of the Sacred Heart), in

Milan, Italy Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

. After one year, she graduated with a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

. From there, she joined

Domus Academy Domus Academy is a private school of design in Milan, Italy. It offers post-graduate and professional courses in fashion, industrial design, and design management. It is not listed by the Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ric ...

, also in Milan, where she studied design, graduating in 2015 with a

Master of Design A Master of Design (MDes, M.Des. or M.Design) is a postgraduate academic master degree in the field of Design awarded by several academic institutions around the world. The degree level has different equivalencies; some MDes are equivalent to Master ...

degree, majoring in Human Computer Interaction.

Career

During her final year of undergraduate study, she worked as a Microsoft Student Partner. During the same time frame, she concurrently worked in the Student Enterprise Program, where she worked with stakeholders to produce educational, marketing and promotional material, in her capacity as Communication and Publicity Manager. She worked briefly as a

software developer Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, Computer programming, programming, software documentation, documenting, software testing, testing, and Software bugs, bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applic ...

for

Safaricom Safaricom PLC is a listed Kenyan mobile network operator headquartered at Safaricom House in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya, and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central Africa region. Th ...

, then as a research assistant at ''iHub Nairobi'', a software development enterprise, before settling down at Akirachix, where she worked for one and half years as a training manager. There she trained young women ages 18 to 25 years in life skills and basic and mid-level computer competencies, including programming. In 2010, motivated and angered by newspaper reports that middlemen were exploiting rural farmers, she and two other collaborators co-founded MFarm Kenya Limited, with Oguya working as chief technology officer, responsible for coding, testing and troubleshooting the

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

, from October 2010 until July 2012. She then spent the next two years developing and strengthening the business application of the app, by interacting with clients, funders, business partners and coders, in her capacity as

of MFarm Kenya Limited. As of December 2012, the company had 18 full-time employees and over 7,000 clients regionally. In 2015 when she completed graduate school in Italy, she relocated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, working as a senior designer at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, based in New York, New York since August 2015.

Other considerations

In 2014, Forbes Magazine listed Susan Oguya among the "10 Female Tech Founders To Watch In Africa".

References

External links

Website of MFarm Kenya LimitedBeing an entrepreneur is hard, especially in emerging markets
As of 16 January 2018.

As of 2 May 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Oguya, Susan Living people 1987 births 21st-century Kenyan businesswomen 21st-century Kenyan businesspeople Domus Academy alumni Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore alumni Strathmore University alumni Kenyan business executives Kenyan women business executives Businesspeople from Nairobi

Background and education

Career

Other considerations

See also

References

External links