How the nominees were identified
Editors Note

Two years ago, this newspaper, Business Daily, embarked on the journey of recognizing Kenyan women who have made outstanding contribution to the development of this country in all facets of the economy. That was in November 2007.

The decision to produce a women's-only supplement was based on the fact that despite contributing more than their fair share to the progress that our country has made since Independence, not much has been done to recognize them. And so we did it and the response we received from our readers was overwhelming.

Many leaders were, in fact, surprised that there were so many women holding senior positions in both the public and private sectors that they had never heard of. But there were also queries about how we had arrived at the list of women featured in the supplement.

Though our list was ambitiously representative, there are those who felt we had not sorted all of them out.

So at the Business Daily, we decided to revisit the methodology of selection. For two months, we run advertisements inviting our readers to nominate women they thought had made outstanding achievements in any sector of our economy.

This time however, there was a catch to it. The nominees had to be aged under 40 and they had to be of outstanding achievement. The response was superb.

From the list of nominees, a panel was convened to collate and tabulate the data before coming up with a final list.

The selection was based on the goal of picking out outstanding women from as many sectors of the economy as possible. In cases where a number of nominees from a particular sector of the economy or a specific profession had been proposed, the panel was under obligation to pick the most outstanding. The decision was based on seniority, the size of company or business they are running or even the breadth of territory covered.

In this list of Top 40 UNDER 40, we have women CEOs. We also have women from professions as diverse as medicine, law, accounting, marketing, science and research. While we agree the list is subjective, we are convinced that the nominees are worthy of the selection. Welcome to the first edition of the Top 40 Women Under 40 special supplement which will run once every year.

EILEEN LASKAR, 36
Director Intellect Consulting

Eileen Laskar, Director of Intellect Consulting, knows a lot about promotions at work place. She first won a string of them, and then turned to securing them for others, as Kenya's first Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC) from the Professional Association of Résumé Writers and Career Coaches. It's a mission that has already earned her the gratitude of many, borne of her own long search for the right job and a role she believed in.

Career Coaches help professionals to set and attain their career goals. The scope is broad including everything to do with personal branding, career planning, coaching for excellence and facilitating career mentoring amongst others. It's a role that involves reshaping talent and matching aptitude to achievement. It is also a role that has made sense of Ms Laskar's own, strikingly diverse résumé, something that has helped her identify with her clients, she says.
It is also a role that has made sense of Ms Laskar's own, strikingly diverse résumé, something that has helped her identify with her clients, she says.

The journey of the 36-years old mother of three boys began in the public sector where she was employed fresh from Egerton University armed with a BSc in Agriculture Economics. It took her two years to move on into the private sector.
"There was a lot of laxity and time wasting in the civil service. Those were the times I could read the newspapers cover to cover and even fill the crosswords. I used this time to pursue a post graduate diploma in Business Management, which helped me to leap to the private sector," said the confident 5,9 founder and Director - of Intellect Consulting Ltd.

Pride Africa was her next stop, where she rose in the ranks very fast. At the time she was being confirmed in the job after three months, Ms Laskar was promoted to oversee the running of a new branch from scratch.
Having successfully set up the branch, she moved to another employer, this time in the International non-governmental organization, Practice Action.

Her new role required her to double up as the business development advisor and programmes manager in charge of donor contracts of huge portfolio. She brought on board her corporate experience and knowledge of the micro finance sector.

By 2004, she was on the move again, this time to Africa Women in Agribusiness Network, a USAID Programme requiring her to work in African countries as the regional Business Development Coordinator. Ms Laskar hopped on again to the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), in 2005, but her stay was short lived. In 2006 she finally set up her own business.

"I never like being in familiar grounds for too long. I lose interest. That explains why I moved a lot. Initially I was in the process of defining myself, and later I was seeking to gain diverse exposure in readiness for setting up the career coaching practice," said Ms Laskar.

Her turning point came when she needed someone to help her shape and focus her career and realized that the nearest certified career coach who could help her was in South Africa. A chase for books she could read on career development led her to what she calls funny books, like how to dress for an interview. It was only after combining several bookshops that she picked up a personal development book that led her towards some genuine resource books on career development, and which she had to import mainly from UK.

That was five years ago. She is now talking big; with plans in the pipeline for registering all certified coaches in the country and setting up career coaching centers in organizations. Ms Laskar said: "As a pioneer, I have to set the standards and create awareness on the essence of career coaching."