Eva Muraya—A Business Professional

Eva Muraya is currently the CEO of Brand Strategy & Development (BSD) Ltd a leading regional brand strategy development agency. BSD is also a Hall & Partners Yellowwood associated company, South Africa’s leading specialist in brand strategy.

Muraya has until recently been the CEO of Color Creations Ltd, now Color Creations Africa Ltd; the first advertising and branding business awarded ISO 9001:2000 certification in East and Central Africa. She has led the expansion strategy implementation of the company that seeks to reach the region and the African continent at large. Muraya has been recognized both locally and internationally for her business innovation and leadership.

Eva Muraya—Advocacy Champion

Muraya co-founded the Kenya Association of Women Business Owners (KAWBO) which she currently serves as chairperson. KAWBO is a forum where women in business come together to discuss pertinent issues affecting women owned businesses in a dynamic marketplace.

Muraya is the current Chairperson of the board of the Zawadi Africa Education Program (www.zawadiafrica.org), designed to provide scholarships for needy, academically talented young women from Africa. These young women must demonstrate leadership skills and have a strong desire to pursue a premium or graded education in the United States.

Muraya is a Board member of JITIHADA, an initiative of the Ministry of Industrialization with support from the World Bank. The project seeks to increase growth and competitiveness of SME’s in Kenya.

Eva Muraya—Achiever & Motivator

Muraya’s business leadership has earned her a variety of awards and prestigious appointments. She was an award nominee at the Pan African Invent and Innovate Conference in Accra – Ghana in 2005, received the 2006 Eve Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, in 2008 she was a co-recipient of the inaugural Goldman Sachs Fortune Global Leadership Award - 2008 and The International Alliance for Women (TIAW) World of Difference 100 Award, in November 2009, she received the Marketing Society of Kenya (MSK) Warrior award. She is also profiled in the recently published conversations with 74 top leading Kenyan women achievers in “Life Journeys”, compiled by Susan Wakhungu-Gituku.

Eva Muraya—Family & Social Pillar

Eva is the mother of two enterprising teenage daughters, Stephanie Wambui and Zawadi Nyambura. She is passionate about women’s economic empowerment, mentorship of youth, and also advocating and fund raising initiatives for children with special needs.

Muraya holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism and Marketing (Magna Cum Laude) from the United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi and a Diploma in Advanced Business Management from the IESE and Strathmore Graduate Business Schools. Additionally, she has diplomas in Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations, Sales and Management from the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a certificate in Marketing from the Marketing Society of Kenya (MSK).

• Eva Muraya on Dignity and Gainful Employment

  Business creation provides that opportunity for people to have gainful employment, and people can therefore support themselves by providing shelter and food and health for their families. I’ve seen that through my business. We begin to say no to poverty and begin to redeem the dignity of the citizens by virtue of creating business opportunity.

• Eva Muraya on Social Effects of Business

  I think the most sustainable way is for opportunity to be created, so that people can engage in enterprise... If you had employed five people, if your business grows, then you will then employ twelve and eighteen and thirty, and a hundred. It’s happened in my business experience. A hundred families are being supported by Color Creations to date, directly. I haven’t even begun to talk about the families supported by the creditors and suppliers that I work with, or the other stakeholders in my business. That’s just one business.

• Eva Muraya on Women in Business

  We can do a lot more to involve women in business, they’re the closest in providing a solution concerning education, health nutrition, shelter.

• Eva Muraya on the Spiritual Dimension in the Economics of Society

  There is a place in the economics of society, that must take on a spiritual dimension. It is the way it was meant to be, for us to leverage our communities out of poverty.

• Eva Muraya on the State vs. the Private Sector

  The state has its role in creating a more enabling environment, but I think private sector has the bigger role in applying the best business principles. So that growth of enterprise is exponential, and it grows and grows, and we begin to drive the bottom of the pyramid the other way around ... because it is possible. It has worked in other societies and it can work for Africa.

• Eva Muraya on Individuals

  It’s got to be the people must live their dream. People must live their vision. People without vision surely will perish.