| Organization: BSD Group |
| Designation: Founder and CEO |
Eva Muraya is the Founder and CEO of BSD Group, a regional award-winning brand strategy and Communications Company. It comprises four companies: Brand Strategy & Design Limited, Avid Public Relations Ltd, Whiteboard Advertising Limited and Brandquad Africa Limited, a knowledge sharing and talent development consultancy. Eva, a serial entrepreneur, also co-founded Color Creations Ltd, the first advertising and branding business to gain the global quality management systems standards ISO 9001:2001 Certification, in Sub-Saharan Africa, in 2007. Recently, Eva Partnered with Chris Githaiga (Country Manager, Ipsos Synovate – Kenya) to launch a new study named Top 100 Most Loved Brands by Women in Kenya. Eva has more than 20 years industry experience in brand communications, having managed the brand development, refresh and launch programs for local, regional and global companies. Her expertise is in Brand Repositioning & Alignment, Brand Sustainability, Capital Markets Communications, Crisis Communications, Internal Brand Engagement, Customer Centricity, Media Relations Strategy, Stakeholder Management, Corporate and Product PR and Entrepreneurship. She has been recognized both nationally and internationally for her business innovation and leadership. She is the former Chair of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) Gender and Youth Sector Board, and a co-founder and former past Chairperson of the Kenya Association of Women Business Owners (KAWBO). Her achievements at the helm of KAWBO include securing strategic partnerships with Vital Voices Global Partnership and ExxonMobil Foundation, the Kenya Hub for the Africa Businesswomen’s Network (ABWN) and championing advocacy for supplier diversity in Government agencies, the private and development sectors as critical inroads to market linkages for women entrepreneurs. Eva is the Chairperson of the Zawadi Africa Education Fund, an organization that provides mentorship, leadership development, and scholarship opportunities to academically gifted girls from disadvantaged backgrounds in select African countries to pursue higher education in the United States, Canada and leading African universities. An Aspen Fellow, her business leadership has earned her a variety of awards and prestigious appointments, including the Eve Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2007, Marketing Society of Kenya (MSK) Warrior award 2007, Goldman Sachs Fortune Global Leaders Award, 2008, and The International Alliance for Women (TIAW) World of Difference 100 Award. She has also participated in many Vital Voices Global Partnership programs, including the 2006 Vital Voices/U.S. State Department/Fortune Global Mentoring Program, Levelling the Playing Field, and was a Vital Voices/Gates Leadership and Advocacy Fund grantee for her project to engage businesswomen in economic policy advocacy. In 2013, Eva was nominated in the WIE (Women, Inspiration and Enterprise Network) Power List as one of the 60 most Prominent and Influential Women in Africa and is one of CEO Magazine’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government. She was also a mentee in the inaugural Vital Voices Global Partnership ‘Invest in Your Idea’ Johnson & Johnson sponsored program to promote public sector policy formulation in supplier diversity amongst 50 corporates in Kenya. An alumnus of the Columbia Business School’s Entrepreneurship Excellence Centre and Harvard Business School SEPA Program, Eva holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism and Marketing from the United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi, a Diploma in Advanced Business Management from the IESE (University of Navarra) and Strathmore Business Schools. She is also a graduate of the global Stanford SEED Entrepreneurship Program. Eva is a mother of two young adult daughters, Stephanie and Zawadi.