Laila Macharia
Meet Laila, Head of Kenya Programs, where she leads our Kenya team to invest in local leaders and organizations creating market-relevant, dignified learning-to-earning pathways—designed with and for young people.
Prior to Imaginable Futures, Laila committed over two decades to ecosystem building to ignite the potential and promise of Africa's youth, with a focus on the twin challenges of work-readiness and job creation. This includes work with the Aspen Initiative to unlock the education-to-work pipeline, with the Africa Digital Media Institute skilling for the digital economy, with USAID-East Africa to reform the logistics sector, and with Scion Real to make the building sector more ethical, efficient and environmentally sustainable.
Laila is an award-winning investor and serial entrepreneur, holding board seats with Absa Bank Kenya, Centum PLC, among others.
Q&A
What is your headline statement for your career history?
A #DreamWhisperer who believes in, and puts imagination, time and money behind, human potential.
What lessons did you learn early in your career that you keep with you today?
My earliest professional success had less to do with my own talent and more to do with my amazing leadership team and the space I had to be ambitious and creative. Context matters.
What current Imaginable Futures endeavors most excite you?
Tapping local wisdom and global insights to drive ubiquitous opportunity for all.
If you didn’t work at Imaginable Futures, what would you be doing?
The same thing!
What did you want to be when you grew up?
As a tween, I dreamt of being a (re)designer of public spaces.
What’s the closest thing to real magic in this world?
Inspiration.
If someone narrated your life, who would you want it to be?
My kids.
Favorite quote:
"You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” — Rabbi Tarfon