Carole Wamuyu Wainaina was the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources from October 2014 till April 2017, replacing

Catherine Pollard Catherine Pollard (born 1960 in Georgetown, Guyana) is a diplomat who has been serving as Under Secretary-General of the United Nations for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance since 2019. From 2015 until 2019, she was the Coordinator f ...

. Prior to this appointment announced on 25 September 2014 by

United Nations Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was the South Korean minister ...

, Ms. Wainaina was Chief Human Resources Officer and a member of the Executive Committee at Royal Philips in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. She is currently working as the

Chief Operating Officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

for Africa50 Infrastructure Fund.

Biographical Information

Ms. Wainaina was born in the year 1966 in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. She has extensive experience in various areas of management including human resources strategy, leadership development, change management and driving organizational transformation. She started her career as a management consultant at

Price Waterhouse Coopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along ...

in Kenya. She has held high-level positions with Royal Philips and

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

. In 1998, Ms. Wainaina was offered her job at Coca-Cola and she moved with her two children to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. During her thirteen years at Coca-Cola, she held various positions such as President of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, Chief of Staff of the Chairman and CEO, and Group Human Resources Director Eurasia and Africa. At Royal Philips, she held her position on the Executive Committee for three years from 2011 to 2014. She also worked at the

Kenya Wildlife Service Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is a state corporation under the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife established by an act of Parliament; Wildlife Conservation and Management Act CAP 376, of 1989, now repealed and replaced by the Wildlife Conservation ...

as the Special Assistant to the Director

Richard Leakey Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician. Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife cons ...

Education

Ms. Wainaina holds a Bachelor of Business Degree from the

University of Southern Queensland The University of Southern Queensland is a public research university based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, the sixth largest city in the Australian state of Queensland Founded in 1967 after a successful campaign by the local Darling Down ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, where she majored in Human Resources Management and Marketing.

References

External links

Biography
on United Success * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wainaina, Carole 1966 births Living people 21st-century Kenyan businesswomen 21st-century Kenyan businesspeople Kenyan officials of the United Nations University of Southern Queensland alumni 20th-century Kenyan businesswomen 20th-century Kenyan businesspeople