Nairobi’s Innovation and Incubation center iHub, has a new MD, Mary Gicharu

iHub could very well be the leading innovation house across Kenya. The center acts as an incubation and acceleration center. It also provides a hackerspace for the creative minds that want to come up with new ways of accomplishing tasks to tackling a problem.

Since its inception back in 2010, iHub has branched off into m:lab, Gearbox, UX Lab, and iHub Research. The innovation hub has a new Managing Director, Mary Gicharu, who comes in to take over after the former Managing Director Kamal Bhattacharya left to join Safaricom. Bhattacharya will still be in iHub but as the Chairman of the Board.

Mary Gicharu holds a Bachelor Degree in Finance, coupled with a vast corporate experience she got while working in the U.S. for some of the globally recognized brands. She has worked eight years with Morgan Stanley Investment bank as a Program Manager in COO’s office. She has also had other roles in big multinationals like Coca-Cola enterprises, Inc. in Atlanta, where she was in the Strategy & Planning, Portfolio Management.

More recently, she has worked as the lead and manager for the implementation of Equitel, now one of the largest MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) in Kenya. At iHub, she is expected to continue with the execution of iHub 2.0. iHub currently holds the mantra of building, connecting, and inventing.