Dr Diana Wangari Gitau's story
Diana was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and at a young age had to help pay her school fees. Eventually, despite still being a teenager, she was able to find a job at the local newspaper as an opinion writer documenting her life as a student. When Diana got a place at medical school, her column became a medical student diary published in The Standard Kenya, the second largest paper in the country at that time.
Being nominated as one of Rare Rising Stars UK was an honour and I felt humbled to be among other top black students in the UK
Whilst studying Medicine, Diana was confronted by the challenges facing Kenyan’s healthcare system. As a journalist, she decided to start writing more on public health. After learning of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, and with the help of her editors and supervisors, a journalist-in-residency programme was created which allowed her to examine communicating public health challenges. This period coincided with the Ebola outbreak of 2014 and Diana had the opportunity to work on the ground in Liberia and Sierra Lone. Alongside a team from the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Diana developed a media communication tool for the Ebola outbreak that went on to be used by the World Federation of Science Journalists. This tool was also used to train a majority of science journalists in West Africa.
After finishing her medical degree and returning to Kenya, Diana met an African American doctor and former toxicologist. Together, they co-founded iSikCure, an app that allowed patients to remotely order medication rather than having to queue up in hospital for it. They went on to set-up local specialised medical clinics to allow patients to initiate their first point of contact in-person. In 2018, iSikCure became CheckUps Medical Centre and launched with eight small clinics in Kenya. However, demand was so high that the small clinics were consolidated into three major clinics in Nairobi and they opened eight smaller pick-up points around the country. The social enterprise received grants amounting to $1 million and subsequently raised $5 million from various investors which allowed for CheckUps Medical Centre’s expansion to East Africa. Diana served as CEO of the company and was nominated for the Top 40 Under 40 businesswomen in Kenya, Top 100 Most Influential Youth in Kenya, Management Today 35 Women Under 35 in the UK, and Forbes 30 Under 30 in Africa.
What the future holds: In the time since joining Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, I have since exited from Checkups Medical Centre and become part of the founding team for Lens Africa Fund where we are raising a gender lens investment vehicle [the practice of investing for financial return whilst considering the benefits to women] to support women-led companies, products and services and advocate for more women in CEO positions. I recognised the gaping capital need for more female-led companies and the need to get more women in executive positions. A report by McKinsey Global Institute, 'The Power of Parity' says that Africa would take an average of 142 years to reach gender parity at the current pace, and as a young African female CEO, I want to change that. In fact, I have come to use this slogan to define my purpose ‘The Mission is simple: More Female CEOs’.