Building a truly “world wide” Web

During a Principia field program, Wambui Kinya went to work for a San Francisco advertising agency. Her task: better understand consumers’ online behaviors.

The experience stuck. With her Principia economics degree and computer science coursework, Kinya set out on her career helping Fortune 100 companies execute digital strategies. A quarter-century later, Kinya continues to help companies in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa use technology to drive innovation and impact. Additionally, as a Director at the Mozilla Foundation, Kinya champions keeping the Internet a global public resource for startups, policymakers, technologists, and entrepreneurs.

“There is always an opportunity to be more inclusive in how we build and enable solutions,” says Kinya. Inspired in part by Principia friends and mentors, including sociology and anthropology professor Billy Miller, Kinya is challenging outdated perceptions of Africa, highlighting the continent’s rich talent and innovative solutions to world challenges. “We have proven excellence exists in Africa,” says Kinya. “The opportunity now is to enable inclusive technology solutions for Africa.”