Events

Zuweina Farah is a dynamic and purpose-driven leader with an infectious enthusiasm for innovation, technology, and creating meaningful social impact. Known for her energy and visionary approach, Zuweina is passionate about community, celebrating culture, and advancing sustainable development. Her professional journey reflects a commitment to making a difference, with her work sitting at the intersection of technology and social impact.

As the Director of External Affairs and Vodacom Foundation at Vodacom Tanzania, Zuweina leads with purpose, driving stakeholder engagement, strategic communications, and policy advocacy. She spearheads impactful environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives and oversees programs that empower women, youth, and underserved communities across the country. Her leadership style is rooted in collaboration and a steadfast belief in the power of technology to unlock inclusive opportunities.

Zuweina’s career is marked by her diverse leadership experiences, including her roles as CEO of Smile Telecoms Tanzania and Executive Director of AMCHAM Tanzania. These roles highlight her ability to navigate complex challenges while driving growth and transformation. Beyond her executive achievements, she actively contributes as a board member and advisor for organizations across the globe,such as the UN Global Compact, financial institutions, NGOs, and program funds, shaping strategies that prioritize sustainable development.

A passionate entrepreneur and advocate for partnerships and co-creation, Zuweina is the founder of SNDBX Space, a dynamic co-working hub and community for technology entrepreneurs, startups, and SMEs. At SNDBX, she mentors early-stage innovators, guiding them to scale their ideas and achieve their full potential.

An advocate for lifelong learning, Zuweina holds a BSc in Business from Minnesota State University and has completed executive programs at Oxford Saïd Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management, specializing in Executive Leadership and Data Monetization. Her achievements have earned her accolades such as the Women in Tech 2022 Africa Award - Global Leadership and the Top 50 Women in Management Award 2022.Driven by a mission to inspire change and deliver impact, Zuweina’s work exemplifies the possibilities of aligning innovation and technology with a deep commitment to people and planet.

Significantly, I began my primary education at the William Pattern School in early 1960s London, where my father had gone as a law student. This led to a precocious competence in English as a second language, added to the Lunyala and Lusamia dialects which I had learned as a child; to which I was to add proficiency in Kiswahili and French, having also studied Latin, German and Italian at various stages in my youth.

Upon my family’s return to Kenya, I was “discovered,” at the school where I was to finish my primary schooling, by a Speech Day prize-giver, a man who had been seconded by the BBC to work for the KBC - the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Thus began an apprenticeship, at the age of 12, as talent for the Kenya Schools’ Broadcasting Division, which provided nation-wide tuition through radio. This continued into my high school years. While at the University of Nairobi, where I majored in French, I worked as a news’ reader for the General (understand English) Service of what had become the VOK – the Voice of Kenya. This coincided with growing national recognition as a stage actor. In combination, my communication skills led to a shift to presenting on television. With broadcasting, stage and screen acting and print journalism as sustained sidelines, my professional mainstay was as a high school teacher of French, for over 25 years, before I retired, in 2008.

In the recent past, I turned first to television presenting, full time, and thereafter to consultancy work as a bilingual (English and French) international moderator at high level conferences, with a reputation for meticulous preparation, courteous tenacity and high intellectual rigour, with the possible injection of humour.