Trustees
Sonal Kadchha, FOUNDER & CHAIR
British born with Kenyan-Indian roots, Sonal read Chemical Engineering at Queens’ College Cambridge, where she graduated with a First Class with honors. She set up ETC in 2008 after visiting the Masai Mara and noticed the lack of resources. Whilst running ETC, she also worked in the Financial Services sector for 15 years. Some of her corporate roles included building a multimillion GBP revenue stream from scratch (as Head of Bancassuance for Prudential Africa) and managing the Group credit limits & policies for counterparty risk and the shareholder asset portfolio (£70bn) across UK, US and South East Asia. She was also fast-tracked to Vice President at RBC Capital Markets where she structured competitive synthetic CDOs to win multiple mandates totalling $1bn+. She is an advisor to a design-led start-up after helping them secure SEIS/EIS funding from SFC Capital. Since leaving the corporate world, she has retrained as a therapeutic counsellor, helping individuals to integrate trauma, and difficult and/or intense life experiences.
Sonal is part of the “Extra Mile 40”, a list of people in finance, compiled by the Financial News, who go further for good causes. Sonal was also a finalist for Clarins “Woman of the year” which recognizes the UK’s most visionary charity pioneers.
NELSON OMECH
Nelson Omech is a Ugandan national serving as the Director Business Management, Prudential Strategic Business Group. He was previously the Head of Strategy, Prudential East and Central Africa (based in Nairobi) and Head of Bancassurance, Prudential Uganda (based in Kampala).
Nelson was among the first judges when ETC launched the Code Queen Programme in Kampala in 2019.
He is a sales and strategy expert with experience in building long-term commercial partnerships.
Arjun Mallik
Arjun Mallik is the Managing Director for Prudential East Africa. He also serves as the Head of Strategy for Prudential Africa, responsible for pursuing acquisition opportunities across the continent. Arjun holds an MBA from Instituto de Empresa Business School, Spain and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Eckerd College, USA
Local Committees
Agnes Kiu (Kenya)
Daniel Ole Soit (Kenya)
Andrew Gilbert (Kenya)
Henry Sekandi (Uganda)
‘Friends of ETC’
We are grateful to those individuals who have served as advisory and committee members in the past and continue to support us!
Rachel Hunter
Sapna Sisodia
Geraldine Feehally
Elizabeth Shaw
Aradhana Khowala
Howard Lewis
Ace Majija
Neil Raja
Amel Farag
Jude Innocent Atuhaire
Ambassadors
Sir Richard Branson,
CEO Virgin Group
Sir Richard Branson is an British business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He founded the Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies.
To celebrate the opening of his airline Virgin Atlantic’s new route from London to Nairobi in 2008, he invited 10 valued customers on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Masai Mara. Whilst out there, Richard was impressed with Sonal’s vision for ETC and lent a helping hand in getting it started. He has been an Ambassador since 2008.