International Women’s Day
How Africa Investment Advisor Diana Njuguna balances work, motherhood and marriage
Spotlight Q&A with CrossBoundary Women for International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month
How can companies retain talented women? Africa Investment Advisor Diana Njuguna has ideas.
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2023 and Women’s History Month, we requested our colleagues worldwide to share their insights on how to #EmbraceEquity and address the gender gap.
Demands on women can make it a challenge to maintain balance between professional and personal life, especially in a travel-heavy, time-intensive field like investment advisory. Gender equity can help alleviate this burden by ensuring that women have access to the same opportunities as men and are not limited by societal demands and expectations.
Diana is no stranger to forging her path and living a full life. She is a 2010 Rhodes Scholar and holds an MBA and an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Accountancy & Finance from Birmingham City University. She is a CFA® charterholder and an ACCA fellow. She is a mom. She is a wife. And she is a senior investment professional with over 13 years of experience in private equity, mezzanine debt, senior debt and asset management.
Before joining CrossBoundary, Diana worked on Vantage Capital’s mezzanine debt team in Johannesburg, where she was responsible for originating, assessing, structuring, executing, monitoring, and exiting transactions in East Africa as well as South Africa. Prior to that, she worked at TransCentury in Kenya where she evaluated medium and long-term private equity investments across fast-growing under-served sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as a stint at Goldman Sachs in the UK, and Centum Investment Company Limited in Kenya.
Read on to hear from her:
Name: Diana Njuguna
Title: Africa Investment Advisor, Southern Africa
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Q: What motivated you to join CrossBoundary? How has your experience been so far?
Diana: I was recruited to join as an Africa Investment Advisor to the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), responsible for Southern Africa.
DFC is America’s development finance institution, and it partners with the private sector to finance solutions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today. The role is exciting for me because I play a critical role in increasing DFC’s footprint in Southern Africa across 10 countries (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Eswatini, Lesotho, Comoros, and Mauritius) and across different sectors such as climate (e.g., renewable energy, plastic recycling), healthcare, critical infrastructure (e.g. roads, ports, bridges), ICT, financial inclusion etc. DFC also provides financing for SMEs and women entrepreneurs in order to create jobs in emerging markets. My role is three-fold and entails the following:
- Deal origination and assessment, where I am responsible for originating a minimum of 4 approved transactions a quarter (16 approved deals a year).
- Due diligence support and portfolio management, where I assist in on-the-ground due diligence and portfolio support given that I am closer to the countries.
- Field presence, where I support DFC’s strategic initiatives and represent DFC in conferences, webinars, and interagency meetings in my countries of coverage.
My experience so far has been exhilarating. I have enjoyed adding value to the DFC by finding excellent quality deals and supporting in getting transactions to financial close.
As a professional woman in your field, what barriers or challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?
One key challenge I face every day is trying to juggle being a super worker, a super wife, and a super mum — all at the same time. Being an overachiever, when I am at work, I want to be excellent and a top performer. Sometimes that means working long hours and frequent work travel. When I am at home, I want to be a present wife and mum.
I strive to overcome this challenge by utilizing my support system — mainly my nanny, my house manager and my ever-supportive husband (given that our family is in a different country). I delegate what I can and share some of the responsibilities such as school drops offs and pickups and morning vs nighttime routines.
I also intentionally carve out time for my family. For instance, I purpose to spend time with my daughter during the weekends. When I travel for work, I call in the evenings or mornings to check-in. If I am able to tag along my husband and daughter on some of the days or have them join me over the weekend, I do so. I also build in regular family holidays coupled with some adventurous activities for my husband and me who are adrenaline lovers plus weekly date evenings.
In addition to that, I carve out time for myself. I am a big believer in the principles of the 5am Club — carving out at least 1 hour every morning to (1) read a book/listen to an audiobook/podcast/watch an educational video, (2) journal/reflect/plan/pray, and (3) exercise. This “victory hour” to myself is very rewarding, and helps me prepare for a world-class day as Robin Sharma puts it.
Most importantly, I am grateful I work for an amazing organization that is supportive of working mums and took into consideration most of the feedback I gave regarding how to retain strong female talent. These are embedded in the company’s policies, and I am never shy to share them with women thinking of joining CrossBoundary.
What is your superpower or biggest strength?
My biggest strengths are my passion, hardworking nature, diligence, dedication, thoroughness, and attention to detail. You can count on me to give 101% and strive for excellence in all I do.
Which woman in your life has influenced your career in a positive way?
My mother. She has always been supportive of my career and life choices. She is also one of the most hardworking people I know that knows how to multiply what she has! When life throws blows at her, she remains resilient and reminds me it could have been worse.
Growing up, she fueled my love for reading by buying me many books even if it meant her sacrificing her lunch on some of the days. She kept telling me education is all she could give me and that spurred me to study hard which bore fruit and opened many doors for me.
What advice would you give to a woman looking to start a career in your field?
Work hard and hone your craft by being curious and constantly equipping yourself with knowledge to help you in your role. It may entail putting in lots of hours (particularly the first couple of years). Be open to feedback and grow from it.
Don’t be afraid to ask when you don’t know the answer.
Don’t be afraid to take your seat at the table and make your contribution. Sometimes you might find you are the only woman in the room.
Learn how to say no or ask for help when you feel overwhelmed.
Make sure you have mentors that guide you along the way. Sponsors are also important to speak on your behalf or fight for you when you are not in the room. Look for an organization that values female talent and has supportive structures for working mums.
Lastly, don’t forget to take time to sharpen your saw/re-energize/recharge. It is absolutely important to take some time off! You come back more productive and efficient.
More from this series:
Inspired by the women working at CrossBoundary? Passionate about creating lasting change in underserved markets? Learn more about our current openings and apply to join our team here.
CrossBoundary is a mission-driven investment firm committed to unlocking the power of capital for sustainable growth and strong returns in underserved markets. Our team members come from diverse backgrounds but share several qualities: curiosity, humility, integrity, a drive for excellence, and a bias for action. Sound like you? Drop us a line.
