Gachao Kiuna, Chief Executive Officer, Transcentury Group

Kiuna
Panellist at AIX: Gas 2015
Gachao is the CEO of Trans-Century Limited and is responsible for managing Trans-Century’s Infrastructure business across 14 different African countries focused on:
Power Infrastructure: Manufacture of electrical cables and conductors; transformers and switch-gear Construction of Power Lines and Sun-Stations and development of Power Generation Plants using existing (e.g. Geothermal) and Novel technologies (e.g. Methane Gas)
Transport Infrastructure: Re-habilitation and operational turn around of both freight and passenger railways in Kenya and Uganda to meet huge unmet demand for rail services along the East Africa Transport Corridor.
Construction and Engineering: Building of critical infrastructure projects for Oil and Gas, Power Generation, Mining and Public Sector clients across Africa as a leading EPC contractor.
Previous to Trans-Century, Gachao was an Associate Principal in McKinsey’s Sub-Saharan Africa office. He joined the firm in July 2003 after completing his PhD at the University of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, in the United Kingdom. His client work focused around Economic Development, most notable of which was his work in developing Vision 2030, Kenya’s National economic Blueprint.
Vision 2030
Gachao was the Engagement Manager from McKinsey that led the development of the Vision 2030 strategy together with the Government of Kenya, private sector, local and international agencies and many other key stakeholders in the Country
As the Project leader, Gachao worked with experts across the globe to understand best practice examples relating to all parts of the Vision 2030 Strategy
As the Engagement Manager, he led the day to day work of the broader Vision 2030 team, which consisted of McKinsey consultants, Ministerial team members, NESC team members. He led discussions with the Technical, Operational and National Vision 2030 Committees as well as discussions with NESC
Gachao was one of two McKinsey experts that presented the Economic Pillar of the Vision 2030 strategy to the President, Vice President, Head of Civil service and all government Ministers, assistant Ministers and Permanent Secretaries
Gachao helped to develop the initial proposal for the set up of the Vision Delivery Secretariat (VDS) based on key learning from other successful units such as the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) in the UK, Economic Development Boards (EDB) in Bahrain and Singapore, Economic Planning Unit (EPU) in Malaysia
Gachao is now an Associate Principal at McKinsey and is part of the Social Sector Practice leadership. His works focuses on Economic Development (e.g. Country Strategy), Electric Power (in particular power generation), Global Pubic Health and Education.
Prior to McKinsey, Gachao did a PhD in Biotechnology at the Institute of Biotechnology in Cambridge. He holds a First Class Honors BSC degree from Imperial College, London in Biochemistry.
He has also held internship positions at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), working on a wide spectrum of projects on HIV research and East African Breweries Ltd, where he circulated all departments within the company at a time when operations were being restructured following acquisition by Guinness (Diagio PLC).
Gachao is Kenyan; speaks English, Swahili and French.