David Gatimu is an Oxford Brookes University trained urban planner, with experience spanning over 30 years.

He started his career with the Nairobi City Council (now the Nairobi City County Government) where he served in several roles over the years among them as Assistant Director of Planning. He served his last public service role as the Chief Officer responsible for lands, housing and physical planning in Kiambu County Government, in 2017.

During his entire public service career, he has been deeply involved in urban policy formulation and urban development management in the most dynamic urban environments in Kenya. Mr. Gatimu has a deep passion and commitment to entrench the influence of planning with the defining characteristics of climate resilience. He believes that as devolution governance takes root in Kenya, the negative consequences of urbanisation must awaken the Green Climate solutions.

His vast experience has continued to keep him constantly engaged within the private sector, professional bodies’ networks in the built environment, development partners and community based organisations in developing ideas, innovations and capacity building in urban governance. He is currently a member of Kenya Property Developer’s Affordable Housing Task Force and also provides regular urban governance advisories to the Kenya Private Sector Alliance Land Sector Board.

Since 2019, he has been carrying out assignments with UN-Habitat is supporting several counties on urban development and governance systems. The cumulative work from these assignments enabled Mr. Gatimu to co-author the “Guidebook on Managing Infrastructure Development through Physical & Land Use Planning Processes in Kenya” (https://unhabitat.org/managing-and-financing-urban-development-through-physical-land-use-planning-processes-in-kenya-a). The guidebook was published in July 2022

Mark Dunford earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Hospitality Management from the EHL Ecole Hoteliere Lausanne, Switzerland in 2004.

Mark’s first entry into the world of work in January 2005 with the STR Global (originally knowns as The Bench) as the UK sales manager, based in London.

In January 2007 he joined JLL in London as Associate, working there for two years before relocating to the Mediterranean city of Barcelona as the development director of Franklyn Hotels & Resorts in 2009.

His next move was northward bound to Switzerland, as a consultant with the Lausanne Hospitality Consulting, where he worked as a senior consultant until December 2014.
Mark then ventured into self-employment at MD Principal Independent Advisory, still based in Lausanne Area.
In June 2017, Mark moved back to JLL as the Vice President of the Hotels and Hospitality group in sub-Saharan Africa tasked with heading the East Africa unit of JLL in Nairobi, a post he held for three and a half years before moving to Dubai in July 2019 as JLL’s Director of Capital Markets Middle East and North Africa.

In January 2021 he joined Cavendish Maxwell, as Partner and Head of Investment & Commercial Agency in Dubai.

He is now heading Knight Frank Kenya from its Nairobi office as CEO. An avid sportsman, Mark has played rugby at a national level, is an expert swimmer and a biking enthusiast. He also takes part in triathlon competitions and plays rugby regularly.

He has sat on the Boards of the following organizations:
EHL, January 2013 - Dec 2014, in the China Advisory Business.
Kenya Utalii College, July 2016 - July 2019.
Seychelles Tourism Board - Since June 2010 to present.
Superbrands East Africa Council - Sits as judge in the Council.

Wangoi Karuga is a Tax Partner at MAK & Partner Advocates, a full-service Law Firm located in Nairobi, Kenya. Wangoi is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, a chartered accountant with ACCA, and a member of the Institute of Certified Secretaries of Kenya (ICPSK). Wangoi is a serving member of the Law Society of Kenya, Nairobi Branch and the East Africa Law Society Tax Law Committees.

Prior to joining MAK & Partner Advocates, Wangoi was a Senior Associate at Anjarwalla & Khanna, ALN Kenya. Prior to joining ALN Kenya, Wangoi was a Senior Tax Advisor at KPMG East Africa. On an international front, Wangoi has previously worked in KPMG UK, London office as a tax secondee in international tax advisory services specific to real estate market in the UK.

Wangoi has over ten years’ experience in providing legal, taxation and accounting services to a wide range of local and multinational clientele. Wangoi specialises in tax dispute resolution, cross boarder transactional tax matters, tax advisory and structuring, tax compliance, tax due diligence and optimization, as well as commercial law aspects such as reorganization, mergers and acquisitions.

Kenneth Mbae is the Managing Director of Centum Real Estate, a real estate growth company that develops mixed use urban nodes in strategic locations where families, individuals, and businesses are positioned to thrive. Over the years, Kenneth who begun his career in 2010 as an intern at Centum has obtained hands on experience on every aspect of real estate development, investment, and business value chain through the various leadership roles that he has held at Centum Re.

In his role as Managing Director, Kenneth provides astute leadership to Centum Real Estate in its quest for growth and through its evolution journey to become the “homes developer brand of choice” in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is responsible for the company’s overall vision and strategy, investment priorities, ESG agenda, financial objectives as well as operations.

Under Kenneth’s leadership, Centum Re has become one of the largest real estate developers in East Africa. The Company has delivered record sales and profitable growth by expanding into new diaspora markets in the US, Europe, Australia, Middle East and the Rest of Africa. Kenneth is a trailblazer and result oriented leader with a proven track record in the real estate industry.

He has been at the helm of providing oversight to multiple operations, marketing and strategic roles covering multiple large-scale projects in East Africa. Centum Re under his leadership successfully completed and handed over 1,200 homes with a further 2,100 homes under construction. Most recently, Kenneth retired a KES 3B Centum RE listed Real Estate bond from internally generated funds, monetised the existing land bank and pioneered the installation of the largest sea water desalination plant in Sub-Saharan Africa with a daily capacity of 3 million litres of water.

Under his leadership, Centum RE established a Scholarship scheme that provides full high school educational support to brilliant students from underprivileged background and so far, 400 student students have been beneficiaries. Prior to assuming the Managing Director role, Kenneth held positions of significant responsibility within Centum RE such as the Chief Operating Officer and founding Managing Director of Vipingo Development PLC.

He holds a BSC. Biochemistry from Kenyatta University and an Advanced Management Certificate in Business Management from the Kenya Institute of Management. He is a Harvard GSD Alumni (AMDP XVIII), University of Cambridge Judge Business School SMP 8 Alumni, and a member of the Project Management Institute as well as the Institute of Directors (Kenya). Kenneth is also a Certified RBA Trustee.

Kenneth has been named and recognized as one of top 40 under 40 Men during 2021 Business Daily Annual awards.

Ciru Wanyoike is the Group Commercial Director at Mi Vida and oversees the asset/property management business under the brand Auris Property Management. She oversees the commercializing of the entire Garden City estate, to maximize the value of the portfolio, which includes a premier retail mall (Garden City Mall), modern residential units (Garden City Residences), and Garden City Business Park with Grade A office space. She also heads Auris Property Management, a sister company, providing the full fledge of property services, including property management/facility management services, sales and marketing services, and project management services.

Ciru has over 16 years of combined experience in real estate and finance. She has worked in both the USA and Kenyan markets, where she dealt with both commercial and residential real estate projects, including working on restructuring complex real estate transactions. She is also keen on corporate governance with her time spent on various Boards.

Ciru holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Psychology from Boston University (Boston, USA). She also holds a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) and a Master's in Finance, both from Bentley University (Boston, USA).