Board of Directors
An alumnus of Strathmore College, Mr. Konditi is President & CEO of Foreign Assignment LLC, a global travel and leisure network serving diplomats and expats. He is also on the board of Global Aviation Research, LLC, an aviation industry investment firm based in Washington, DC. Previously Mr. Konditi served in several senior positions in the General Electric Company, including as President of GE Asset Intelligence, Senior Vice President of GE Trailer Fleet Services, and Chief Financial Officer of GE Plastics South America. Mr. Konditi received his B.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and his M.B.A. in Operations and Finance from Washington University’s Olin Business School. An experienced pilot, he is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Air Transportation Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
An alumnus of Strathmore University’s IMIS program, Mr. Mbaya is co-founder and CEO of Nairobi Capital, Inc., a US mobile money financial intermediary with a wholly owned Kenyan subsidiary addressing the working capital needs of small businesses in Africa. Previously he served in the Office of Treasury Management at Harvard University as a Global Financial Analyst. He also served as Program Director and Administrator of Executive Programs at Strathmore Business School in Nairobi. Mr. Mbaya received his S.B. in Mechanical Engineering (Manufacturing Systems Design) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also concentrated in Japanese. He received his M.P.P in International Trade and Finance from the Kennedy School at Harvard University.
Bernadette Wanyonyi Musundi
A recently appointed member of the Strathmore University Council, for which she chairs its Fundraising Policy Committee, Mrs. Musundi is a former Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Vice President and Ministry of Home Affairs of the Republic of Kenya. Among her major accomplishments while in government was co-ordinating the passage by the Kenyan Parliament of the landmark Children’s Bill after 18 years of debate. Active in women’s issues, she also served as Executive Director .of Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organization, the largest women’s NGO in east Africa. Her other educational pursuits include membership on the university council of Regina Pacis University College in Nairobi, a constituent college of Catholic University of East Africa. She also serves as a board member of Transparency International’s Kenya chapter.
John Wiclif Odhiambo, Ph.D.
In 2002, Professor John Odhiambo was installed as Vice Chancellor (President) of Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya, where he is also a member of the Faculty of Commerce as a professor of statistics. Before Strathmore, Professor Odhiambo was Chairman of the Department of Mathematics of University of Nairobi, where he was also Professor of Mathematics in Statistics. In addition to his duties at Strathmore, President Odhiambo is Chairman, Kenya Branch, of the International Biometric Society. He also serves as Consultant Statistician to the Population Council and as Consultant to the Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa Regional Program. President Odhiambo received his Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in mathematics and statistics all from the University of Nairobi. In 1984, he was awarded a Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship at University of London in the United Kingdom. In 1976, he was awarded the Shell Prize for best overall graduating student in the Faculty of Science at University of Nairobi. Professor Odhiambo’s continuing research concerns the potential of the Group Screening Method in the management of the AIDS crisis in Africa.
Thomas H. Pyle
Mr. Pyle is a banker, businessman, and social entrepreneur who served as Strathmore University Foundation’s founding Executive Director from 2004 to 2009. Under his direction, SUF established itself as a fully functioning 501(c)3 non-profit advancement enterprise serving all the functions of a university advancement office. Mr. Pyle also serves as a director Princeton-in-Asia, Inc., the National Alliance on Mental Illness (Mercer County, NJ Chapter), and Access of New Jersey Credit Union, a newly forming financial institution by and for individuals with psychiatric disabilities. He previously served as chairman of TerraCycle, Inc., a eco-consumer products company founded by students at Princeton University. Before entering the non-profit sector, Mr. Pyle was for 20 years engaged in international banking with firms such as JPMorganChase, Deutsche Bank, and Bank Austria in Hong Kong and New York, for which he specialized in project and international finance. Mr. Pyle began his career as an English teacher at Singapore’s Nanyang University, where he also studied Mandarin Chinese. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School.
Elise Rockart
Mrs. Rockart was for many years a systems engineer for IBM in the United States and Africa. When living and working in Kenya, she served as one of the “pioneer” first teachers at Kianda College in Nairobi, the first multiracial college for women in Kenya now merged with Strathmore University. For the past 13 years she has served in various leadership capacities on the board of the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry in Roxbury, MA, a significant community services organization providing shelter services for victims of domestic violence and after school programs and college preparation for disadvantaged youth. A graduate of Wellesley College, Mrs. Rockart is also an active community volunteer in her home town of Weston, MA.
Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe, Ph.D.
Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe is the Theodora Shelton Pitney Professor of Environmental Sciences and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University. He has recently also been Director of Princeton’s Center for Energy and Environmental Studies. Professor Rodriguez is also currently Member of the Corporation Visiting Committee for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Professor Rodriguez-Iturbe joined the Princeton faculty in 1999 after holding positions at several institutions in the United States and in his native country of Venezuela. A world-leading expert in hydrology, Professor Rodriguez-Iturbe was selected in 2002 to receive the Stockholm Water Prize, known informally as the “Nobel Prize of water” presented by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden on behalf of the Stockholm Water Foundation. The prize recognizes outstanding research, action or education that increases knowledge of water as a resource and protects its usability for all life. Professor Rodriguez-Iturbe received a degree in Civil Engineering from Universdad del Zulia in Venezuela, a Master of Science from California Institute of Technology, and a Doctor of Philosophy from Colorado State University.
David C. Sperling, Ph.D.
Dr. David Sperling is Research Professor and Advisor to the Vice Chancellor at Strathmore University. He is also the former Chairman of the Governing Council of Strathmore University and Associate Professor of History and Islamic Studies at Strathmore University. Previous to his current academic appointments, Dr. Sperling served as Lecturer in the Department of History of University of Nairobi from 1989 to 2001. Dr. Sperling’s education career began in 1961, when he became founding principal of Strathmore College, the predecessor of Strathmore University. A native American and since 1971 a naturalized Kenyan citizen, Dr. Sperling received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University, Master of Arts degree from Harvard University, and his Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. In 1997, Dr. Sperling was Visiting Fellow at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University. In 1995, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Harry Truman Institute, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is currently a fellow at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Sperling’s ongoing research concerns Fundamentalism and African expressions of Islam and Christianity in East Africa. For his pioneering work in Kenyan education as a founder in 1961 of Strathmore College, Kenya’s first multiracial school, Dr. Sperling is a recipient of The John Phillips Award from Phillips Exeter Academy, recognizing alumni whose lives and contributions to the welfare of community, country, and humanity exemplify in high degree the nobility of character and usefulness to humanity that John Phillips sought in establishing the Academy.
Luis E. Tellez
Mr. Luis Tellez received a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering, as well as an M.B.A. in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis. Mr. Tellez spent the early part of his career working in the chemical industry, and subsequently spent over 20 years administering several not-for-profit corporations. A member of the Advisory Council of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, he is also founder and President of The Witherspoon Institute, an independent academic research entity in Princeton.
Mark Thaiya
An alumnus of Strathmore College, Mr. Thaiya is founder and owner of Synergy International Group, LLC, in Atlanta, GA, a management consulting firm specializing in financial and operating management software applications. He previously served as a Senior Management Consultant and Manager at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, LLC and as a Principal of the project management team of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, both in Atlanta. Receiving a B.A. (Honors) in Economics from College of Wooster as well as an M.A. in International Affairs and and M.B.A. from Ohio University, Mr. Thaiya is a PeopleSoft Financial Management Certified Consultant. He is also a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon (International Honorary Society of Economics) and the Project Management Institute. Mr. Thaiya is also the founding president of the Association of Kenyan Professionals in Atlanta, now with over 100 members.