16th February 2021
Stories from an Inspiring Leader – Irene Wambui Muchai Lopez
Irene Wambui Muchai Lopez, Business Development Associate, Online Optimism
In June of 2020 many businesses including ourselves took a hard look at what they could be doing to better represent and support the Black community. One of those things included crafting a statement about what your business intends to do for the Black community and ways it can improve its culture. Irene was an integral part of the conversation surrounding how best Online Optimism was to craft that statement. Being the only Black employee at the time, Irene showed courage in her ability to navigate these difficult conversations with the rest of the staff. Online Optimism crafted a statement that was reviewed heavily by Irene to ensure that our company was handling this topic with care but also was handling it sensitively. Continually having these tough conversations can often put quite a weight on anybody’s shoulder, let alone our Black employees. Irene persevered and helped our team put out a statement that was well received within our community. Since then, Irene has been a crucial voice with continued conversation about race and looks to ensure that our company continues to live up to the promises made in our initial statement.
Irene has grown in our company from an intern to a major voice in how our business grows, in only 11 months. Our company is opening a new office in Washington D.C. and Irene has spearheaded the marketing campaign surrounding our new D.C. location. Not only did Irene craft the creative brief for this marketing campaign but as this marketing campaign has several moving parts, Irene has continued to stay on top of each and every one, checking that our campaign is working successfully.
Endorsement
“Irene has risen to be the go-to person for anything related to business development and client pitching. […] Through working directly with her both in hiring an intern and in our general work tasks to keep Online Optimism at its best, I can confidently say that Irene is an inspiring leader who deserves this recognition for her accomplishments.”
About Inspiring Leaders
The extract above is taken from the Inspiring Leaders 2020 initiative which recognised exceptional leaders during the Covid-19 pandemic. You can download the full eBook with all the leader stories here.
Inspiring Leaders was created as a vehicle to recognize people who stepped up to help individuals, teams and organizations navigate personal and business challenges, and make a contribution to make their business, their community and the world a better place.
Due to the success of IL 2020, we have brought it back in 2021. We are now open for nominations. For more information about how to enter Inspiring Leaders, dates and fees – click here.