A surprising thing about Winnie Waweru, FD at Mastercard Foundation , is her passion for cars, especially Mercedes-Benz. She’s even visited the Daimler-Benz factory in Germany to witness car manufacturing firsthand. Her friends are often amazed at how she can easily explain mechanical problems.
Outside of work, Winnie loves to travel and discover new places. Her fridge is a testament to her adventures, covered in magnets from various destinations. She’s also a fitness enthusiast, enjoying swimming, walking, running, and even playing football with her nephew when she can. As a born-again Christian, she is actively involved in her church community.
“Traveling around the world began at a young age for me,” Winnie explains. “A pivotal event in my life was studying in the United States on a scholarship as a teenager. Being alone in a foreign country forced me to mature quickly and become independent. This experience broadened my perspective, allowing me to appreciate the global landscape and see beyond my home country. It ignited a desire to explore the world and contribute to positive change in Africa. My career choices have been driven by this passion for transforming the African continent.”
Working for Mastercard Foundation gives Winnie the opportunity to contribute to the transformation of the continent as the organisation has the agenda of empowering young Africans with dignified and fulfilling work. As the director of finance responsible for country programmes, she leads a team of 30 deploying a management style that is agile and focused on empowerment. She prioritises building a high-performing team and then steps back to let her team excel. In her role, Winnie provides strategic financial leadership to support the organisation's overall objectives.
Prior to her current role, Winnie held senior finance positions at Mastercard, GE Healthcare, and PwC. As the director and finance business partner for Sub-Saharan Africa at Mastercard, she managed financial processes across 29 countries and provided financial leadership to country management teams. During her time at GE Healthcare, she served as the commercial controller for Africa, where she managed financial reporting and advised on complex commercial deals across more than 50 countries.
Her earlier career at PwC as a senior associate gave her a strong foundation in auditing, risk assessment, and consultancy work, which she has built upon in her subsequent roles. Winnie is known for her ability to drive process improvements, mentor teams, and deliver strategic financial insights that have consistently added value to the organisations she has worked with.
Navigating challenges
“The most rewarding moments of my career have come from seeing my work directly improve people's lives,” Winnie shares. “One standout example was my involvement in the GE Healthcare Managed Equipment Services Kenya project in 2015, where I witnessed the positive impact on 97 hospitals, particularly in rural areas. Today, at the Mastercard Foundation, I’m continually inspired by the incredible work young people are doing to tackle challenges within their communities. My passion for making a difference drives my career choices, though I’ve faced setbacks, particularly when my work-life balance was out of sync. Thankfully, I’ve learned to navigate through those challenges.”
That Winnie is a finance guru today would not be a surprise to her high school mates. She has always been exceptionally good with numbers. Her strong mathematical abilities, which earned her top honours in the School of Mathematics at the University of Nairobi, naturally led her toward a career in accounting. While she primarily works in finance, her accounting background provides a solid foundation for her role.
Beyond academics, books such as Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High have been a transformative influence on both her personal and professional life. She has read it three times and continues to find it invaluable.
“It emphasises emotional awareness and explains how our emotions are often shaped by the stories we tell ourselves, particularly when we presume the intentions of others, which may not reflect reality. By having the right conversations, we can remove presumptions and better understand the actual situation, leading to more appropriate emotional responses. I believe that difficult conversations must be approached with honesty and kindness, as many relationships have failed because the right conversation was not had at the right time or in the right way,” Winnie explains.
If she could go back in time, Winnie would advise her younger self to hold on to the things that bring joy, like playing the piano, which has always been a passion of hers. Work pressures caused her to put it aside, a decision she now regrets. Had she kept it as part of her life, it would have provided a valuable sense of balance.
Looking ahead, she hopes to live vicariously through her future children by encouraging them to pursue their musical interests and passions without letting life's demands stand in the way.
