Kenyan Public Relations (PR) guru Gina Din-Kariuki is the recipient of the coveted Outstanding Individual Achievement SABRE Award 2020.
"Having founded Gina Din Corporate Communications in 1997, Gina Din-Kariuki is not only a trailblazer in the African public relations business but also a pioneer among women entrepreneurs in her home country of Kenya, where she has also been a mentor to many of the market’s top professionals and also an active philanthropist," reads an excerpt from the statement on the Holmes Report.
The SABRE Awards are the world's largest PR awards programme, recognising superior achievement in branding and reputation in North America, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), Asia-Pacific, Latin America, South Asia and Africa.
The awards are delivered by The Holmes Report, the authoritative voice of the global public relations industry.
“Being selected by one's peers is actually very validating. I am grateful to my incredible family that has walked the journey with me, my loyal and committed staff and my visionary clients,” she stated.
The 2020 SABREs were originally scheduled to be presented at the annual awards dinner in Paris, France on May 28, but the event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2015 Gina Din was named as one of Africa’s 100 Most Influential People by New African magazine and East Africa Business Woman of the Year, for which she received a CNBC Africa All Africa Business Leaders Award.
She is widely admired for her resilience in shaping African conversations, and a brand evangelist with over 30 years of experience in Public Relations and Communications.
Her company Gina Din Corporate Communications was for many years an affiliate of Burson-Marsteller. For the past three years, it was Edelman’s affiliate in Kenya, until it was acquired by the global agency in February 2020, where she now serves as an advisor to Edelman across the African continent.
She also set up the Gina Din Foundation, to empower youth and women with high potential by connecting them to global resources, media platforms and mentors.
“We believe that with access to the right resources, youth and women can achieve their goals, develop their communities and build a strong and prosperous continent,” she stated in a past interview.
Her foundation has been tasked with handling major crisis across the continent over the years, including the Kenya Airways plane crash in Doula in 2007.
Over the years, her firm has managed brand communications and stakeholder engagement for several blue-chip organisations including Safaricom PLC, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Kenya Red Cross, Samsung and General Motors.
The renowned PR specialist is a mother as well, with her two children Natalya and Naythan both studying in the UK. Business Management at Southampton University.
Gina Din has been attending entrepreneurship-themed seminars religiously over the years, terming it as her own way of giving back and offering lessons from her journey.
"There’s a lot of confusion on entrepreneurship because not everyone that is self-employed is an entrepreneur. Being self-employed is definitely more secure because you tend to depend mainly on yourself and your skills that you are selling," she once stated.
