Lorna Irungu's Husband: Amherst Graduate Who Brought Bill Clinton to Kenya

Dalberg Advisors Global Managing Partner Edwin Macharia posing for a photo
Dalberg Advisors Global Managing Partner Edwin Macharia posing for a photo
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What do Lorna Irungu’s husband Edwin Macharia, President Uhuru Kenyatta, and former US President Calvin Coolidge have in common?

All three are graduates of Amherst College, and leaders in their own right; two as presidents, and Edwin as the global managing partner at Dalberg Advisors. 

Edwin was elected to the GMP position by the partnership at the end of 2019, and prior to that, he served as the firm’s Africa regional director. 

Edwin Macharia is Dalberg Advisors’ Global Managing Partner
Dalberg Advisors Global Managing Partner Edwin Macharia speaking at a World Economic Forum event
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“In this role, he sets Dalberg’s direction and oversees activities across offices worldwide,” reads his rosy profile. 

Macharia has the ambition and intelligence of a C-suite executive and the charming wit of a Kenyan politician. 

Perhaps it is this combination that pushed him to try and dethrone powerful Minister Chris Murungaru from his seat as Kieni MP in 2007. He was however unsuccessful.

As the fifth Kenyan to join  Amherst in 1997, and with the others being Alfred Gitonga, Ngengi Muigai, Uhuru Kenyatta and Francis Michuki (John Michuki’s son), you would imagine Macharia as a child of privilege, hardly so. 

His first arrival at the university at night with no clue about where to go or sleep pushed him to establish a tradition of airport pick ups for international students when he became a member of the students orientation committee. 

After graduating, he joined McKinsey consulting firm in New York but after a year and a half, he joined the Clinton Foundation in Tanzania and impressively rose through the ranks to become a director in some of the programs.

“I thought he’d be a research assistant doing fairly junior work. It quickly became clear that he was an incredible guy with a lot of drive,” Clinton Health Access Initiative CEO Ira Magaziner described Macharia during a past interview. 

Macharia was instrumental in the establishment of the Clinton Foundation's Kenya office and in facilitating former President Bill Clinton's visit to the country in July 2005.

He has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and was listed by Forbes as one of the 10 most powerful men in Africa in 2015.

Dalberg Advisors Global Managing Partner Edwin Macharia speaking at a past event
Dalberg Advisors Global Managing Partner Edwin Macharia speaking at a past event
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