Chiara van Oekel is COO at Shamiri Health. Chiara began her career in London as a business consultant for a boutique Africa-focused consulting firm (2013-2017). She oversaw the East Africa client portfolio and managed relationships with blue-chip companies providing advisory services around; market entry and positioning, government engagement, due-diligence and CSR strategies. In 2017, she relocated to Nairobi and began the second chapter of her career in the startup space. She worked at the Fintech startup, 4G Capital, for 2+ years in strategy and customer success roles. Prior to joining Shamiri Health, she served as COO of Wazi  - one of the first mental health companies in Kenya - for 2.5 years, focusing on strategy, building partnerships, and scaling business and clinical operations.

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Chiara graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 2012 with a BA in History. She is a Certified Mental Health First Aider (MHFA 2021) and volunteers as Communication Manager for SHOFCO's Mentorship Leadership Committee, in Nairobi. She's a member of Women Who Build Africa and Operations Nation - two professional communities which feed her love for learning about, and connecting with, new people and ideas. In the role, Chiara brings her decade of experience advising and scaling companies, combined with her passion for building impact-driven teams to work on innovative solutions for global challenges.