Meet the Blog Team Kevin Corcoran's Blog Kevin Corcoran
Kevin Corcoran (3)
Kevin's passion and genuine commitment to Maji Mazuri is insupassable. His strategic depth and attention to detail have been crucial for growth and expansion of Maji Mazuri's undertaking. Kevin has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from London University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. His 35 years of business experience include 10 years with McKinsey and Company, the international management consultants, living and working in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and over 20 years with the owners of C & A, the largest privately held apparel retailer in the world. With C & A and its associated companies, Kevin held a number of senior positions including Chairman and CEO of retail chains, divisional president of a number of US divisions, and member of the US Board. He has lived variously in London, Toronto and Atlanta, and also worked extensively in Latin America. He is President of Maji Mazuri USA Inc., a non-profit 501 c 3 organization that he founded in early 2005 to raise funds for, and awareness about, Maji Mazuri in Kenya. In its first four years, Maji Mazuri USA has raised over $700,000 while incurring total expenses of less than 1% . This year we are on track to raise over $200,000.
I am not very tall – 5 feet 5 inches if I stand up straight! But, for some reason, I have never seen myself as short. Other people my height appear short to me, but I seem to have exempted myself. As Wanjiku’s daughter, Wandia Chiuri, says: “Life is too short to be small!”
Back in 1987, my parents-in-law Gordon and Orma Walls spent 2 years working with the Maasai in a community outside Nairobi, Kenya. They helped build a clinic, school rooms and a demonstration farm. It was there that they first met Wanjiku Kironyo, who was later to become the Founder and Director of Maji Mazuri, but was at that time providing counseling and family therapy to the Maasai women.
A firm friendship develop and 17 years later, in 2003, my wife Lyny and I travelled to Kenya to see her parents, who were on one of their many extensive repeat visits to work with their Maasai friends. Gordon introduced us to Wanjiku, and she immediately took us to visit the Maji Mazuri programs.
Lyny and I will never forget our first visit to the Mathare Valley slum to see Maji Mazuri and meet her team; then on to the Children’s Centre in Kasarani which cares for physically or mentally disabled orphans and abandoned children. We were overwhelmed!
Sadly, later that year, Lyny’s father, Gordon Walls, died after a short illness. Although he never said so directly, we felt that he wanted us to continue the family tradition of helping in Africa.
And, that is what we are doing…..
