Gideon Kipyakwai once worked with mice. He made them glow. This is not a metaphor. At the University of Hawaii, he spent years in a laboratory learning how to introduce something foreign into a living system and watch it take hold. The protocol, he will tell you, was painstaking. You had to understand what the system wanted to become. Then you had to get out of the way. He has been doing the same thing ever since. Just not with mice. With people.
He has spent his career testing that theory. First in banking, then in county government. Today, Kipyakwai is the Group CEO of Metropol Corporation, one of Kenya’s most influential credit bureau, with six subsidiaries, operations in two countries, and a mandate that decides who gets to participate in the formal economy. It is a position that requires, above all else, the ability to read what something is actually worth beneath the surface. Which is, it turns out, exactly what a molecular bioengineer does.
The career between the laboratory and the 15th floor, where Metropol sits in Nairobi’s Upper Hill, is improbable enough to require a diagram. Seminary student. Civil engineering dropout. Biomedical Sciences First Class Honours. CPA. KCB corporate banker. University of Hawaii Master of Science degree. Talk show host on Kass FM, discussing economic empowerment from across the Pacific. ICT company CEO. Chairman of a county public service board at 31, the youngest man in a room full of retired MPs. Then, finally, Metropol.
Gideon Kipyakwai once worked with mice. He made them glow. This is not a metaphor. At the University of Hawaii, he spent years in a laboratory learning how to introduce something foreign into a living system and watch it take hold. The protocol, he will tell you, was painstaking. You had to understand what the system wanted to become. Then you had to get out of the way. He has been doing the same thing ever since. Just not with mice. With people.
He has spent his career testing that theory. First in banking, then in county government. Today, Kipyakwai is the Group CEO of Metropol Corporation, one of Kenya’s most influential credit bureau, with six subsidiaries, operations in two countries, and a mandate that decides who gets to participate in the formal economy. It is a position that requires, above all else, the ability to read what something is actually worth beneath the surface. Which is, it turns out, exactly what a molecular bioengineer does.
The career between the laboratory and the 15th floor, where Metropol sits in Nairobi’s Upper Hill, is improbable enough to require a diagram. Seminary student. Civil engineering dropout. Biomedical Sciences First Class Honours. CPA. KCB corporate banker. University of Hawaii Master of Science degree. Talk show host on Kass FM, discussing economic empowerment from across the Pacific. ICT company CEO. Chairman of a county public service board at 31, the youngest man in a room full of retired MPs. Then, finally, Metropol.
Gideon Kipyakwai once worked with mice. He made them glow. This is not a metaphor. At the University of Hawaii, he spent years in a laboratory learning how to introduce something foreign into a living system and watch it take hold. The protocol, he will tell you, was painstaking. You had to understand what the system wanted to become. Then you had to get out of the way. He has been doing the same thing ever since. Just not with mice. With people.
He has spent his career testing that theory. First in banking, then in county government. Today, Kipyakwai is the Group CEO of Metropol Corporation, one of Kenya’s most influential credit bureau, with six subsidiaries, operations in two countries, and a mandate that decides who gets to participate in the formal economy. It is a position that requires, above all else, the ability to read what something is actually worth beneath the surface. Which is, it turns out, exactly what a molecular bioengineer does.
The career between the laboratory and the 15th floor, where Metropol sits in Nairobi’s Upper Hill, is improbable enough to require a diagram. Seminary student. Civil engineering dropout. Biomedical Sciences First Class Honours. CPA. KCB corporate banker. University of Hawaii Master of Science degree. Talk show host on Kass FM, discussing economic empowerment from across the Pacific. ICT company CEO. Chairman of a county public service board at 31, the youngest man in a room full of retired MPs. Then, finally, Metropol.
Do I sacrifice personal development? Do I sacrifice work? Work is what supports the family. I don’t think about it as work-life balance. Work is part of life. Family is part of life. Personal space, hobbies, community – all of it is life. As a CEO, most of my work is not even in the office. I can wake up at 3am thinking about problems or ideas. It’s not an 8-to-5 job. I work all the time. So for me, it’s not work versus life. It’s how to balance all the dimensions of life.
What’s your fear now?
Poverty.
But you’ve never experienced poverty before…
I still fear it. In my circle, I sometimes feel like I’m the poor one. [Laughs] A lot of times, poverty is relative to your circles. Can you afford what everyone around you can afford? If your child asks for something or wants to go on a trip and you have to say, ‘No, maybe next year,’ does that count as poverty? That inability to access certain things? When I think about why I wake up before 5am every morning, it’s because I don’t want to be poor. I don’t want to reach a point where I can no longer afford my current lifestyle, even as I keep aspiring for the next level.
What do you wish your children knew about you that they don’t know?
My children think I’m a joker. They don’t think I’m professional at all because they never really see my serious side. At home, we play a lot. I never carry work home. I don’t even take this laptop home. That’s why I try to come to work early. To finish whatever I need to finish here.
When I study, I go to my home office, but they know that’s mostly for my PhD, not work. They also know I like reading. I buy about a book a month, and I try to get them to read as much as possible. So they know that side of me. But they don’t really know the serious, numbers-driven side that people at work see.
What’s the most important question in your mid-40s now?
My biggest concern today is post-retirement income. Can I maintain the same lifestyle I live today? Can I generate the same cash flow from passive investments? Can I create enough income to sustain my current lifestyle after retirement?
Are you happy?
I’m purposely pursuing happiness. I consciously try to block out bad news and negativity. I don’t even watch the news much anymore. Maybe that’s burying my head in the sand, but I deliberately pursue positivity and happiness.
Failure for me would first be family. If I didn’t have my wife and children, that would be a major failure. If I couldn’t provide basic needs for them, that would also feel like failure. Then there’s health. If I don’t take care of my health and end up creating problems for myself, I would consider that a failure too.
What’s your vice as someone who’s deeply involved in church and faith?
Drinking? [Chuckles]
You like your bottle?
Yeah, I like my gin. It’s actually one of the areas where I have conflict with my children because they really want me to stop drinking. And sometimes it’s not even just the drinking, it’s staying out late. Maybe one or two nights a week, I’ll get home after they’ve slept.
My children really like seeing me before bed, so when I’m not there, they notice immediately. Because most days I’m home helping them with homework and spending time with them. So the next morning they’ll come and ask, ‘Daddy, what happened? Why didn’t you come home early?’ So, yeah, I need to work on that.