I'd like to start off with the panel, Karibuni Sana, thank you so much for being part of the session. Pleasure. And just to set the stage for our conversation this afternoon. What does God-led engineering, finance and IT look like? And herein, I'll just start with, let me just start with finance. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. As my fellow speaker shared, I also feel nostalgic because about 10 and a half years ago, we were joined in holy matrimony in this very church. And so it's a pleasure to come back. So to your question, what does finance led leadership entail? I want to take us back to the Bible and that everything is about God. When we are born, how we grow and what we become is unknown. Nobody is born knowing how his life or their life is going to turn out. But we have this faith that we are born into, that we come to find about and learn that is unshined in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1 to 3. Now, faith is a substance of things not seen. And so when I speak from my profession as a finance expert, let's say way back in high school, I wanted to be a chemical engineer. I didn't know that I was going to finance. When I come out of university, I joined Strathmore, I joined the University of Nairobi and then get into the world of finance as an academician. It is not what you become ultimately. It was shared here that leadership is not when we find the titles. It's not when we assume those roles and those positions. But you have to set your mind, set this vision early enough and partner with God that he may go with you to this journey where you purpose to God. And so for me it has been a day in, day out work with God because I have come to learn, I have come to appreciate, I have come to understand on a sequential basis from where I was a student to the world of employment and ultimately into business and self-employment. So for me being God-led in the world of finance is a daily work with God, is a daily journey of revelation that never ends. Even now, there is still much more that I need to learn to grow, to appreciate, to understand but it's also an opportunity for me to reflect back and share what my experience has been because as some of our professionals here, I was here maybe 10, 11, 12 years ago. Thank you very much for that Maruba. I feel I can trust you a bit more with my books of accounts. I love it to now switch to Gladys. How does God-led IT look like? Okay, thank you very much. Since seems everybody is feeling nostalgic for being here I think I'll take that opportunity to also feel the same. I was here 20 years ago as a youth in this church. 20 years, some of you are not born. Anyway, let's know the topic. IT or technology is what I would call the most aggressive and emerging kind of skills and opportunities that are there. And just as my colleague Maruba has said, God is the initiator of everything. I feel the Bible says that is the other and the finisher of our salvation. In the same way, everything that is shaped from man, from getting the skills are usually by God's leading. And so when we talk about God leading us in the area of technology, we are saying he is the one that is behind the wheel in bringing up innovations. You know, sometimes we look at innovation as if it's a negative thing but actually if you look at it, innovations and technology have provided us a platform where there is growth and everything now moves in a systematic way. The king, King David says that the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He acknowledges that without God there is nowhere we can go. And therefore when it comes to technology, all the skills and all the discoveries that are taking place at the innovations, I still believe that the Lord is in them because man is no one without God himself. I love that. Absolutely do. Thank you so much for that Gladys. And welcome back. And we're thankful that you chose to also interact with the youth and leave us with that powerful reflection. And so over to you, how does God led engineering look like? Thank you very much. Good afternoon all. Yes, maybe before I get to explain how I look at God led engineering, I just wanted to give you a few background information of myself. Yes, please. I come from a Presbyterian family. So when I was in secondary school, that's when I changed when I was informed to and I've changed from Presbyterian to Seventh Day when I was informed to through reading and sermon. Now when I joined this church, I learned a lot about God and what He wants. And that made me, even when I chose Seventh Engineering, cause to do it as much as it was difficult, I made a decision not to read on sabbath. I went through diploma in Seventh Engineering. I can tell you, even if I was not reading on sabbath, my grade was very high. I got a credit for diploma. I went for the degree. I was not reading, even if how hard the subject will be writing on Monday, I will not read on Friday evening. And I finished the course. I also got a credit. Now when I got into the profession to study, the challenging thing that comes in engineering, engineering is to do solution. You have to find solutions to the challenges that are there. So Seventh Engineering is more of construction, building, and coming out of solutions on how things should be done. Now there are two challenges that you face in the profession. One, you are forced to work even on sabbath because of the nature of work. Two, you have to compromise your standards to meet the needs of the contractor. As a client, sometimes you are faced with shortcuts, not to meet the standards. Now to answer your question in terms of how do you look at the God-lead engineering profession, from where I stand and from the background I stand, is that God-lead, you have to follow what God is. And that is to be obedient to God, even the standards. Normally you would want to compromise the standards for the benefit of the contractor and even for your benefit as much as it is possible. Now God-lead engineering profession, God taught us to be obedient to him. And that obedience has also to be demonstrated even in your professional work. So that has led me to maintain the integrity, if I may put it that way. Be it how tough it is, you have to maintain integrity. People have to know that this one is a Christian, but not only Christian, it is also a Seventh-day Adventist. And that calls to a point that when it comes to Friday, they know that you will not be involved. They will only involve you maybe on Sunday or another day. That is what I have experienced in life. When you make it at the beginning of your profession, that you are a Christian, but not only a Christian, but a Seventh-day Adventist, you will be exempted even in other things that need to be done on Saturday. Thank you very much for that, Benson. And thank you for sharing so generously with your background. As I listened to you, I reflect on what CJ Emeritus just told us, that you are truly a testimony that those who make time for Christ, Christ has time for them, and it has shown up. And you're not afraid of hard work. So thank you very much for pointing that out as well. Allow me to stay with you for just one moment and pick up on one key aspect you've spoken about. And I'm really reflecting on this as we think about recent, a recent incident that happened in Kenya in the Mbakasi area where there was an explosion in the middle of the night, and that was due to compromising standards within that particular zone. But now just coming back to the whole conversation around integrity, and you've already started on that. In your view from your experience, what is the place of integrity in today's professional world? Thank you very much. Let me, in trying to answer that question, maybe to give two, if time allows, I'll give even three examples on how integrity is all loaded, especially as it comes to when you bounce Christianity and also profession. In my career life, when I was working for Ilongota Board, we had a project that the contractor was working on. So we used to, I was on the Kosaran side and the client side, so we were given vehicles and we were refuelling fuel the contractor was providing. So we had to go to the contractor's side to refuel. So there was one day that I went to refuel. Then the managing director of that contractor called me to his office. Then we talked about the project. Then later on he was open enough and said he wanted to give me a bribe. The question that we're talking about, he wanted to give me a bribe in the sense that I should not be strict when it comes to measurements on site because the contractor is paid based on what he has done and you have to set fire. So I was one of the assistant resident engineer on site who was responsible to set fire. So he knew that if I bribe this one, whatever the contractor will be submitting for payment, I'll be just ticking and say you'll be paid. So when he came to that point and you know when he wants to tempt you, that time I was broke. I was very broke. And when he offered that bribe, I thought of God first. As much as I thought of my... I needed money of course. But I said if I allow this, then even more other things will happen. So I declined. From that point, the managing director respected me even more before this instance. So that's one instance. The second instance, that's when I joined the African Women Bank and that was way back in my... Another contractor called me. We had a dinner at a restaurant. So at the end of the dinner when we were now walking to our respective cars, he took a bag and he dropped into my car. Then he drove. Then I said, what is this? Then I opened. It was 500,000 quads and that's a lot of money. I opened it. Then I said, no, this has to... I have to give it back because I cannot take this. The African Women Bank, just like the CJ said here, we are supposed to declare the gifts. When you receive a gift, you have to declare to the company. So I told him to say, I cannot declare this for 500,000. Then people ask so many things to say, how come that you were given this gift? So I called him. He said, no, take it. Use it the way you want it. So he tried to make it difficult for me to give it back. Then finally he said, can you go to the contractor's site and find a foreman and give it to him? Then I drove. Then I said, give it to your boss this money. So those are two examples. I have another one, but in the interest of time, you know the devil will try as much as possible to drill our faithfulness to him. What I have kept in my mind is that, yes, we are living in this world. I am a civil engineer, but one thing that I keep in my mind is that we are waiting for the second coming of Jesus. And while waiting for Jesus, I am a civil engineer to assist to work in this world. And that keeps me the faith that I have in him. So maybe to answer your question, there are a number of challenges that come along, but it is not easy. As I put it, like the first instance, I was broke, but the offer came when I needed to. So it was a temptation, but I needed to demonstrate my integrity. And integrity is very key in everything that we do. Thank you. Thank you for that, Benson. And also for pointing out, he could have used that time as, oh, this is the answer to my prayer. It is cash. It's been dropped in my car, but it's really listening to God's word and doing it fully, fully, and so that you're able to recognize what's a temptation and where the Lord truly fulfills his word. Remember earlier on, I told there are like a thousand different ways that the Lord will provide for you. And so we can hold him to his word on that. Just before I invite Gladys and Maru to comment, also on the same one, integrity, I'd also like to share, right from where we are, gift policies. And from the organizations where you are, just check if you have a gift policy. If you don't, you could be the one to design it whereby materiality levels are set and these are communicated. And so you don't have to debate about, was it a gift, was it a tip? Sometimes it's branded merchandise, but it might be very high-value branded merchandise. As you heard CJ Maitas talk about, a very expensive wristwatch. It's a wristwatch, isn't it? We're just hearing about the value of wearing very nice watches, but that crossed a certain line. And so different organizations do set out very clear gift policies. If you don't have one, you can be the one to design that. I'll now invite Gladys to talk to us a little bit about integrity. Okay, so it's just a big challenge, especially working in an environment where you have the integrity yourself, but the people you're dealing with are not in the same belief and faith. So it becomes, especially for us in business, usually you find that the environment here in Kenya can be very hostile, especially for people in business. You want to genuinely supply something to your customers, especially in the public sector, but then of course you have competitors who are doing the same thing. So you find that you lose a lot of opportunities that you are not able to compromise. So when you talk about God's leading even in business, it means that you as a person who carries integrity with you, you really have to trust in God that He's going to lead you to the right people. Because you see, when you don't compromise, it's a loss of revenue for you, isn't it? Ideally speaking, as a human being, you feel bad. You see that I know I'm capable, I know I am the right person most of the time, but many people who come and just buy their way out of your left there without being able to supply. But what I have come to, I have gone through a journey in life that has made me to have a lot of confidence in God. I did not give my foundation. My foundation, I'm not even an IT expert. I'm a teacher by profession. That is the amazing thing. I run an IT company and many times people ask me how did that all happen. I always say that God led me there because it is just dramatic. If I was to give my testimony, or now I came out from the classroom as a primary school teacher I became a CEO of a regional, I call it a regional leading brand because we have presence in Kenya and South and Eastern Africa. I feel like the same God that led me from, growing me from where I was up to where is the one that is already seen ahead of what I can be. And so God has always led me into places where I meet people who have the same mindset as I have. It may not always be, that you will meet people who are always not in the same mindset with you. God still has a people. He still has a residue for himself of people who you will meet and you will click and you will transact business in an ethical way. And at the end of the day there is something that I always tell Christians. There is a place of God's favor in you. Sometimes you can even supply in a hostile environment. You are not the one that was needed. But when God's favor backs you up you will find that in the end you will still have an opportunity. So I want to tell everybody the world here is very corrupt. That is for a fact. Kenya is a corrupt country. But that does not mean that you will not thrive. Praise the Lord. Amen. Thank you for that. Being in the audit profession now for about 15 years integrity is something we face on a daily basis. You are either reviewing a company some investors want to buy and so the motivation the person selling is a high valuation or you are looking at someone who wants to pay the list tax so the motivation is to hide some revenue or inflate some costs. So how do you confront this on a daily basis? And there are outright instances where as professionals we are faced with even what Elder said personal material gain if you just looked the other side and if you just gave this favorable opinion or played ball as it was. But the Bible in the book of Romans chapter 8 has given us a promise. Chapter 8 verse 12 we are being told that we have sonship through the spirit. Romans 8, 12 therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to living according to the flesh for if you live according to the flesh you will die but if you buy the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. Verse 14 for as many as are led by the spirit of God these are sons of God for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Verse 17 very important and if children then hairs wakuriti hairs of God adjoined hairs with Christ his son if indeed we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together amen. That it may appear that breaking the rules of the game and being corrupt or failing the integrity test may give us temporary reprieve or temporary gain but what is the long term when God created this earth he gave us dominion over everything and so we are to take charge and have dominion on his place in his stead and so even where we are as professionals we do not fear because Christ has promised us his spirit is dwelling amongst us and with us and so we do not have to help God in assisting ourselves that way this idea no there is more than that that if we are found faithful in Christ if we emulate Christ if we stand with integrity it's Shakespeare say that the world or life is a theater and everybody is playing a cast at whichever time you never know who is watching or who is following you there is someone who is impressed by your integrity and they are going to pull you out from that which you see that is a problem or a challenge or a loss a temporary loss and uplift you to a higher pedestal so what I would want to appreciate or recommend to our fellow professionals is that let us look at the long term we are building a career we are building a profession or we are building a business that you would want to inherit to our children and grandchildren and so integrity is the backbone that is going to outlive us there will come a time when we will not have the energy there will come a time when we will want to exit but putting God first and being people of integrity will outlive us let us be encouraged with that that even as we face these temptations I call them temptations if we overcome them the glory is not just to ourselves but to God Amen Thank you for that I hope you see how you can make it in this world by living God's principles and how much more He elevates you by choosing Him that is allow me to come to you and pick up on part of what you've mentioned we do not know your story please tell us just a highlight on how you came to be where you are okay so it's a long story but I will make it very brief so myself I'm a I started as a tourism and travel trainee I had this expectation that I would become a lawyer like Phyllis I believe she is a lawyer but then my grades did not give me the right grade to go to the university those days I think there were very few universities so the chances were very few so in out of confusion I went straight into doing tourism and travel then finished and I realized it was during the bomb blast time 1998 for those who were around and tourism sector went down so I immediately changed my career and went into teaching I did a primary school we used to call it P1 those days education level and then I became a teacher luckily I think I was by God's grace I was lucky I started off with the British standards I mean what we call them British curriculum schools so I quickly grew up as a teacher very fast teaching the British syllabuses and I got an opportunity to go and teach in South Africa so while I was in South Africa I started off in a country known as Mozambique Mozambique for those who know they speak Peori Portuguese it was by God's leading by the way sometimes I keep asking myself why all that happened so I got an opportunity to teach in Mozambique which speaks Peori Portuguese so I taught there and then after some time I went now and got an opportunity in another country called Swaziland so when I was in Swaziland I pursued my education and just pursued my I got a degree now in education from the University of Swaziland but then when I came back to get married say amen amen because there was no reason to come back anyway from the way my career was progressing I got and when I came back I was like do I go back to class you know after you've gone abroad diaspora then you come back to Kenya you don't want to go back to the same level you are so my motivation to not go back to the same level that I was I looked at myself and looked at the skills I had at that time the main unique skill I had at that time was that I was able to speak Portuguese so Portuguese is one unique you know subject and the linguistic world is very thriving so I got an opportunity to grow myself also as a lecturer I started teaching Portuguese in all the colleges in Kenya language center language solutions and all those countries I mean not countries but companies so while I was teaching Portuguese people also would call me to interpret the language so I started working with the NGO world interpretation translation, translating books and all that so while I was there translating books I got I met an Italian I mean two brothers and they went to the Mozambique embassy and they were looking for only a person in Kenya who can speak Portuguese and for some reason I was the only woman in Kenya at that time that could speak Portuguese say God's lady so these people were coming to invest in Kenya and they were now investing in a very unique field that at that time there was really nothing like cyber security so they wanted a Portuguese speaker who could help them to have a regional presses within southern Africa the countries of Angola and Mozambique and it happened to be the only one at that point remember I was a lecturer so I was also thriving in the area of interpretation and linguistics but when I got myself hired a little bit to just go and open up their presses in southern Africa I got somehow interested in the technology space remember I had nothing technology on me but now I was very interested and I saw that this industry would probably be longer thriving in future than where I was so I got as employed in that company as a salesperson I moved from being a teacher to being a salesperson and I was in charge of the southern Africa region and I was in charge of Angola Mozambique and Botswana then I served there for many years and by God's leading I grew up at the time that I needed to put up my own company so that's how I got into business development and I became a business expert in the southern Africa region I was in charge of Angola Mozambique and Botswana then I served there for many years and by God's leading I was able to put up my own company so Datasek was born 10 years ago 2014 I started it off as a joke I had a contract with my boss that I could not serve the same areas that I was working we call it non-compete contracts so I started off in Kenya and Uganda only but by God's grace after my period of non-compete was over we have now been able to have presses in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and of course the southern African regions so I want to thank God that was just by God's leading it's not something I ever studied for of course now I'm an IT expert you don't become a CEO of an IT company and you don't become an expert but that was just by God's leading was there somebody who asked a question earlier on about what direction to take your career sometimes it's starting with what's in your hand, see the opportunity and run with it it's still a hot area it's still an area where we keep looking out for opportunities and I'm so glad to now know that you do business in Moz as well thank you very much for sharing that Benson, please tell us a little bit more about your background, a highlight that led you to where you are today thank you very much I think you're I already said I'm a civil engineer I did my masters in water resources engineering and management in Zimbabwe after that then I joined a local contractor when I graduated in Polytechnic in Malawi I joined a local contractor I worked for seven months then I joined the Longwater Board as an assistant planning engineer so I was there then two years after I joined the project there was a million dollar project funded by Woodbank and EIB now during that period they tasked team leader they called it TTL Woodbank project Bob Rush they used to come every six months to supervise a project now when they came you could run through the project supervise they would guide you so when I looked at him he inspired me to say I think this so he motivated me and I desired that I should work like this so the desire to join international organization came through Bob Rush then later on I went for masters and they came back working through the organization I rose from assistant project engineer and project manager so I joined ADB ADB in 2008 when I joined the ADB I joined as infrastructure specialist so I was looking at water, energy and transport so I worked for ten and a half years that was as a local employee but I wanted to get into international so you can imagine all those ten and a half years an opportunity could not arise in my field so another opening came now it came in the programming so I applied so I got the job now I got into the international level but not in my engineering field I went to Pretoria that's where the position was so whilst I was there in Pretoria working in the same organization another opening came in my field in water I applied now at a higher level so I applied and I got it I got the position and I was now moved from Pretoria to Nairobi I'm here like back into my engineering field but detour from country programming so this is something to also be an example I could not have opportunities direct from the local position to international position in my field but when another opening came in country programming I qualified and when another opportunity came back in my field I came back so I'm back in my civil engineering work in water resources engineering officer because I had to detour first so in briefly this is why I thank you thank you so much for that hearing the lifelong learners we have on this platform right now always building, always developing their skills and Benson thank you so much from the talent space I appreciate that you've spoken about it was that you take in your career to grow it's not always a straight line up it's not always I started that entry level assistant manager, manager on and on sometimes it looks at what are the skills you have which is the opportunity that keeps you still aligned to your goal how do you go for it how do you keep in mind your goal and remember this is a god led looking out for opportunities taking them, continuing to transition it gives you breadth and it gives you depth and that's just the life that we live today that's the world we're in thank you very much for sharing that over to you thank you so my background allowed me to begin my career it started off in 1992 way back here in Machakos where I was sales manager for Njugu Karanga I can't hide the surprise on my face I'm trying it's important that I mention there because now you can connect and relate to where I've come from that time I was in class 2 and we were living in Machakos but my dad used to work in Rongo in South Nyanza so when he would visit he would come with a sack of Njugu so it used to be Njugu he would be made and when I'm done with school in the afternoon I would go to the roadside maybe you call them hawkers but that time it was a bit decent I would sell out Njugu every day and it used to supplement school fees I was in Machakos primary from class 1 to class 3 and then when we moved back to Kisi that never continued until university and then after campus so that was very important because at a very early age I learned about business about selling, about marketing and you see the joy of getting money from an activity so I did become finance and this is here Strathmore University of Nairobi I joined Deloitte as associate and then after about 4 years I joined U-Mobile that time it was SR Telecom as their systems and processes manager really the internal audit manager I was privileged to be the youngest manager and excited and thrilled about a new career and you know growth only to go in and find that the house was on fire and they were looking to sell and so that is what even shortened my stay in employment as I started thinking of the exit strategy and in 2013 July that was about one year before they exited the market I formed the Bunlian Company where we are an audit tax and business advisory firm we mainly our market is here in Kenya South Sudan, Juba, Somalia and now in DRC so we do capital raising clients in capital raising doing due diligence valuations, mergers and acquisitions yeah that's what we do and in the public space I've also served as the chairman I'm the immediate former chairman if you call that a meritor's of Nyamira County audit committee my term ended in 2022 thank you for your service to the people I started from Jugo Karanka right to mergers and acquisitions thank you for sharing that parents there is a lesson right there in terms of what else do we expose children to what else do we encourage in this day and age but still and especially in this day and age still remember integrity and remember to still seek God's guidance as you go on in that but beautiful lessons learned and started early on interestingly as we've listened to them have they spoken about any challenges they've experienced have you heard any struggles I've heard a bit about that but now I'll just bring it in a bit more and just ask you to share some of the challenges you've shared and lessons thank you some of the challenges and lessons in life will come they will be painful they will not be planned and they will ultimately character develop yourself so in the interest of time allow me to share one so band and company is not the first company I formed or I started I started another one before that with a friend of mine and I lost him he took over the company I did have control and so this is the reality of business and the reality of life it can happen it's not to dwell in the past but to know now what next because whatever we are just talking about here you discover that maybe you go into partnership and you do not share attributes you do not share the same faith or outlook in life and there are some limits that you cannot get into so for me the challenge had been my thought my outlook had been different from what they were looking at you know about the long term view and the short term view and so it had to come to a point where we had to part ways and I think in that scenario I was like the loser but having gone now separately I see God's masses and grace and you know it's like the song that live on and not to give up in any battle or challenge that you foresee or that you go through but to have faith in Christ that he who started this will sure see it to conclusion gladness ok so same year 1992 while my friend Maruba was selling to Ugaranga I was also in business but I was selling success cards I was a class 8 pupil in my abode school in Kiliniaga and so during the holiday I would buy success cards and I would sell to my classmates so that they can sell to their classmates also success cards and so I would buy first business now data sec which is my current business a cyber security company is my fifth business I have put up a tourism and travel company before I have made shampoo I have sold eggs from one gigi markets to Kawangware so when you talk about struggle in business I mean you can only keep trying and one thing I can say is that if you are used to soft life you can please don't start business now the biggest challenge I have had in my space right now is being when you talk about technology most of the time we think about men isn't it so you find that and I want to encourage the ladies in this house here and this is a message for you that technology engineering you be branded with men and so most of the time when you start driving in that sector people don't even trust you in the first place and so I have had to struggle to position ourselves and not as a woman owned company but as long as you are moving everywhere you always have those challenges of people asking who owns this company and when they hear and I remember I started my business I used to hide myself like I am not the owner of the company big mistake I remember I used to carry my cards and I would say sales and marketing and I would never want to declare that I was the owner of the company but when I went into we have to now put a lot of networking place yourself into networking working areas and I joined a mentorship program by Safari com we call it Safari com women in business mentorship where they only encourage women in the STEM area not only that but they encourage women who are running businesses engineering IT and all that so when I joined that sector it's when I realized there is no point of not myself calling myself a CEO of the company because they give us of course chances and there is a lot of learning so that challenge of being technology and a woman was there but of course you have to sell above you know above this kind of things and one of sorry to even taking the time but I just want to tell you about one story that I went to one organization and I had sent my sales lady and she went ahead and she proposed she talked about and proposed very good products for this organization and so the head of IT asked can I see the owner of the company so because my MD wants to see the owner of the company so I had to go and I remember a very old man seated there and he dropped his glasses like this and he said you mean even women are doing these things of cyber security so there is just that thing of people imagining that women are not good enough when it comes to tough things isn't it so that was a small challenge but along the way what I have hundreds to tell the ladies is focus on what you deliver that has been my way as a woman most of the time you have to prove yourself twice a man can easily go and prove himself once but you have to prove yourself twice and you must be right all the time but the beauty is in front of God there is no gender and anyone right now I can actually committed to say that they are male companies that have not even reached our level at the moment. I'm just taking a moment for that especially in the course of this month when we've been celebrating the achievements of women and looking at yes women in STEM so here we have it live with us today testimony having started from where now it's success cards and then primary school teacher then travel to different parts of Africa and now being one of the leading technology companies in a very challenging area I work in M-Pesa Africa and from where we sit in cyber security it's absolutely critical and then new risks coming up every day and so just knowing and trusting that we're sitting with somebody who's invested in that playing such a big part of that and encouraging you to please join us thank you so much for sharing. Thank you very much in terms of challenging times and also lessons learned I think in my profession as I hinted earlier is that fact that the profession promotes when you're in Rome do what the Romans do it's simple to say about it you have to follow what others have been doing in the same profession which I found to be in some cases contradictory to my belief and it poses a challenge in that respect I have a number of I mean examples that just like the CJ CJ earlier on indicated to say we need to to learn to do things differently I think she also mentioned it yeah so I will give you one example when I was working for the Longwater Board you have different rates when you are going to a conference outside your association if it is full board like everything is paid for the rate of allowance is smaller but if it is not paid for the company pays more so that you are able to yeah so there was a time that we were invited to a conference like here you're invited to Nivecia where you sleep or Mombasa for example so the information that came to the company earlier was that it was not full board so the company provided us with rates that it is not full board what it meant we were given more money to support ourselves there but when we went there it was a full board so what it meant they gave us more money than they should so we were a number of us in the company so when I came back I went to the accounts and I repaid back the balance I calculated and said because this was full board the rates for the full board for this company is this then I repaid now I remember one secretary for the financing he said what are you doing we don't repay this you go and take the money I said no no no the rates according to what I know the rates for full board is this let them so I repaid it it was taken as a light thing but it was a way of also the integrity part those are the challenges that we face it may be seen as a small thing but I wait on myself and I say I am a Christian I will be paid something I will be earning more of what I was not supposed to so it is something that we young professionals here you will be challenged for sure people will say do as the Romans do it do as we do but as a Christian we should keep it back I think God said earn what you have worked for and not something because it's such like that later on bigger things will come and say if I had done that way this way I also have to do it so there are many challenges in the profession where we are we are like promoted or we are encouraged to do as a Romans but as a Christian you also have to be mindful that apart from being responsible to your bosses we also have someone who is God looking at us thank you that's being a true steward and doing right by what is given to you I would like to stay with you for just one moment Benson not everybody would make the same decision you made there are times when people could end up compromising and that leads to a significant setback in some cases it can even be a running with the law what advice would you give to a young professional who may have experienced a setback maybe they did not follow the path of the correct channels and it led to a setback on the end or even a failure what advice would you give to them thank you very much I will get back to my situation I was at the same position I would say like for 10 years so my desire was to progress everyone wants to move on move on so I said should I still when another opportunity came to go the country programming country programming is like a administrative kind of just coordinating program not the passion that I have in engineering in civil engineering so I applied as I indicated and I was picked I did not know that another opportunity will come back will come in the same in the same field so I was there I did 2 years for 3 years and after 3 years I came back to my profession so I may also say the same life may not be straight forward as it were but where there is a will where there is a vision there is a way the best I can say to any youth that may be stagnant is to still wait upon the Lord you know psalms 121 there is some say there is a good verses good verses 1 to 1 to 8 the first verses is an editorial question to say I lift up my eyes to the hills from where comes my help this truth it now answers my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth if we can wait because you don't know the next thing will happen to you because you are stagnant you think it will continue like that but as we wait upon the Lord for sure you open up the way like for me I had to detour because it was taking too long being on one position or one level 10 years is too much but when God opened this window I came back and I am working with my satisfaction in my profession because that's where I want it to be but it took a detour first to get back so I would say it will be important for any youth to still wait upon the Lord God has his own time we may wait in the process which may not be right but to wait upon the Lord God's time is the best thank you now turn to the one with audit back audit are the ones who find these things out please what advice would you give to somebody who's experienced a setback some kind of running it's important if I can take the analogy of safaricum I think they are largest valued company in this region when you look at the company whatever document, website any document they release you look at the structure of the company you see they have the CEO, they have management very well experienced and exposed professionals but over and above they are technical know-how exposure and experience they still are overseen by a board of directors and advisors why is that important because even with their skill, knowledge, experience gathered over the years they still need a third eye a bad eye view and someone to bounce off ideas and check on them that is the most valuable company when you look at this the great seasoned professionals they still have people who advise them people they listen to people who are tough with them that is no difference from us as professionals it is important that we also have in our spheres of life, wherever we are at whatever level we have people we can call upon as our trusted advice people who can mentor us people we can learn from such that even if we have gone through the mud and we have messed up and we have fallen short of our expectations we do not expect to have all the solutions by ourselves but we have someone I can call on someone I model against someone who has gone the journey that I hope to go through to advise me and help me where I have fallen short so it is really important even before going through the mistake or even when we have already gone through such points of tumult in our lives that we have people who are trusted, people who can tell us the truth, people who are invested in our success I say that has been very important and is actually very important that we we don't walk alone, that we have people that we can reach out to Thanks a lot for that Marube hear that have your and allow me to just as you talked about the structure of SafariComp for example now to ourselves as individuals to have your personal board of directors or your personal board to work with you or board of advisors to work with you through this journey so even when things went south there's somebody who can support you and we say that we rise by standing on the shoulders of giants so beyond your peers, beyond the peeps you see around you have somebody who's seen further ahead and they can support you through these difficult phases that sometimes you can get into Gladys? Okay so what I would say is this in life it's rare that you will find somebody who has you know taken a straight path and that is something that you need to have in your mind in fact I like the theme of the this convention because when you talk about God's leading it means it is not your own leading our own leading is usually a straight path if you ask me if I was to lead myself maybe I would be a lawyer by now okay but now God always has something that he has in store for us and I want to encourage anybody that has lost in one hand or another never to take it as a negative way if you submit to the leading of God that is the most important thing because you always tell God I don't know why this has failed but I know you have a better plan as long as I subject myself to your will I know I'm in your hands many people have you know started their careers from being doctors and they ended up maybe in a different business what I always ask myself it's not confusion don't ever think and look at yourself as if you're confused one thing that you need to be sure of is God with me is God leading me where I'm going the summary says that when the summary says that the Lord is my shepherd at the end he says that sometimes he will lead me through the still waters and there are days that he will lead me even in the fire isn't it he says that even though I walk through there the value of the shadow of death yeah the shadow of death sometimes he says even when you lead me in the still waters isn't it he says sometimes that even you will in the presence of my enemies you are with me so it means when God is leading you you will find that sometimes you will move from one place to another the question you should always ask yourself am I in his leading if you feel you're in his leading then you should not worry start over again and again to do five businesses is not a joke I think I am expert of contouring there's something he's calling it detouring I am the history of detouring I have found myself here and I feel I have settled and I'm not saying that if God leads me to another direction I will not go I will be humble enough to follow him until the end as long as you know he is with you and his interest is always the best one for us not for ourselves the one we have give ourselves is not the best but the one that God leads you into to settle and it's always the best for each and every person that's an addition tonight I will be in a meeting and the title of the meeting the topic is success is not final failure is not fatal success is not final failure is not fatal powerful thank you I'm glad it's thank you for sharing your story it's not confusion people who knew me years ago are like so there behind the world of accounting I mean people and culture and that's where I am and sometimes because I studied become finance did the whole accounting thing then I'm in nature but with people and culture but I really enjoy it but there are some days glad is honestly there are days I ask myself especially when we are looking at the pecking order in these large organizations the person who is most likely to take over from the CEO tends to be the CFO tends to be though in KCB group I'll just throw in we have Paul Russo who has been in the field of people for some time but there are days in HR I ask why is HR still begging for a place at the table and I left the place right next to the CEO but with God's leading I think I get such fulfillment from my job in some days I'm truly thankful for it if you allow me just to say something again even if you get so many skills along the way when God is leading you you will realize that you will need these skills I look at myself and I ask myself I am the CEO of Datasek but 90% of what I do is talk and sell and teach I am a teacher so these skills of me being a teacher have bled so well in my career I did tourism as a first career by the way when I venture into new markets I go to Mozambique, I go to wherever I don't need a travel agency to get me a hotel I don't need a travel agency to get me a ticket I do it myself I learnt sales you cannot be a CEO who sits in the office CEOs are always selling I sell anything to anyone I can even sell all of you by the way these are skills I have got along the way and they are there when God is leading you everything begins to work for you it makes everything to harmonize itself and work for you so never regret that you did finance and now you are in nature you will need that finance one day by God's grace, praise the Lord thank you Gladys, indeed now there is one question as we are briefing with Kate there is one question which I was even told to put in bold please share current trends and opportunities in your fields to Benson okay, for me I am working for African Development Bank first you need to have a master's degree I would encourage if you only have a bachelor's degree please try to move and find I mean get a master's degree that is a starting point for an officer in the African Development Bank if I have done even PhD they stand even a better opportunity so that is the first one secondly there are many opportunities that in the African Development Bank be it engineering be it lawyers we have legal counsel be it education health so I would say in all sectors but what is more required once in a while visit our website afdb.org there are opportunities even as we speak now there are openings that are there that you can get you can try like for me as I said I also tried by the grace of God God led me into this organization it is a good organization where you have almost everyone the nationality on this earth I think is there you talk of Europe Americans Indians Asians they are there it is a good organization which I think if we can have more of Africans it will be much much better so there are opportunities to answer your question there are many opportunities but the starting point to be an officer in the African Development Bank you have to have a master's degree going forward so I would encourage you in your career please move forward I mean move from the bachelor's to master's thank you you can see the horizon in finance is climate financing that is big now the issue around carbon credits if you can you know get involved around that and do some research and see how you can position yourself as an authority it is a big space that is opening up currently recently there has also been a huge amount of inflows especially in Kenya and Nigeria South Africa in terms of startups so a lot of fintech, edtech companies are being groomed and being sold around so the space of valuations and a lot of due diligence is necessary and so if you can hone your skills around you are also likely to be of great value in the ecosystem of the startups alright thanks a lot for that indeed climate financing we have not been very good stewards of Planet Earth and now it is calling back and so it is becoming a bigger and bigger conversation thanks a lot for that glad it the entire technology space I would say has a lot of immense opportunities sometimes when I talk to people and they know I am in technology they bring me laptops to repair they bring me phones to unblock but that is not about technology technology is really vast and I can only speak about the space I am in people are in infrastructures others are networks so it is a big area but one of the emerging areas that are there of course is artificial intelligence you know that we are in need of so many data scientists machine learning things like you know cryptocurrency is coming up we have areas like where I am now right now in cybersecurity just two weeks ago I looked for somebody to send to Somalia for one of our customers I could not get we are really lacking a lot of expertise when it comes to cybersecurity so I mean if you want to think about a career in IT I think the emerging areas like AI and all that are good before that cybersecurity is really a space as technology grows and advances security becomes the core so there is no where security is going I would advise anyone who has this interest please find out what is there we look for people we call pen testers pen testers are people that just tests you know any bank when they are launching their internet banking they have to test it to be sure that it is unhackable so we are in need of hackers but we call them ethical hackers so we are in need of people who can just help organizations to meet compliance standards there are so many standards in the security space you know security standards are very many you know visa demands that you must meet some criteria for you to trade with them so we are looking for all manner of people who can do compliance within security and also the technical side of it security assessments and things like monitoring being able to see the way we call it threats being able to check the threats and be able to know what are the threats organizations are facing so I welcome everybody who can come to the cyber security space if you want mentorship I am here when I have the opportunity and we can you know we work together in that journey. Thank you and I can verify what they have all said upping your educational background it helps I the world is definitely becoming a lot more competitive so as much as you can invest in yourself that is part of your personal financial management and we'll be talking about that but I do hope that even as you budget for yourself whichever organization you're in do not leave it to the organization to do all investment in you identify for yourself what you're keen on set aside some money for it invest in a good desk and chair in your house because you always learn so just set up for yourself a nice comfortable space to always learn climate financing carbon credits I mean fintech edtech just looking at all the mergers I left one organization after we had successfully merged and that was after we had acquired a different organization and I joined a joint venture entity so when you're talking about mergers and acquisitions in my lifetime I have now been in a number of organizations and I nearly joined one that was just about to be acquired so it's definitely something that's trending so being able to fit into the value chain of this does give you opportunities to develop your career and yes our cyber security team do not give us any rest we're always looking out for skills in that area data science as you talked about machine learning AI definitely areas that are critical to us but I'd like to flip this over to our participants as well what are some of the trends you are seeing in your space now we've spoken a lot from a very technical bench but the creative space is also becoming quite technical let me tell you yesterday I was just appreciating our events team even more and appreciating the communication team here what it takes to set up any of these events it's a skill it's a very highly marketable skill being able to evolve and look and see who's our audience how do we reach them most effectively and being able to solve that real time consistently it's also such an emerging area so what are you seeing from where you are that can also help meet business needs you know those some years back when we used to be banned from even accessing Facebook now it is somebody's job and I was being educated on how tiktok algorithms work and how we can utilize that to put our brand out there so also from your perspective and keep researching Benson has spoken about visit their website how much time do you take when you're on the internet to look at the organizations that you're interested in joining getting to understand a bit about them most of them tend to have careers portal when you're on a website just careers what about us and then see which are the roles that they're also talking about there you are in the world where LinkedIn is getting more and more active and there's so much more content and there's a lot of data being churned out of there from your area of interest take time go through and just see whatever you're looking for you will find it and remember you're praying about this the load will open up paths for you but let's keep looking out but I do hope that you've taken this council and probably as we are breaking you'll get to engage with our panelists a little more I think Gladys has spoken a bit about AI I don't if there's any one word you'd like to mention about AI in any other field before we now transition to talking about personal financial management I think Gladys has covered it well and so now we have spoken about our careers and remember when CJ Emeritus spoke about how we pray for jobs we pray for promotions then we get them how do we stay grateful and how are we good stewards of what we earn from there so I'd like to start with you Marubae what is the importance of having a personal financial plan personal financial plan is your foundation of literally your life because where we live we live in a commercial world we live in say a capitalist society so we work we till the land in Genesis we earn and from where we earn is what we eat and so having a personal financial goal or having that personal financial literacy sets the foundation on how you are able to manage the resources that God has granted you because these resources aren't ours we have earned them God has granted them as bestowed us with them and it is from these resources like the parable of the talents that we'll be able to grow develop and multiply as the commandment in Genesis was so we cannot be able to manage to grow or multiply if we do not have the personal financial discipline earning beautifully saving putting aside our safety investing and growing so understanding financial stewardship at a personal level helps us to become aware of what we have and how to manage it because how well we do it at a personal level affects how well we do it at the corporate level is it a function is it a business is it in charge wherever you are placed upon to manage so that personal level financial management is like the DNA that replicates itself into the whole universe so you have that DNA it starts right from how you steward what's in your hand Vincent when it comes to financial plan personal plan is very important just like Elder said but my experience has been different I think the time I was getting married because of the family background we didn't start our family as two we started with the extended family in our family so when you talk of by the time we had the first born we had other extended family there was a time in our family apart from our daughter we had other 10 dependents in the family we were 13 in one family so I'm bringing this to also bring in sometimes you may not have an ideal family as you are starting your career you may have other commitments that you are obliged to meet them regardless there were so many misfortunes we met along my sister passed away I had to inherit my three children my brother we are a number in our family it's now that maybe they have grown up we are now the core family as it were now but even in such a situation a person of family plan is important you may be obliged to extend a hand to the extended family but being focused is also important but maybe before we get there it is also important to be faithful to God even in type retain and offering and that's where it starts from when you are committed and you are committed to God and say as much as I have all these obligations to meet but the first point of departure is to be faithful to God to resolve and sort out your issues and that's maybe the point which I wanted to emphasize when I started working I was getting not much as I said I started with a local contractor I worked for seven months but I resolved in my heart as much as this is small but I still have to be faithful to God now it is easier to retain type when you have getting small but when you grow up and your resources are more when you look at the type and you say should I retain all this but the point is let's be faithful God will sort out the rest as much as we may have our personal financial plans but let's remember to be faithful thank you I noticed a few reactions from the audience as you spoke about when the salary is at a certain level it's a bit easier as it keeps growing start early it makes it easier as you go ahead having a financial plan is very vital I'm speaking as one who has had none at some point and one now who has begun to have one when I had no any financial plan for me whatever came was mine especially when you're beginning business and it's very tough at the beginning then you get this wonderful project and money comes you see it is time to repay all my sins and wash myself because I've been broke isn't it now you see now it is time to conquer to reward yourself to reward yourself to give your body some sorry so but that is one thing I want to say that you should be young forever by the way it's a time that you'll come that you will look at your future and imagine that of course they have spoken about God being the one that gives us resources I will not talk about that but remember that whenever it comes to your hands God gives us blessings for a reason one to be a blessing to his kingdom and to be a blessing to others so when you include these things in your mind that when money comes just detach yourself from feelings for money is not good because if you have feelings for money then you have feelings for a spouse so for example now you begin to have feelings for money I am telling you you can never plan for it detach your feelings and emotions from money so that you can be able to plan for it and know that you will not be young forever there's a time you will have the moment to make the money and there's a time that will come even the industry will begin to shift you're talking about AI right now AI has shifted some jobs that we had can no longer hold so what will you do if you never planned in future and so a future where you can be able to save for yourself save for your family, invest and do all these things so the thing is have it in your mind that these things are temporary they are not ours, they are given so we are stewards and begin to see the importance of really having that plan from that angle thank you Gladys allow me to come back to Benson for just one moment I found that you did not start as two when your family started there's a time that we learnt and has now become mainstream when we talk about black tax which sounds like what you were alluding to please just encourage a young person out here who may be experiencing something similar they are probably one of the ones who is doing better within their family and they are the needs of others coming behind them and they are called upon to contribute to that how can they manage this and still grow and still have their dreams and still end up in an international organization yeah that's interesting yeah it's a challenge when you look at it as much as now I talk about it but at that time where you had to buy two ruffs of bread every day to feed to I mean to manage the large family but along the way God has been faithful trying to keep up those that you are supporting to be independent and you find along the way so the most important aspect when you look at this is to keep an eye on your own God but also on what you want to achieve in life I think that the joy the biggest joy that I found in life as I have progressed is to make someone happy and to make someone independent as I said like in my case when my sister passed away I took three children I mean three children out of these three two are graduates one is ran away from school and he went and out of these two as we speak one she's in the UK she found a job so the joy that you find when you see someone whom you have supported and is independent so I would encourage the young professionals here as much as you you would want to advance but there are some other obligations that you may not run away from please through God's guidance if you can still extend a hand of support it will help you you never know I'm here because of maybe the blessings that have come from supporting others so it is important money will never be enough that's why even even my former I will give an example of my former president you can give an example here Uhuru he is still in business he still wants to have more money will never be enough but I think the key element is to be contented with what God has given you at that particular time that you can also be able to extend a hand to others it is very good thank you just to add on to that the verse is pastimothi 6 verse 6 but godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into the world and take nothing out of it but if we have food and clothing we will be content with that those that want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plants people into ruin and destruction so we live in a society where especially in Africa black tax in one form or another is like here to stay and the what what is difference is the levels is the levels you may have maybe one or two in this case you had ten so it's that the varying degrees that that come into play because once you have this kind of support that you give it the reward may not be instant in the human eye it can even look like it's a loss it's a depletion of or a slowishness in a speed that you would have taken but you never know god blesses us in many other different way you know having good health having you know good children you know people turning out well are blessings that money cannot buy so sometimes it's a it's some of these things help us also to touch the feelings Gladys was talking about towards money because there is no day that it will ever be enough that you say now this is it this is enough someone said that we are Africans and Africa is our business so you find that the society we live in today you are the one giving black tax but tomorrow you are the black tax of someone so what are you saying if someone is black tax you cannot now be tomorrow the one to say I am not going to give black tax I've been a beneficiary of other people helping me in the family so when I get an opportunity to help someone in the family I don't see the reason I shouldn't remember the word of god has really given us an encouragement to give and sometimes I see people giving you know in Haiti and giving in Afghanistan and they have not given in their own villages of Kisi you see so I'm not saying that you shouldn't give in Haiti and Afghanistan but sometimes we need to have priorities of we are one family and the Bible actually says that if you do not take care of your own family you are worse than a vagabond you are worse than an unbeliever so I'm not going to say that we should not invest in helping the people within our family sometimes it goes beyond and people take advantage of you and say that you are the rich uncle in Nairobi who should help us and they camp in your place but remember tomorrow you will be the rich uncle who is bringing the rich uncle today tomorrow you will be the rich uncle and people will be looking at you so I'm not saying that you shouldn't give but I'm also saying that even when you give also remember that you also have other obligations instead of helping people by giving them hard outs to eat help them to build their capacity and help themselves and even help your children you never know tomorrow is tomorrow thank you for that Gladys and as you speak as I was listening to all of you it reminded me of a theme we adopted within our working space and that's looking at personal growth we've talked about promotions right and jobs but we're now challenging ourselves that we rise as we lift others as well and so when you get to that opportunity you know your family you know where you're from do not be adversely influenced by all these other people around you who are from different backgrounds and guys it's different once you step out of uni you know we're on different races right we don't all progress at the same rate and it may mean that for some people today yes I have my younger brother and I know that investing in him will set up our whole family for success and it doesn't mean that I'll be lesser over person in the future we're all just mindful of what we have I remember when I was younger why requesting my brothers for any money man I used to almost write a term paper not that they were mean but they got me to really think and reflect prioritize then request and so I think you also become a better steward of what you have even as you share and then as you rise from give and it shall come back to you full measure let's take let's believe in some of these let's keep sharing let's keep building our prosperity together and as you look at your expenses because it's spoken about that you'll then recognize what is necessary what is not and where you can stretch a bit more and it forms part of your personal character and remember it will actually spread out to other aspects of your character as a whole ladies and gentlemen with that we come to the end of this segment what do you say to our panel


OK, as they say, bingo. This is Think Tech, Hawaii, the state of clean energy, organized by the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum. And our co-host is now in the gallery there. I see her in the distance. Sharon Moriwaki, the co-chair of the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum. And our co-host today is Lauren Tenonkawa. A ton of kawa. And she's here from the Elemental Accelerator. Welcome back. Thanks, Sharon. Nice to have you here. OK, don't forget, we always ask our co-hosts to make comments at the end and summarize the show. So if you want a piece of paper to write notes down, so OK. OK. She doesn't want a piece of paper to be written down. OK. And our principal guest is Sarah Kabul. And Sarah is going to talk about Pono Homes. Thank you for coming down, Sarah. Thanks for having me, Jay. Great to be here. Pono Homes is part of a cohort for Elemental Accelerator. Yes, we're on the 2016 demonstration track. Yeah, outstanding. And our immediate guest, if you will.  Sure. Time's up. Right. Hawaii Energy, who's going to talk about, gee whiz, a trip to the Big Island, right? A trip to the Big Island. So as you know, Jay, we serve Hawaii Maui at Honolulu Counties with the public benefits fee administrator, Hawaii Energy. And so we took a trip to the Big Island to see what our companions out there were doing. We got to meet with the mayor, Harry Kim, of Hilo. We went to Kay's Drive-In, got some good lunch, and saw their LED installation. I'll make it clear, it's all over the show. For you people in Bolivia listening, it's a very good place. Very good place. And we would tell the University of Hawaii Hilo and met some of their innovators there. I'm going to tell you more about it. But first, I want to show you a video. OK. Deal. OK. And I figured we have to let our viewers know about the leader that Hawaii Island and specifically Hilo is becoming in energy efficiency. I'm Ryan Kodota. I'm third generation, part of the Kodota family. Who owns and operates Kay's Drive-In. Our family has always been interested in conservation, also saving money. So it just seemed like a perfect opportunity to not only save a little bit of money, but become more energy efficient. Did you know that there's 11,000 street lights on the Big Island? 11,000? Yeah. And the county just replaced all of them to LEDs. It is important that we do everything we can in regards to the measurement of the whole. In regards to our small, we do everything we can to contribute to adjustment. And that's your role as mayor. The university is full of aloha, and everyone there really puts the students first. That's right. Even the folks that manage their facility. My name's Loli Chi. I'm the director of US Shiloh Facilities Planning and Construction Office. This spring, working out great. We have accumulated over $400,000 of savings. And it's really inspiring to see businesses making smart energy choices. That's what it's all about. Catch us on an all new episode next time of Hawaii Energized. OK, we're back. So tell us what that movie was all about and what it means to you, Jamie. Well, the mayor's part was a little quiet in the video. If you didn't hear it, he did say that he believes in people doing their part and doing everything they can to save energy. And even a small project, their street lighting project in just the city of Hilo in a small state of Hawaii, makes a difference. And it's what the mayor can do right now. It's actionable. And they did it. And it's measurable. And it just really fundamentally follows what he believes in each person doing his or her part. Cage Drive-In went from these old T-12 really, really old technology fluorescent lamps switched to LED tubes. And they're seeing the savings there. And then we went to UH Hilo. We met with Loli Chi. And he shared how Hawaii Energy had sponsored him to go to, I believe it was a University of California system conference a couple of years ago. And he learned about this Green Revolving Loan Fund kind of a program. And Loli brought that back and worked together with his accounting team. So this is facilities and accounting working together and collaborating created. They set up a Green Revolving Loan Fund so that any rebates would go back into this fund. And any bill savings from their lighting projects would go back into this fund. And they're now looking at their second tranche of projects self-funded by the university. So it was a neat trip all around. I got to go to the Big Island. I got to see where Mary Monarch is performing. Oh, yeah. What's your next trip? Our next trip, you have to stay tuned. You may just bring a video back from Maui. OK, OK. Marvin, you hear that? You guys have any cross-examination? Lauren, Sarah? I think that's a great segue into Sarah's piece, because they're also doing efficiency on the home side and the residential side. And we also just went to the Big Island as well. Excellent. To get out to the neighbor islands and do efficiency there. Great. So we'll talk about your trip in a minute. We're going to take a short break now. Now that Ramsey, do you get anything else on this? No. If you want to see more of our videos, stop by at HawaiiEnergy.com slash Energize. All right. See pictures of Ramsey. Yes. Thank you, Ramsey. We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back with Lauren and Sarah. And also, Sharon Moriwaki will be right back. Thanks, Jay. You're watching Think Tech Hawaii, which streams live on ThinkTechHawaii.com, uploads to YouTube, and broadcasts on cable OC16 and O'Lello 54. Great content for Hawaii from Think Tech. Some say scuba divers are the poor man's astronaut. At dive heart, we believe that to be true. We say forget the moon. Dive heart can help children, adults, and veterans of all abilities escape gravity right here on Earth. Search diveheart.org and imagine the possibilities in your life. Aloha. I'm Kaui Lucas, host of Hawaii Is My Main Land here on Think Tech Hawaii Fridays at 3 PM Oyan Standard Time. We explore environmental issues, political issues, keeping it local any way we can. Aloha. Hey, Aloha. This is Andrew from Integrated Security Technologies. I'm here on behalf of PSA and your Cyber Security Committee. I got through Denver. I thought I'd give you a quick update on what we're doing heading into convention. I hope you all get down there in October. If you haven't gotten into Tier Zero yet and worked on that material, I encourage you to do so. But I can tell you that our committee is moving on through tiers one through five. And we've got some great new tools to help you sort of gauge yourself and help you with your policies and your implementations through tiers one and two. I'll be presenting that material down there at convention. So please come on down. And in the meantime, if there's any particular issues that you're having, feel free to send them to the committee. We've got a great group of folks working there. And if you've got some people on your team that are more interested in this, feel free to have them call us up. And maybe they can join our committee and help out a little bit. So thanks a lot. I look forward to seeing you there. Aloha. Today is no ordinary day. The pitch, hallowed ground for players and supporters alike. Excitement builds. Game plans are made with responsibility in mind. Celebrations are underway. Ready for kickoff. MLS clubs and our supporters rise to the challenge. We make responsible decisions while we cheer on our heroes and toast their success. Elevate your matchday experience. If you drink, never drive. Two. Bingo. I would say that. I'm Che Fardale. This is Think Tech. And we're here in Hawaii, the state of clean energy. Where else would we be? OK, we're in phase two now of our show. Sharon Moriwaki has joined us and all is well in the world. She's co-chair of the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum. OK, and we have the communications lead of the elemental accelerator. Lauren Tenrona, I always mess it up. Tonokawa. Tonokawa. Repeat after me. Tonokawa. Tonokawa, that's it. So tell us what the scope of this show is. Today we're excited to have Sarah Kabul from Plano Home, who is one of the elemental accelerator companies and in our portfolio. And she's going to describe what Plano Home does and tell us a little bit about their most recent project with the public housing authority here. Wow. And this is all part of a series this month. Can you define the series? I'm so excited because we have a whole month with the elemental accelerator and seeing all of the entrepreneurs. So they are the future, so really pleased to have you on. And the others who will have come and will be coming on in the next couple of weeks as well. We'd love to see entrepreneurs in the state. We do. It's a sign of vitality, a sign of the future, a sign of the health of the economy, the generation, everything. Don't stop, not for a minute. I hope you're working late at night, yeah? Oh, yes. OK, Sarah, tell us about Plano Home. So what does it do? Sure, so Plano Home, we offer a comprehensive home efficiency service to help people lower their utility bills and live greener and healthier for life. So our technicians use our custom software on a smartphone and a 200-plus point checklist. And we audited a home for energy and water efficiency improvements, and then we make the changes right there on the spot for them. So that includes installations like LED light bulbs, high efficiency water fixtures. We do large appliance maintenance to make sure appliances are working correctly, have good indoor air quality for your home and help make them last longer, and also sustainability education, so giving them tips that they can take with them wherever they go. Is it hard for people to learn 200 points of contact in their homes? I mean, how do you do this training? Yeah, so our technicians have them on the smartphone, and they can actually email or report right after to the resident, so they can have that with them for a long time. And we also provide ongoing education as well, so monthly newsletters where we provide additional efficiency tips. We have a book that we can give lots of ongoing education to to make sure they know everything they can to help save money.  I don't know, something's wrong here. We leave actually educational materials behind, so we have magnets that they can put on their refrigerator, on their dishwasher, on their laundry, to get their washer or dryer, so that they can see those points every time they do their laundry. So see, oh, I should wash in cold. That'll help me save a couple of dollars per load. So like little instructions, things? Yeah, just a lot of tips that help that up. You're the chief operating officer of the company? Yeah. And Scott Cooney is the chief executive officer of the company. I remember talking with him at your accelerator a couple of years ago. You had a party. I love parties. We had a party, and I met him there, and he told me all about this company. I was very impressed with his energy, forgive the use of the word. It's very efficient in its use of the energy. Very efficiently in its use of the energy. So where does this fit in your mission, your cohort? Where does this company fit in the constellations you make for your cohorts? So we work with a number of companies across energy, water, transportation, agriculture, and cybersecurity. And within energy, there are many different fields and projects that we look at. And efficiency is one of them. And what was really interesting to us about Pono Hall is that they do the implementation piece of efficiency. So not just the audit, but also the implementation and then the education as well. And so that really solved a unique problem in the industry and in the space. And they're currently testing that model here with customers and homes and residents. How many customers do you have, how many people I've learned to 200 points in? Since starting in 2014, we've done about 2,500 homes on four islands so far in Hawaii. Ah, so Maui is the next one, or you've done Maui already? We've done some on Maui and hoping to go back and then Molokai later this summer, we hope so. Good. So now being part of a cohort of entrepreneurial companies and startups, maybe not startups, but entrepreneurial enterprises who are profit organizations. Where's the profit here? What's the business model that appeals to you and that you're using, Sarah? So our service, we have two parts for it. So we charge a labor cost and then actually charge for the products at retail price. So if someone wants to buy an LED bulb, it's the same price that they would get it out in the store. And the advantage is that we can go and just install it for them. Because studies have shown that even if people are equipped with the knowledge of what they need to do to be more efficient, that doesn't really translate into behavioral changes. So it helps to just go in and do it for them, make it convenient. Our service is very low cost, light touch, and high impact. So we just want to make it really easy for people to be empowered to be more efficient. Okay, is there a wheel to come and tell you that you're actually turning a profit? Is it happening now? Yes. Oh, okay.  How much is a charge, if I wanted my home and I wanted you to come into my home, what would it cost me? Separate out the cost of buying the products I need, but like a service, what would that be? So we charge $75 per hour for this service. So that includes those 200 points I was mentioning, all the appliance maintenance. Like an audit point. Yep. And then any installations that you buy, like the LED bulbs, the water fixtures, we just charge those at retail price. So usually it takes about an hour or two for a home cost average, about $150. That's pretty reasonable to get efficient. So talk about your software. So we have custom software that our founder, Scott Clooney, built that we can use on a smartphone. And some of the advantages of that is that we can give that report to the resident after so they can go through those points and remember those tips when they're thinking about efficiency. And also for property managers, we can give them updates on their homes. We do some work in military housing as well so we can provide them with those reports and then send them to maintenance too if there's any issues we want to alert them about so they can follow up quickly and fix the problem. So how would a condo operate unit by unit or just the central areas, the common areas? How do you help the condo association, for example, or is that by the property manager just for the common areas? It depends on the customer. So we've found a really good customer for us is smaller like vacation hostels or smaller property management companies that wanna do the whole thing. If sometimes there's a split between what the resident pays and what the landlord pays. So in a larger multi-family building we can go unit by unit. So it's very flexible and customizable and we can adjust the scope for anything that the property manager or resident is looking for. Who's your market? I mean, who are you? You know, talking about a broad base of possible homes and people, how do you target your customers and who are they? So our service is great in that it can be flexible for both renters and homeowners. I think we've found sometimes renters think that there isn't much they can do as far as efficiency because the first thing that usually comes to mind is solar panels or something big and expensive that they may not be able to put on their home. So we can do a lot of small changes that are low cost that help them make a difference and lower their bills. So it can work for a renter, for a homeowner. We've done work with schools, military housing as well as elderly and public housing. Is there any difference between say condo, single family unit house or schools? I mean, facilities, bigger facilities. I mean, are there any differences in how you operate? Pretty, I mean, we adjust the scope based on what's needed. But you have to save 200 points everywhere. Yeah, yeah. And it's all focused on inside the building envelope. So kind of what we think of a lot of the lower hanging fruit which you bundle it together and you can really make a big difference and save more than 10% on your utility bills each month. So now you have scholarships, don't you? I mean, where people don't have to pay, where agencies or nonprofits are offering you grant money to cover the costs that the homeowner would otherwise have to pay. So for our demonstration project with Elemental Accelerator, we've been focusing on what are called hard to reach communities. So some of the underserved communities that don't maybe have access to some of these programs. So that's included elderly housing, low income housing. And now we've been working with the Hawaii Public Housing Authority. And we're very grateful for a partnership with Elemental Accelerator and Hawaii Energy who's been providing the funding for that to help give free services to public housing residents. Perfect. So, Lauren, how are they doing? They're making an impact. I mean, the impact that they're making is actually really measurable because you can count the number of homes they go into, the number of light bulbs they change out, the number of people they interact with, as well as the number and the size of their team and the number of technicians and franchises that they're able to do. Do you have data on how much money they've saved? So we're working on the data right now with our final report for Elemental Accelerator. So check back on our website in a few months and we'll have a case study there. But the pilot program we did with the Public Housing Authority, we found the cool thing about this is it can take only about 15 minutes to do a unit and it's very low cost, average about $120 and can help residents save $300 to $400 per year. Wow, nice. Yeah, suppose I called you from my mansion down Kahala Avenue there. My big mansion on the beach. That one. And I asked you to come and do this for me. Would you do this for me? We are, definitely, yeah. Okay. But we're offering free audits right now so if anyone's interested in having their home audited. So you would give me a free order in my mansion? Yes, and then if you want to purchase some LED bulbs or other fixtures, I can get that for you, yeah. At a cost. At a cost. At a cost. Retail value.   In this case it was over, what, more than a year ago, huh? Just finishing up now. Just finishing up now, okay. And then they're gone. All your students are gone. Do you feel a sense of loss about that? They never actually leave. I mean, I see Sarah every day we work in the same office. Which is nice. Although the project may be over, they're still a part of our portfolio and we still continue to attract them. How long? Forever. Forever. You heard it here, right there, yeah.  You want to have, you know, the helpful and the friendly support of the accelerator, yeah. Yeah, it's been instrumental in our success and the great thing about the accelerator is that they really build this nice ecosystem here in Hawaii and elsewhere, not only of the companies, so they bring us out several times a year. We have an event in San Francisco and some in Honolulu to just be able to network with each other and learn best practices. Oh, the other cohorts? Yes. The members of the cohort. Yeah, class cohorts and in our own cohort. And just working with partners here in the state and really connecting us with partners that are helpful to us. That's really very important. But I want to ask about the other cohorts. So when you talk to another cohort, I remember the cohort, you know, what do you get from that? I mean, for example, say, you know, I don't know if I should get this kind of insurance or that kind of insurance. I don't know how to, you know, do my books, what kind of programize you, is that kind of thing? Just those regular business points. Is this what you meant to them about? Yeah, everything from the small day-to-day tasks all the way to the vision creation type of questions and answers that, and those are the types of discussions that happen when the companies come together. Yeah. And do they let their hair down? Of course. We do cut open. Yeah. Yeah. And I accept that. Yeah. There's a place for that for sure. And that's when we're good at cut open. We do. We don't have to be good for that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so actually it becomes a kind of family. Definitely. And so it goes on through the years. Yeah. We get to know each other on personal levels as well and Sarah's story and her, the way she's here today. I see your point of home is really interesting as well. I'm actually here because of the Accelerator. I got a fellowship with the KUPU Rise program. So the first year they hired 10 fellows and paired each of us with that. And an elemental accelerator company. So I chose Pono Home. And then that fellowship turned into a job. And three years later, I'm here. So you came on a fellowship and stayed? Yep. So they're also putting students to work in clean energy jobs. Yeah, they're good. Well, that takes me to who staffs Pono Home? Who staffs that? I mean, who goes out there to these homes and takes the software or whatever it is and looks through the 200 points? Who does that? Do you train them? And who are they? Yeah, so we have three technicians here on Oahu. And it's great they have come from the communities that they're working in. So one of our technicians is a military spouse. And she's working in the military housing. Another of them grew up in Hawaiian Homeland's housing. And now he's doing efficiency work there. And we just expanded with this program with Hawaii Energy for HPHA onto the Big Island. So just hired a technician there as well. Well, these things are coming together. It's like all the people we know, they're all coming together. Isn't that nice? That's the, what do you call it, the maturation of the industry, so to speak. So what's the future for you, Sarah? So we're about 1,400 homes in on the public housing project and are going to keep working on that for the next year. And we also have a franchise opportunity. So kind of our next step is to want to empower green entrepreneurs in Hawaii and across the US to also go help people in underserved communities and people all across the nation that want to be more efficient. So we have our franchise sales open in about 38 states in the US, so we're focusing on that expansion next to us. Well, that's major. This is just what elemental would want, isn't it, a national expansion. As well as focusing more on neighbor islands, too. So Maui, Molokai, Hawaii, and trying to bring more efficiency there, too. This is your laboratory to develop the best practices and all that, because it's a new idea. And you have to refine it every day and so forth. Yeah. Oh, that's exciting. You must be somewhat excited about this, because you're a member of the program. Both those pieces are really exciting to us in terms of expanding to other communities here locally. Those that are hard to reach and those that are fairly easy to reach. As well as scaling nationally as well. And that's sort of a goal of our program and a way that we have measures. You help them go national, because it takes money to go national. Yeah, it takes money to go national. It takes relationships to go national. It takes knowing different places and different communities. The franchise model is interesting in that way, because you're working with people who are of the community to do work within their community and help their friends and family and colleagues partake in this energy efficiency and this energy movement transformation. So as you go to the neighbor islands, you're also looking for franchisees, right?  Yeah, so goal to reduce carbon emissions and help create green jobs for people and really appreciate elemental accelerator. Accelerators focus too on making energy affordable for everyone and accessing all communities. Well, let me get this now. So it's affordable. It makes energy affordable. It makes green energy. It improves the quality of the homes of everybody on the economic scale and the quality of their lives. Makes it affordable. What's exactly not, and yeah, that too. What's not to like? I can't figure anything out. That makes money. Yeah, making a profit. So you don't understand exactly what you want out of this. You know, I'm a bottom line. I'm joking, but the bottom line is that this is a community service type organization. It's a profit doing the work of a nonprofit is what it's doing, is doing community service. You must love this. Yeah, the model is very interesting. Yeah, yeah, is this the kind of model you're looking for in other companies too? Yeah, I mean, we only work with four-profit companies. Yeah, but? But almost all of them are mission oriented and aligned with our own mission as a nonprofit. And so Pono Homes' mission and ethos behind the company and the model that they use definitely aligns with ours. So where are we in the continuum, Lauren? You know, I mean, in this month, for one thing, but in the development of the Elemental Accelerator. I mean, you've done some interesting things. You've expanded. You've made a fantastic part. I'm sure you're rolling. I'd love to have you roll the text. Can I borrow your roll? Yeah. We can hack ourselves once again. Yeah. So where are you going with all of this? Because I sensed there's a national kind of emphasis these days and you're trying to be as national as you can. You want your cohorts to be national too, right? Yeah, so our mission is twofold, to help our company succeed and to help transform this place. And so in helping our company succeed, that's the scaling piece. And in transforming this place, that's where we're doing projects here and growing the economy here. I mean, folks like Pono Homes are hiring people locally to get involved in this movement and transformation. And what's next for us is we're in the process of selecting our next cohort. Exciting. Yeah. It does in new companies to add to the portfolio. And something that's really important to us is sort of tracking our progress toward those two pieces of our mission. So how are we helping our company succeed and how are we helping to transform this place? And each September, we release an impact report. And so that's something that we're working on now to be able to share everything we've done. September's right around the corner. It is right around the corner. So what's next in the course of this month? I mean, for us here on Hawaii, the state of clean energy, who are you gonna bring around? So the next show, Sarah talked about her involvement and her start at Pono Home as a fellow in the RISE program. We actually have an intern with us for this month of July. And she's 12 years old. Oh, starting young. She's at first. Yeah, she's at youngest intern. We had one 13 a couple of weeks ago. Oh my God. So I wish we had one. How are we gonna beat you now? We could have had the program. I had the whole show with him. So she'll be here next week, really diving into the opportunities for career development and workforce development and segwaying education with what's after that.  So Sarah, I asked Lauren before what she thought of you. Now let me ask you, what do you think of her? Well, that's amazing. She's... You're ready to blush. The communications material she makes, I've always been very impressed with those. And we're just so grateful to be part of the elemental accelerator community and have learned so much from their mentorship and have helped us create such great projects with amazing partners here in Hawaii and just can't be grateful enough for their support and ongoing support. This is not your first channel. I know. It's from the heart, yeah? It is. One of the things we have in common we're actually both the part of the same internship program. Oh, yeah. I also started as an internet elemental accelerator. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That would be a new series in that Rolodex, yeah? Yeah. Very good. Sharon, why don't you summarize them close? Wow, this is exciting. This was an exciting show. I think we saw growth, internships and interns, full-fledged communication leads, and the COO of a firm. I think this is really wonderful and I really like sharing this with the public knowing what you folks do and maybe getting more good interns and good cohorts for the coming years. So, very good. Thanks for coming. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you. See you next week. And Lauren, we'll see you next week. Thank you, Sarah. See you next week. Hello, Lauren. Oh, wait. I want to just plug Hawaii Energy Policy, Hawaii.edu, our Hawaii Clean Energy Day, August 28th, and we're going to have a Tesla Autonomous EVT for people to demo right around. So please, everybody, please come to Hawaii Clean Energy Day, October, August 28th. August 28th. August 28th. Thank you, Sharon. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you. Great to have you guys here. Okay, loja. Loja. Loja.