Mrs. Olive Luena is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tanzania Gatsby Trust, (TGT) a charitable Trust whose Mission is poverty alleviation though the provision of market based solutions to farmers and SMEs with Micro-credit, training, marketing strategies, low cost housing to the poor, appropriate technology transfer and acquisition.
For the past 16 years she has built TGT to where it is now where she ensured its steady growth from a budget of US dollars 80,000 in 1995 to a 7 Million plus budget while maintaining a very lean staff. Currently she has spearheaded the spinning off the TGT Microfinance activities into a company incorporated as Fanikiwa Microfinance Company Ltd. TGT operates programs and projects both in the mainland of Tanzania and Islands of Zanzibar. Alongside this, in the past five years she has managed successfully collaborative/partnership projects with the University of Dar es Salaam, The Tanzania Cotton Board, the Tanzania Forest Institute (TAFORI) Community Banks, the World Bank, UNIDO etc.
Key qualifications
Mrs. Luena holds a degree in Industrial Management, a Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Management, a diploma in Personnel Management, and has also been trained at the postgraduate level at Cranfield School of Management in the UK in enterprise development, Gender and Policy at the IDS –Sussex University the Economic Institute at Boulder Colorado in USA in Microfinance, and Management the Irish management Institute. She is actively engaged in promoting Social justice and philanthropy both at local and International levels
Professional achievements
- Eisenhower Exchange Fellow 1994
- Johns Hopkins University Fellow 2003
- Senior Fellow Synergos Institute of New York 2006
- Recipient of 2010 Bellagio Residence Award
- As part of the 50 years celebrations of independence of Tanzania she was recently awarded the “Women Determination Award” in recognition of her Support to the Development of SMEs.
