Karimi's story

My Biography

Karimi Kihato currently works at Matillion as a People Operations Director and her role is helping to scale the People Ops Business Partner and Services team as well as supporting the implementation of a new ERP to drive automation and self-serve for our fast scaling business. She is am a passionate and driven People Operations/HR leader with deep expertise at both a strategic and operational level. She has a wealth of experience gained from working in Life Sciences/Pharmaceutical, Tourism/Hospitality, and now Digital Innovation and Technology. 

Karimi is a champion for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and a tireless advocate for the same in work practices and how employees experience work. Her role as a People leader allows her to challenge the existing culture, and also support the development of inclusive practices. She firmly believes that people should find real satisfaction and meaning in their work and would like to help them achieve that. In her previous roles, she has led initiatives such as  (Girls Get Set – a girls into Science STEM program and partnered with Apprenticeship providers and diversity recruiters to encourage more women and diverse talent into careers that would not have been in their reach.

In 2021, she joined Solaris, an Executive Black Women Leadership Programme, the brainchild of Yetunde Hoffman for the Black female executives. Despite the number of leadership programmes targeted at women, the advancement of women of colour remains slow. The number of Black women in senior and influential positions across industries remains significantly less than desired. 

Away from her day job, Karimi is a mentor for young HR talent through CareerHack, which offers a unique mentoring program where you have the opportunity to exchange and learn from senior leaders who have overcome many professional and personal challenges on their way to building a successful career. She does pro-bono coaching on career development and loves getting involved in the community and her children’s school events. 

Karimi is a proud Mother to Muyu (9) and Kariuki(6) and married to a tall, dark and handsome gentleman called Washington. They live in Buckinghamshire, England. She was born and grew up in Kenya, raised by a single Mother with a big heart from whom she drew a lot of inspiration to date. 

A personal mantra that gets her out of bed every day is : Be the change you wish to see in the world” -Mahatma Gandhi –

Linked In – https://www.linkedin.com/in/karimi55/

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