Rob Burnet

Entrepreneur, Musician, Producer

Came to Kenya from Scotland aged 23 with my backpack and an art history degree. Visited a contemporary African art gallery in Nairobi and then spent two years as a curator there before founding the community arts studio Kuona Trust in 1995 (just celebrated 30 years!) In 2000 I joined the Ford Foundation to establish their media, arts and culture grants portfolio around Eastern Africa. I got interested in mass-media and the power of local voices to effect social change at the scale of millions. So I left Ford and founded Shujaaz Inc. Since 2010 Shujaaz ('Heroes') became a massive youth brand, reaching ~70% of all young Kenyans aged 15-24, we won two Emmys, we published 150m comic books in Kenya and Tanzania alongside TV, radio, social media, events. Gradually Shujaaz Inc has become a research-business too, using data to track and understand huge positive impacts in audiences' health and income, agency and governance. Started to see the potential of data as an untapped and highly sustainable new asset to serve young people in Africa. So I co-founded MESH with TED Countdown speaker Anuj Tanna to develop the first online community for entrepreneurs in the informal economy. MESH now has 800,000+ monthly users in Kenya, trading, sharing and learning business skills, and efficiently matching for the first time with corporates for finance, gig work and multiple other services that used to be out of reach. I became a Kenyan citizen in 2024.

The energy and possibilities in East Africa's informal world

Young people aren't the problem - they're the solution.

It's my first time - so I'll tell you later

Playing the bagpipes