Founder
Paula Meyer is the Founder of Friends of Ngong Road and an emeritus member of its Board of Directors. In 2005, Meyer and her family visited Kenya and Tanzania for a photo safari. During the trip, Peter Ndungu asked whether she knew anyone who would sponsor a child in Kenya so they could get an education. Meyer emptied her purse of Kenyan shillings, told Ndungu they would start with her, and asked him to identify two children she could sponsor.
At the time, Meyer was an executive in the financial services industry, working for Ameriprise Financial in Minneapolis, MN. She had led a successful career, primarily in the mutual fund industry, and was ready for a change. In 2006, she left Ameriprise and began a 20-year career in corporate board service, including the boards of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, First Command Financial, Mutual of Omaha, and Diamond Hill Investment Group. During those same years, Meyer played a significant leadership role in Friends of Ngong Road, where she remains actively involved as a volunteer.
After many years as a corporate executive, Meyer believes that the skills she and the organization’s board of directors developed in business and other fields can be applied successfully to deliver results in a different context. Friends of Ngong Road provides support to one of the most at-risk populations in the world and has delivered impressive outcomes.
Meyer has been married for 48 years to her husband Kurt. They have three married adult children and four grandchildren in Chicagoland. She and Kurt travel extensively, and she continues to serve on one corporate board while volunteering actively for Friends of Ngong Road.
She is inspired by the children from the program who have seized the opportunity to change their lives through education and support, leading to employment — whether they have become an electrician, a driver, a lawyer, an engineer, or a police officer, their lives are far better than they could have imagined when they began the program. She is also inspired by the volunteers who built this organization and its programs, motivated simply by the chance to make the world a better place. And she deeply appreciates the supporters who have donated to Friends of Ngong Road on the promise that the organization would be an effective steward of their gifts. Together, we built an organization that has given hope to hundreds of children in Kenya.