Meet Bonnie Mwangi

Who is Bonnie Mwangi, CPA, LLM, MBA?

The simplest answer is that, I am you. Average guy from the average Kenyan family. I grew up in Kiambu County, the middle child in a family of three — my elder brother Patrick, my younger sister Sarah, and me. We were raised by one tough, determined woman — my mother, Mary Njeri. After a difficult divorce, she raised us alone. She didn’t have wealth, privilege, or much education, but she had grit. She ran a small business, worked tirelessly, and never complained about the hardships she faced.

From her, I learned the most important lessons in life:

• Don’t pity yourself — there’s always someone worse off.
• It’s not about where you come from, it’s about where you end up.
• Treat people with kindness — karma is real.
• If you are blessed, be a blessing to others.

My mother lived by these words. She educated children of relatives and strangers alike — not because she had much, but because she believed deeply in spreading love and opportunity.

When I was 15, my mother asked what I wanted to do after high school. I told her I wanted to build a career, help others, and study in America. We made a plan. Every few months, she’d give me cash to deposit into a small savings account for my education. And years before I received my MBA from Cornell University in New York, I received the best business education a person can receive, from my mom. She taught me about business strategy, supply chain, negotiation, breakeven and profit analysis, and how to scale a business! By my final year of high school, I was a businessman, helping her run the business, and our plan for me to receive an American education, was on track.

Then tragedy struck. Three months after graduation, my mother fell gravely ill, and, after nearly three months in the hospital, she passed away. I was 18 — going on 38 – and suddenly responsible for raising my 15-year-old sister Sarah.

In that moment, I grew up, fast. I didn’t ask “why.” I didn’t feel sorry for myself. I knew that, as my mother taught me, that there were others who had it worse than me, as difficult as it was for me to even process it. I also felt like I had received all the training and mentorship in the world to succeed in that role of an 18-year-old parent! I became both a guardian and a brother. My sister’s future depended on the choices I made. And, I was not going to let short-term fun destroy my sister’s life. Never!

Through God’s grace, I made it to America. Despite my humble beginnings, my perseverance and insistence allowed me to earn an education that many can only dream of — including four master’s degrees, among them an MBA from Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and a Master of Laws (“LLM”) in Business Law from Osgoode Hall Law School of York University (Toronto, Canada). I am also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the U.S. and Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) in Canada.