An award-winning entrepreneur, Sylvia is Founder/CEO of GlobalX Investments Ltd/GlobalX Innovation Labs. GlobalX feeds into the innovation pipeline by closing the skills, funding and organizational/corporate digital transformation gaps. GlobalX focuses on SDGs 4 (Quality Education); 5 (Gender Equality); 8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth); 9 (Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure; and 17 (Partnerships for the goals). GlobalX’s vision is to drive a more diverse, inclusive and competitive digital economy with a focus on emerging technologies that opens up equal opportunities for all.
She actively contributes to the global and Kenya’s tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem. This earned her a special mention in the closing speech of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya by Maria Contreras-Sweet, former US Government’s Lead Minister on Entrepreneurship and member of President Obama’s cabinet.
In March 2021, Sylvia won the Digital Inclusion Champion Award 2020 for the National Diversity and Inclusion Awards & Recognition (DIAR) which celebrates companies, government agencies, county governments, NGOs and individuals who champion diversity, promote inclusion and equality in Kenya.
In November 2020 she was listed under 30+ Most Influential Women in Tech by CIO East Africa, an outstanding industry recognition in East Africa. She is 2020 Techpreneur of the Year- Over 30 for the Founder of the Year Awards (FOYA) East Africa.
She is a TechWomen Fellow 2014, a US Department of State’s Silicon Valley STEM program; launched by Hillary Clinton, former US Secretary of State. TechWomen empowers, connects and supports the next generation of women leaders in STEM from Africa, Central & South Asia, and the Middle East.
She is Country Co-Founder/Chapter Lead (Kenya) and Operations Board Member for Women in Tech Africa (WiTA), the largest female technology focused group in Africa and 2018 winner of the UN’s EQUALS in Tech Award, Leadership Category.
She has immensely contributed to organizing numerous women in tech events, which have reached and impacted 20,000+ women and girls through discussions on digital economies, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, whilst providing a platform for networking and mentorship opportunities.
 
Sylvia is a member and part of the Secretariat for the Gender Alliance; a cross-network of feminists from the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt’s Responsible Leaders Network, the Global Diplomacy Lab, the Bosch Alumni Network and Global Leadership Academy Community (by GIZ).
She has spoken on media channels like BBC on women leadership in technology and CGTN PrimeTime News on research and innovation in Africa. During EastAfrica.Com in 2019, she was keynote speaker on Ensuring an Inclusive Journey towards the 4IR in Africa and about Emerging Tech and Inclusion at the same forum in May 2020. She has also spoken at the OXFAM Digital Rights Summit in April 2021 on using ICTs to empower women and bridging the digital divide and the UNIDO Women in Industry & Innovation 2020 Virtual Summit amongst others.
Sylvia is also a champion against discriminatory/biased technology, a journey she has embarked on to drive Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. This has seen her speak on various platforms like the Red Dot Foundation, PowertoFly, BMW Foundation, to advance equality by getting rid of gender and racially discriminatory technology. She is also a Working Group member on Data Driven Technology & Equality, the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law (BCCE) at the University of California, Berkeley.
She is driving initiatives focused on up/skilling of women in emerging technologies e.g Artificial Intelligence and building partnerships to fill the employment and skills gaps and creating a gender fund for women businesses to increase the representation of women in tech. In November 2020, she put a call to action/pitch through a multi-stakeholder approach with the support of ITCILO/GIZ after participating in the Leading with Artificial Intelligence Lab.
She is a 2015 Honoree of the playing cards project that showcases female role-models from across the world, a daughter project of the Notable Women in Computing cards associated with the Computing Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) and Anita Borg Institute Wikipedia Project.