In 2024, AB Entheos celebrated 10 years of operations. The company is the brainchild of Anne Kamau and Barbara Chesire, former colleagues from earlier in their respective careers. Launching and growing AB Entheos was the biggest professional challenge Anne and Barbara have faced. Through this blog series, they explain the challenges they have overcome, their successes and the lessons learned. This is the final instalment in their story of 10 lessons in 10 years, or 10-in-10.
Big dreams can be achieved by small teams
Barbara explains that towards the end of 2023 and at the beginning of 2024, she and Anne realised that they needed to make changes to the business. For the types of partnerships they wanted to form, such as with governments and donors, they needed to have a serious set-up to show that they were a serious outfit. They initiated the process of recruiting and onboarding an advisory board to establish proper corporate governance structures. By now, it was clear to Anne and Barbara that they alone could not carry the dream.
There were several reasons why both Anne and Barbara felt that introducing an advisory board at that moment made sense. Beyond having a credible corporate structure that made the company look organised, there was a need to bring in new ideas on strategy and funding. There was also a need to have in place trusted people that Anne and Barbara could rely on to challenge them – keeping healthy checks and balances is necessary for any organisation.
A big dream can’t just be carried by just us (her and Anne). We felt we wanted…we needed a wider pool of experts and leaders who can guide us as we grow.
~ Barbara Chesire
“It has to be worth it for people to be part of a board, our board that is…”
Comprising four individuals, the advisory board members bring expertise in local, global and climate insurance, carbon credits, and the development sector. What makes their contributions powerful is their diversity: each board member is from a different location and has a varied background. Barbara anticipates the next step for the advisory board: to transition to a governance board, which would involve them taking legal responsibility for AB Entheos’ work, especially given increased project responsibilities and funding.
The fact that we have such a renowned board, comprising people with a reputation who are busy and doing many other things, we really can’t afford to not be serious.
~ Anne Kamau
So far, the advisory board has been beneficial to AB Entheos in several ways. It has introduced a higher level of accountability, as staff now have to produce deliverables and submit regular reports. Working with board members even led to a major funding opportunity with Humanity Insured. Anne waxes lyrical: the board has helped to identify potential blind spots. Barbara adds that both her and Anne have been pushed to think bigger. The 10-in-10 blog series itself was a direct consequence of feedback from board members
Lessons learned over the last nine years are still relevant today
Over the last nine years, Anne and Barbara have learned many lessons – more than one per year, which each blog in this series has captured. The lesson for 2024 is that their big dream of expanding resilience and inclusion across Africa can only be realised by having “all hands on deck.” Ultimately, this culminates in all the previous lessons being applied: partners, clients and their team have been aligned around a shared mission. Part of this achievement was borne out of Barbara being selected as fellow by Mulago Foundation. This experience has so far influenced AB Entheos’ focus on achieving impact at scale and communicating more effectively.
For Anne and Barbara, the thinking is to turn their rich network of insurers, NGOs and community organisations into a coalition for co-creation rather than isolated projects. Maintaining client-centricity and field immersion means that they can continue to keep solutions grounded in lived realities. Codifying lessons from informal settlements and pilots into protection cover remains core to their work. Having survived the “valley of death,” the company has developed its own resilience that converts shocks into new products. And with its values-driven team, AB Entheos can grow intentionally: by choosing partners and markets that reinforce its mission and ensure that every new pair of hands rows in the same direction.
This marks the close of AB Entheos’ 10-in-10 journey. As we look ahead, the lessons, challenges, and triumphs shared across the series continue to shape how we grow, partner, and deliver impact.
Anne and Barbara
