Wilfred Saroni reflects the essence of success from United States, thousands of mile from his Kenyan home.
Back in 2006 - within 10 years of relocating to the U.S - Wilfred became the first Kenyan to be awarded the Ronald Reagan Republican Gold Medal in 2006 by senior members of the US Congress for his hard work and entrepreneurial resourcefulness. He was honored for establishing and managing the Holden Medical Institute [http://www.holdenhealth.org/index.html] , a nursing college that trains some 1,000 students each year.
Again, Wilfred scored another milestone within the U.S African immigrant community this week by announcing a merger between his college and Premier Educational Group.
According to news report, the Premier Group is “an empire of private sector middle-level training institutions boasting 47 colleges in states within the American eastern seaboard”. It is reported the addition of Wilfred’s Holden Institute “brings to the Premier group the much sought-after private nursing program. By joining the board of directors at the Premier Educational Group, Mr Saroni has embarked on a journey of a transition from a business owner to an investor,” according to the Kenyan news portal Daily Nation.
There is a shortage of nurses in United States, a situation health care experts have predicted “will only get worse over the years”, and this was one of the factors that propelled Wilfred into establishing the Holden Institute.
With the assistance of his wife, Sarah, ITGlobal reported in 2006, Wilfred built one of the “most promising private nursing colleges in the United States. The institution has a staff of 67 and operates on an annual budget of more than US $ 2 million (about Kenya Shillings 150,000,000.” The website reports further:
further:
In less than 10 years since entering the United States, Mr. Saroni’s self discipline and determination has allowed him to earn an MBA through online studies. Within the same period, he has also married, raised a family and founded two different successful businesses: Holden Healthcare Staffing and Holden Health Career Training Centre. The nursing college has three campuses, with two located in the state of Massachusetts and one in the state of New Hampshire, known as Bay State and Granite State respectively. Mr. Saroni’s innovation has led him to planning an expansion of the college into having university status, offering degrees in diverse fields.
Mr. Saroni, a former travel consultant in Nairobi, remembers his modest schooling at Kimana primary and secondary schools in Kenya, where he walked about 10 miles a day to and from school. He later on moved to Nairobi to start a travel consultancy firm with a friend. The firm, whose clients included the National Bank of Kenya and the Central Bank, was later to be sold by the two in the mid nineties when the Kenyan Shilling plummeted at the demands of the International Monetary Fund for accountability from the then government. The Kenyan-born entrepreneur then moved to the US to attend Regis College near the home of his Kenyan aunt. Three years after moving to America, he launched the business venture.
Image credit: PNUDiaspora.
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