Council of Elders: Raymond B. Kaniu

Chairman, Council of Elders at Strahl Composite

We are pleased to introduce our Chairman, Raymond B. Kaniu

Raymond is a Kenyan-American who was born and raised in Kenya. He is the Founder/CEO of Strahl Composite, an independent International Affairs start-up think tank applying Collective Intelligence to assist leaders in the public and private sectors to make informed decisions, identify common ground, facilitate mutually-beneficial connections, find sustainable solutions to global issues and encourage present and future generations to leave the world better than they found it.

Raymond is globally experienced in the creation, execution, and evaluation of social impact strategies for business (profit and non-profit) and policy priorities in relation to short and long-term objectives, exposed to diverse communities and disciplines, embraced changes, and achieved measurable results resolving issues at the confluence of population, people(humans), and resources. He is well-versed on issues focused on diplomacy, the confluence of technology and society, infrastructure, and global business, which are the four pillars of Strahl Composite’s advisory and research. As our Founder he has transitioned the organization from an informal one to a formal one (registered in Kenya earlier this year), with intentions to also register in United States.

He was also one of the earliest adopters of blockchain technology in Africa’s Real Estate and Proptech management and wrote the whitepaper on the innovative Land LayBy Group project in Kenya that would have essentially put an end to land corruption practices in Africa and empower owners. He has also assisted New York Senators of the former Independent Democratic Conference and related committees to identify and investigate the implications of Fintech and virtual currencies that were emerging at the time at a pace that demanded policy and legislative action to protect New Yorkers, aggregate actions that eventually fed the current 23 NYCRR 200.2(q) regulation and BitLicense. Raymond has also researched for international academic institutions (Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and International Institute of Social Studies) and non-profit organizations (Corporate Accountability International, Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, AmeriCorp, L'Arche International, and Center for Global Partnership) across United States, Western Europe, and East Asia.

Given his diverse experience working in both the public and private sectors, Raymond has become adept at solving complex public policy challenges with a demonstrated success initiating new interventions and partnerships involving close engagement with key stakeholders to influence relevant policy reforms, public-private sector players, deliver evidence-informed solutions to informal-formal economy actors and remote communities where access to decisive information is asymmetrical.

He has a BSBA in Global Business Administration from Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School and has a MAIR and MPP from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School and Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, Germany, respectively. Both part of the EU-US Atlantis Transatlantic Program in International Security and Development Policy, designed to prepare future leaders to meet the challenges of the 21st Century with respect to European and American security, foreign and development policy.

He's an avid footballer (soccer) player, coach, and fan of Manchester United. He also likes being in nature and is a voracious and monastic reader and writer. Due to his passion to understand human beings, he spares time to assist people with mental and physical disabilities, the very same passion that led him to explore and experience the world to better understand humanity and how humans interact and treat each other. It is why Strahl Composite is a human-centric organization applying all disciplines to understand humanity.

We are proud to have him as our Chairman at the Council of Elders.