Catherine Gitonga is an accomplished business development specialist with over 20 years of experience supporting SME growth and enhancing organizational productivity across East Africa. As the founder and CEO of Smart Regional Consultants (SRC), she has successfully led investor readiness, financial market linkage, and enterprise development programs for global development partners, private sector actors and local county governemnts. Catherine is passionate about improving entrepreneur livelihoods through mentorship, coaching, and access to finance, having supported through SRC programs over 180,000 enterprises including those owned by youth, women and living in marginalised communities. She is recognized for her strong leadership, emotional intelligence, and expertise in developing market-driven solutions that promote sustainable business growth, particularly for women, youth, and marginalized communities.