The Shape
Direction and accountability sit with the Strategy and Governance Board, the SGB. Two domain boards sit beneath it: the Campus Administration Board for everything campus-based under SLAK, and the Community Programs Board for the community programmes and the school project under Lions Strength. The Safeguarding, Gender and Quality Committee is independent and reports straight to the SGB. The Advisory and Ambassador Board advises and opens doors but makes no decisions.
Day to day, the Operations Director and the Finance Director lead. The Operations Director line-manages the heads of the operational departments and co-chairs the two domain boards with the Finance Director, who leads finance across all the entities. Departments do the work; each has teams for its services.
The organisation: the SGB at the top, the two directors and the two domain boards beneath it, the departments and their teams below, with the independent committee and the advisory board beside
The naming convention: a board ends in -B, a department in -D, a committee in -C. Team names are written in full.
Governance
| Body | Short | What it does | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy and Governance Board | SGB | Sets long-term direction; approves strategy, budgets, audited accounts, policies and senior appointments; appoints and evaluates the two directors. More | Quarterly |
| Campus Administration Board | CA-B | Oversees the campus-based assets, services and enterprises under SLAK: the Campus Management and IT Center departments. Investment, infrastructure, campus performance | Every two weeks |
| Community Programs Board | CP-B | Oversees the community programmes and the Loropio Girls school project under Lions Strength; approves their plans and budgets | Every two weeks |
| Safeguarding, Gender and Quality Committee | SGQ-C | Independent oversight of safeguarding, gender equity and programme quality; reports to the SGB; can table issues at both domain boards. More | Monthly |
| Advisory and Ambassador Board | AA-B | External experts, prominent supporters and the co-founders not on the SGB; advice, networks, visibility; no formal decision power | Annually |
| Operations Director | OD | Day-to-day leadership; implements SGB decisions; line-manages the department heads; represents the organisation in Turkana; co-responsible for HR and disciplinary matters | |
| Finance Director | FD | Financial strategy and management across all entities; leads the Finance Department; budgets, audits, donor reporting; co-decides hiring and salaries with the OD |
Departments and Teams
| Department | Short | Owned by | Reports to | Teams |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campus Management | CM-D | SLAK | CA-B, through a Senior Campus Manager | Utilities, Catering, Eco Market, Housing, Hospitality, Upkeep, Construction (shared with CP-D), Security, Transport |
| IT Center | IT-D | SLAK and LL shared | CA-B | System Admin, IT-Space |
| Training | TR-D | LL | OD | Training, Curriculum, Careers, Welfare |
| Community Programs | CP-D | LS | CP-B | Agricultural, Medical, ECD |
| Loropio Girls Secondary School project | LG-D | LS | CP-B | The school project: stipends and construction. The school itself is a public school and a separate body |
| Communication | COM-D | Shared | OD and SGB | Communication, Partnerships, Fundraising |
| Finance | FN-D | SLAK and LS shared | FD and SGB | Accounting, Procurement, Central Store, Reporting (shared with COM-D) |
| Human Resources | HR-D | SLAK and LS shared | OD | Recruitment, contracts, performance, policies, staff welfare, grievances |
| Digital Enterprise | DE-D | The teams themselves | Nobody; a grouping, not a managed department | Digital Lions, Resilient People, Tech Dada |
Who Reports to Whom
- The SGB receives regular reports from the Operations Director, the Finance Director, both domain boards and the committee.
- The Operations Director line-manages the heads of Campus Management, IT Center, Training, Community Programs, the school project, Communication and Human Resources.
- The Finance Director leads the Finance Department and co-leads the Reporting Team with Communication.
- Campus Management and IT Center answer to the Campus Administration Board; Community Programs and the school project answer to the Community Programs Board. The two directors co-chair both boards and carry their decisions to the SGB.
- Within Campus Management, branch leads report to the Campus Manager or to one of the management assistants, who also deputise for the Campus Manager.
- Shared services serve every entity: Finance, Human Resources, IT Center, Communication and the committee.
Three Initiative Clusters
For planning, budgets, performance monitoring and donor reporting, the work is grouped across departments into three clusters.
- Training and Digital Work Pathways, led by Training and supported by IT Center, Campus Management, Finance, Human Resources and Communication.
- Campus and Enterprises, led by Campus Management and IT Center under the Campus Administration Board.
- Community Schools and Programs, led by Community Programs and the school project under the Community Programs Board.
Names That Changed
The structure was written in two rounds. The September 2025 structure named a Campus Management Board, a Community Projects Management Board, a System Administration department of its own and a Gender and Welfare Committee. The December 2025 structure, which this site follows, renamed them the Campus Administration Board, the Community Programs Board, the IT Center Department and the Safeguarding, Gender and Quality Committee, and put the System Admin Team inside IT Center. Staff still use the older names in conversation.
Meeting agendas from mid 2026 call the Communication Department External Relations (ER-D) and the committee a department (SGQ-D); the written structure says Communication (COM-D) and committee (SGQ-C). Which is current is not settled in the material.
Several posts were written as "to be appointed" or "to be hired" in 2025: the Senior Campus Manager, the branch leads, the head of Human Resources. The material read for this site does not say which have since been filled.