Yesterday, Larry Madowo announced the completion of his post-graduate degree program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Madowo also emerged as the winner of the prestigious 2020 Philip Greer Award for Financial Writing, thanks to his 9,000-word thesis exploring the aftermath of e-commerce firm, Jumia’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in April 2019.
In addition, the anchor is also set to co-author an MBA case study on the same at Columbia Business School.
Madowo took time to thank Bloomberg News Executive Editor Winnie O’Kelley, who is also a professor of business journalism at Columbia, for her guidance in crafting the award-winning thesis.
“Only because you were the amazing professor and thesis advisor I needed. Thanks for making it all possible,” the anchor wrote in response to O’Kelley who congratulated him on Twitter.
Madowo revealed that it took a lot of effort to complete the thesis, including chasing the story in five different countries.
He disclosed that to capture the relevant information, he conducted countless interviews and analyzed hundreds of pages, including lengthy financial disclosure documents from the company.
The former BBC Africa business editor exited the journalism scene in July 2019, announcing at the time that he was taking a sabbatical after being named among the 2019-2020 Knight-Bagehot Fellows at Columbia University.
Before that, he had grown to become one of the most sought-after media personalities in the country, thanks to his time as host of the Friday night show The Trend on NTV.
Ratings indicated that the show was among the most-watched in Kenya with Larry as the host. The anchor also took up several other journalistic roles at Nation Media Group.
He hosted a show on Nation FM and wrote a weekly column, Front Row, in the Daily Nation, establishing him firmly among the region’s top journalists.
Madowo’s announcement of his exploits in New York was met with a flood of congratulatory messages from Kenyans who celebrated him for shining on the international stage.
