Nairobi, Feb. 24 -- When Nelly Chemutai began her career in Kenya, nothing substantial had prepared her for the global nomadism or the senior roles she has held at international biotechnology companies in Boston, Massachusetts, in the US.

But one memory has never left her. She remembers her father urging her and her siblings to imagine their lives beyond the familiar hills of Nandi, to see themselves not as bound by geography, but as citizens of a much wider world.

"One day, my dad gave me an atlas and told me, 'The world is bigger than what you see here. Don't ever think your life must stay in one place,'" she says.

Now, the 33-year-old is a senior quality assurance specialist at Sanofi Pharmaceuticals and has visited every continent ...