Caroline Wanga : From Target Intern To CEO of Essence Ventures

When two doctors, Lucas, and Pamela Wanga, decided to migrate from Nairobi Kenya to Minnesota in August of 1988, they didn't have the faintest idea that one of their daughters, Caroline Wanga, would turn out to become one of the most powerful women in media in the United States, and a shaper of the corporate culture.

10-year-old Caroline, who was born and raised in Nairobi Kenya moved to the United States with her parents and three siblings. After graduating from high school in 1995, her plans to proceed to a tertiary institution were temporarily halted as she had a daughter. However, in January of 2003 at the age of 25, she was a beneficiary of the Single Parent Support System Program at Texas College and was enrolled into the institution. This program aims at providing help for single mothers in college by offering year-round family housing, child care, academic and financial support.

Three years later, Caroline Wanga graduated with a degree in Business Administration, focusing in Management, from Texas College, Summa Cum Laude.

In 2005, she joined Target, one of America's largest retail stores, as an intern in its Distribution group. From there, she worked her way up through various responsibilities like development, implementation, and evaluation of operational systems, design support, and creation of training syllabi for Target's Dedicated Food Distribution Centers throughout the country.

In 2009, Caroline joined the Human Resources department at Target where she quickly rose through the ranks to become the company's Diversity & Inclusion Senior Director, and Vice President of Human Resources, where she was at forefront of the diversity and inclusion plan inside and outside Target. As Vice President, she led the team responsible for Target's digital and enterprise strategy, a plan devised to fight back the retail store's competitors like Amazon and Walmart.

In June of 2020, Caroline was appointed Chief Growth Officer of Essence Communications. 

Essence is a leading media, technology, and commerce company. It is popular for being 100% Black-owned and catering primarily to Black women and communities. Their magazine, ESSENCE, has a monthly circulation rate of more than 1 million, with a readership estimate of about 8.5 million.  

When last year, Essence was hit by allegations of toxicity and claims that a huge fraction of their workforce, which is made up of predominantly Black women, were subjected to pay inequality; classism; corporate bullying; and harassment, the company promised to come through on its goal of protecting Black women and bringing Caroline Wanga aboard is the first sign of their commitment towards transparency.  

She was interim CEO before being appointed CEO in February 2021, following the drop of the owner and former CEO Richelieu Dennis.

Caroline is charged with the responsibility of reshaping the organization's culture, establishing new operational systems, including growth opportunities and market strategy.

Caroline is committed to bringing her decades of experience to Essence and improving the quality of things there. According to her, "I like to go to the problem when the fires are there. Throw me in when things are impossible and it's the end of the world."

Caroline's success comes at a time where crucial conversations around systemic racism affecting Black Women in the workplace are being held. According to data from LeanIn, of the 21% of C-suite leaders that are women, only 1% are Black women. While Black women have a hard time finding work, they also struggle with pay inequality the most with data showing that Black women were paid 38% less than white men and 21% less than white women. 

"Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work with incredible people and partners to drive business objectives, including diversity, inclusion, and culture efforts,” said Wanga.

Caroline is committed to building purposeful approaches to serving communities of color and building an open and equal work environment for all employees.