Emerging Leader
Marie Claire Murekatete
Intel Corporation
For dynamic leadership that blends technical knowledge with a deep desire to serve society; and for being a compelling role model for young people, especially girls interested in STEM.
Marie Claire Murekatete joined Intel Corporation in 2018 and is currently working as a technical program manager. She is a tech enthusiast and proactive leader with deep knowledge in developing and delivering innovative software solutions. As technical program manager at Intel, she has direct influence on 19 teams located across various regions, namely, the U.S., Costa Rica, and India, and provides technical governance of 222 projects. Part of her responsibility includes building and leading high-performing teams with a technical focus to create products that solve complex issues.
Before joining Intel, she worked at Google and spent seven years at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), where her work drastically reduced the use of paper-based processing, which also led to increased efficiency by reducing turnaround time of document exchange between government (public and private entities), citizens, and businesses.
Most importantly, Murekatete’s work contributed to increasing confidence to 110 institutions in Rwanda’s public sector by giving citizens real-time information and services. Her professional achievement overall has impacted approximately 3 million citizens globally.
Murekatete is also a tech social entrepreneur deeply committed to empowering the next generation of women through multiple initiatives. She has co-founded and led multiple initiatives, making positive impact to the lives of the people in the community. As part of her involvement in a mentorship program, she is a mentor in CodePath.org, which prepares college students for careers in technology. In 2017, she was appointed to lead the Rwandan chapter of an international robotics program, First® Global, and helped Rwandan youth compete in robotics olympics in various countries: the U.S. in 2017; Mexico in 2018; Dubai in 2019; and, virtually, in 2020. She co-founded Refugee Girls Need You and Technovation Challenge Rwanda and has supported several unique mentorship programs that inspire young girls to pursue STEM: Girls in ICT Rwanda (Ms. Geek Africa), STEM camps, and school outreach programs.
She has been widely recognized for her community service and received multiple awards. In 2017, Murekatete received the Change Agent ABIE Award from AnitaB.org (formerly the Anita Borg Institute) at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference. The award honors an outstanding international woman who has created or expanded opportunities for girls and women in technology. She was recognized by Technovation for her excellence in mentoring its girls’ team in 2020. United Nations Women, engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald, and the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion have acknowledged Murekatete as a role model for the next generation of women in the Rwandan community. She was awarded a Tech Leadership Award by Digital Opportunity Trust and, in 2017, was named Top Female in Computer Science, Kigali Institute of Science and Technology. She was also named by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs as a 2014 TechWomen Emerging Leader.
Murekatete holds a B.S. in computer engineering and information technology from the University of Rwanda College of Science and Technology and an M.S. in information technology from Carnegie Mellon University. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and spending time with family and friends.