What particularly about the Maasai culture interested you?
I have always been interested in diverse cultures and have found that a woman in Kenya is no different then the woman in the West. They want to provide and nurture their families. They are even very business savvy. In less than 3 years after we created The Leakey Collection, the women came to me to ask for advise on how they could set-up a co-op for micro lending. They now developed this co-op and lend money to women who want to start their own business. I consider them my family and friends. EM: Can you tell us a bit more about the Maasai people and how The Leakey Collection is connected with them? Philip grew up with the Maasai in Kenya, and his whole life has been intertwined with their culture. In fact, it is more common for Philip to speak Swahili than it is English. The Maasai are our neighbors in every sense of the word. And because of that, we tried to design a system that doesn’t interrupt the lifestyles of the Maasai people; we tried to make our business fit their lifestyle r
