Gavin Oyas grew up in Kenya, the eldest brother of two sisters, and studied electrical engineering at Kenya Polytechnic University. Alongside his studies, Gavin co-founded the Humanitarian Club at his university and spent much of his four years recruiting students and organizing community volunteer projects. Although he was unaware at the time, this experience was the starting point of his career. Upon graduation, he took a step away from electrical engineering and followed a conviction to join a Christian nonprofit gap-year program.
“People say to just give God one year, and see what happens,” he said. “What I've learned is things never turn out like that. When you say yes to God, you say yes to many other things.”
After that one year, working with a nonprofit doing HIV/AIDS prevention work amongst youth, Gavin began to pursue further work in the NGO space.
“I found something that really connects with my head — serving people, working with people — and that's when it clicked, that I am meant to work with people, not with machines,” he said.
After many years with various organizations, Gavin followed his growing passion for leadership training and began his own leadership development company. It was around this time that Gavin first learned about Untold, through introductions to Justin Miller and Cornel Onyango, which became ongoing friendships continued through Justin’s frequent visits to Nairobi.
Through his enterprise, Gavin provided a leadership training for Untold's staff. Seeing the enthusiastic response to the training, Untold’s leadership team knew that Gavin could be an invaluable member of their team. He officially joined the organization in February 2021 as Untold’s Director of Leadership Development.
Gavin spent four years serving in this role in the East African leadership team, supporting Untold’s staff in their ability to lead and support clients effectively. Throughout this time and multiple visits to the U.S., Gavin became curious about the donor engagement side of Untold’s work, and, with the support of Untold’s leadership, decided to transition his role to Director of Donor Engagement.
“I had kind of been exposed to it during my short trips to the U.S.,” he said. “I wanted to see what that looked like. I'm curious, I want to learn, I want to be challenged.
The Director of Donor Engagement roles at Untold are highly people-oriented, focused on relationship building with the organization’s community of giving partners. For Gavin, this shift in his role has allowed him to view the work from a new perspective within the international Untold family.
“It's just a change of audience now,” he shared. “I was supporting staff in their development and growth and well-being, so that they can support our clients, but now I’ve moved to developing that relationship with donors, so that they can see what we’re doing to our clients.”
The position of Director of Donor Engagement was one held by the U.S. side of Untold’s operations, until Gavin joined the team remotely from Kenya in August 2025. Amongst unique work hours, lots of travel, and many new relationships, he shared that his first year in the role has been one of constant learning, something he deeply values.
“I'm having to learn afresh, and not use my previous experience or knowledge,” Gavin said. “So I've had to be constantly curious, constantly asking, and listening more.”
In the midst of this listening and learning across cultures, Gavin deeply values his authenticity, desiring to bring his truest self and giftings into every conversation and meeting.
“I admire my other colleagues and how they do it … but I also want to bring my own self, my own personality, my own skin, my own everything with me so that I am authentic as I tell the story of what we're doing,” he shared.
As the global leadership team saw initially, Gavin’s love of people and natural sincerity have made him an incredible addition to Untold’s donor engagement team.
“I think as a connector, I love getting to know what people really care about,” he shared. “And in the donor engagement role, that's a key part of what we're doing, trying to see what each person cares about and connect that with what we’re doing — and even if it [doesn’t connect to] anything we’re doing, see how I can help them flourish.”
Throughout his extensive career in nonprofit work, Gavin’s faith has been the motivation behind all he does, and now guides his relationships with Untold’s giving partners and international team.
“My work is my pulpit, that's my ministry area, that's where God wants me to be a light,” he said. “I'm constantly always asking myself, ‘how does Jesus want me to represent him in this context, in this conversation?’”
He continued: “I see it as an opportunity just to serve humanity, to serve others, and Untold really offers me an opportunity to bring myself and my giftings and my experience, and anything that God can use in and through me.”