Meet Our Founder & Her Melody of Change

Ayato Grace Mckenzie is an exceptionally multi-talented Ugandan singer, songwriter, dancer, recording artist, and highly esteemed former international cricketer. Alongside her dynamic creative and sporting achievements, she maintains a rigorous corporate career. This unique intersection of high-stakes corporate management, elite international athleticism, and versatile artistic expression establishes her as one of Uganda's most multifaceted contemporary figures.

Born on September 9th and raised in the vibrant neighborhood of Naguru in Kampala, Uganda, Ayato Grace Mckenzie is a proud mother and change maker. She established a strong academic foundation tailored for corporate finance and administration early in her life. She attended Kololo Senior Secondary School for her Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) before advancing to East High School, where she completed her Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE). Recognizing the importance of business acumen, she enrolled at Ndejje University and graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor's Degree in Commerce, specializing in Accounting and Finance.

Professionally, Mckenzie has leveraged her academic credentials to build a stable and long-standing career in healthcare finance. She has served as a dedicated Credit Controller at Case Medical Centre in Kampala for over thirteen years, managing financial structures and corporate credit systems. This professional stability runs parallel to her legendary status as a veteran national athlete.

For over thirteen years, Mckenzie represented Uganda on the global stage as a vital member of the Lady Cricket Cranes, the national women's cricket team. As a right-handed batter and right-arm medium-pacer all-rounder, she opened the bowling for Uganda as early as the 2003 East Africa U-19 Tournament. Her outstanding performance on the pitch earned her the prestigious Uganda Sports Press Association (USPA) Female Cricketer of the Year award in 2010. She later won the Africa Ladies T20 Tournament with Uganda in 2011 and captained prominent domestic clubs including Africa Cricket Club (ACC) and Tornado B.

Beyond business and sports, Mckenzie possesses a profound musical talent, boasting a flexible, powerful, and distinctively husky vocal tone that has earned her the ‘King of Pop’ moniker in the creative circles. Her vocal versatility allows her to navigate effortlessly across genres such as Pop, Ragga, Jazz, Gospel, Soul, and Contemporary R&B.

She launched her professional songwriting journey in 2018, and has since expanded with chart-topping collaborations alongside elite producers like Daddy Andre. Her popular music catalog features many tracks like ‘Mugaga’, and many more. Driven by a passion to fuse Western and African sounds into a globally recognized musical style, her creative lifestyle is further enriched by deep personal interests in fashion design, international travel, cooking, and physical fitness.

The defining intersection of McKenzie's artistic platform and her humanitarian heart materialized driven by the profound emotional, mental, and economic distress she witnessed growing up, and the hardship she went through not knowing how life will unfold for her.

Her creative vision expanded into a concrete social mission when she founded the BREAK Free organization long before it was incorporated. The initiative was conceptualized to combat community struggles, provide emotional and mental wellness advocacy, and elevate marginalized demographics. To ensure long-term impact, Mckenzie incorporated the organization into a legally structured non-profit entity.

She systematically utilizes her music royalties and widespread media reach to raise financial support and project the organization's core message. Simultaneously, she leverages her extensive networks within the corporate & Sports spaces to forge strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) sponsorships, effectively turning her distinct professional worlds into powerful engines for societal transformation.