Lena Leslie Kitayi Matumbo

Current Age: 62
Born: May 15, 2005
Position: I & M supervisor with Tracy Industries; IR Agent 62

Born in Kenya to Zuberi and Dalila Matumbo, Lena moved to the U.S. at age 10, when her father was posted to the Kenyan embassy in Washington DC, The family became Christians and took new first names to reflect that; as a result, her name was changed from Shani to Lena. Though Kenyan by birth, Lena considers herself an American.

One day, while in high school, the computers crashed. She wanted to know why, and refused to stop asking until, exasperated, her teacher told her to learn all about them and find out herself. She did so, and found that the more she learned, the more there was to know. She also decided that computers should be able to do much more than they were capable of at that time. That was the start of her career.

She met and married her husband, Mark, while she was a graduate student, and worked for a computer software company until she had her first baby. From then on, Lena took up freelance work and research until her youngest was in high school. Tragedy struck the family early on as an electrical fire took the life of their first child, Daniel Abayomi. As a result, she is afraid of house fires and checks all electrical connections in her home and office before leaving each day. Eventually, she was hired by Tracy Industries for the computer I&M department. She became head of the department, but has now been promoted and oversees all of the I&M departments across the U.S.

Lena has a large extended family. Her parents are still living, and are on an extended cruise around the world. She has 2 brothers and a sister, all older and still living, 2 children - twins Matthew and Joy, 5 grandchildren, 3 of whom are married, and 3 great grandchildren. She and her immediate family all live near each other, in Maryland, and keep in touch on a regular basis. She is now a widow; she and Mark were married for 35 years, until his death from leukemia.

Lena is very professional at work, and when confronted by a mystery, she works on it until it is solved. She is a loving mother and grandmother, and will become motherly to anyone she feels needs it. She is not afraid to speak her mind, but listens to other opinions and tries to get all the facts first.

She holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in both Music and Computer Science, and patents for 7 different programs and 3 different computer accessories. She enjoys music, especially jazz and blues, and has a fine singing voice that blows people away when she participates in karaoke. Other talents are acting, mimicry, and she is known for being able to discern when a person is lying. She has several hobbies: many kinds of needlework, gardening, and collecting old Lena Horne albums. Her fascination with computers is also something she pursues in her spare time. She has a cleaning service because she hates housework, and she dislikes waiting for other people. She likes to wear clothes in bright blues, greens, and yellow, but comfort, not the latest trends, is the standard for her choices.

She came to Jeff Tracy's attention when three emails appeared in her mailbox at work by mistake - two were for Jeff, the other for a top officer in his staff. Although the emails were innocuous in content and also reached their intended destinations, she worked to track down the glitch and, in doing so, learned that he was also head of International Rescue. She contacted Brains, and let him know about the problem. Jeff brought her to the island to work with Brains on eliminating the glitch, and was so impressed with her skills that he offered to make her an IR agent. Shortly after that, he promoted her within Tracy Industries, giving her the oversight of the other U.S. computer I&M departments. It has given her a chance to travel, something she has always wanted to do.

Her work for Tracy Industries has engendered some less-than-savory attention as well. The Hightower cartel attempted to “recruit” her, stooping to slander, then kidnapping, to bring her under their control. However, she was rescued by Lady Penelope and Parker, and the incident only strengthened her resolve to make the Tracy Industries' – and IR's – computer networks impervious to outside attack.

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