The VIA Water Online Acceleration Program is managed by:

Transcription

1 The VIA Water Online Acceleration Program is managed by: Saskia Reus-Makkink is founder of Africa Funded and enjoys to empower entrepreneurs on the African continent via coaching, network introductions and by securing funding. She built up a network of 64 impact investors. In the past 15 years Saskia worked at The Boston Consulting Group and Strategy Department of Canon Europe and has hands-on experience as Senior Strategic Program Manager, Market Intelligence Professional, Trade Marketing Specialist, Senior Business Analyst. In the past five years she specialized in empowering entrepreneurs in Africa developing virtual training programs for NGO s and platforms for entrepreneurship in developing countries. She provided feedback on business plans to more than 250 innovative and disruptive entrepreneurs in Africa and was responsible for developing structure of screening ventures for the largest network of (startup) entrepreneurs and investors in Africa. Beside the training programs, she directly supported (large) SME s in developing their strategies for starting or expanding their business in Africa. With her pragmatic, hands-on approach she inspires entrepreneurs to the next level and delivers tangible results. Saskia Reus-Makkink has university degrees in Communication, Organization & Strategy and Development Studies. Saskia is founder of Africa Funded and responsible for managing the Incubator. Christiaan Quellhorst provides our pioneers with indepth support based on 40 years corporate experience. Christiaan is the former Vice President of Canon Netherlands and has been responsible for the operational part of the company for the last 25 years. Strong in support innovators to get from idea to design execution plan. Beside supporting the Africa Funded team, Christiaan is also chairman of the board for the Association of Service Management International Netherlands and organizes service innovation conferences and workshops. Dick Bouman has over 30 years of experience in water projects in mainly Africa. Having been resident water expert in both Mozambique and Tanzania in the 80-ties, he continued his career as consultant and joined Aqua for All in Apart from technical issues, he is specialized in institutional and water resource matters. Currently, he is fund manager for VIA Water, a program focused on innovations for pressing urban water and sanitation problems in Africa. He has been involved in several market introductions and evaluations of technologies, such as water filters and wind pumps. He is strong in making reality checks on promising projects and technologies and is challenged by the transition from donor driven to business sound developments. Shabana Abbas (BSc in Economics & Finance, MBA and MSc in Environment Planning & Management) started her career at the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services in Pakistan. There, she worked on different large scale donor funded WASH, Energy efficiency, Enterprise development and disaster risk reduction programmes. While her career was in full swing, she decided to change gears and came to the Netherlands to pursue her Masters degree at UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. After which she joined the Aqua for All team as Junior Programme Manager for the VIA Water programme in Shabana is a core member of the Water Youth Network, a network of young water professionals that connects and works together with many international youth organisations on water related issues. Recently, she was selected as a member of the Junior Global Advisory Panel of REACH, a sevenyear water security research programme ( ) in Kenya, Bangladesh and Ethiopia, led by Oxford University and funded with UK aid. Shabana is a strategic thinker, believes in power of people and works with an entrepreneurial spirit. Titia Wouters (MA in International Relations) started her career at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels. Then, she joined - what is now called - the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). There, she assisted the countries of Central and Eastern Europe with their accession to the European Union. After that, she started working at Rijkswaterstaat, where she advised the Director-General on international affairs and occupied different management positions as head of the Director s office and head of the road safety department. She concluded her period at Rijkswaterstaat as project leader of the international strategy. Titia manages the VIA Water programme since its start in Titia is a strong networker with diplomatic skills, and she is keen on making VIA Water ánd its projects a success. Page 1 of 6

2 Participants have access to these experts: Sjef Ernes has more than 20 years hands-on, operational experience in the water sector from a business and nongovernmental perspective, with in-depth on the ground experience working on water projects in Mozambique. He is director of Aqua for All since 2004 and focused on generating impact for the BoP. This background provides him with in-depth knowledge and insight in feasibility of technology, product market combinations, unique selling points and relevant community networks that can be shared to support entrepreneurs in gaining successful market entry. Sjef is a quick thinker and great sparring partner for improving business models in water and sanitation for the poor. Sjef Ernes is the director of Aqua for All. Vincent Kouwenhoven: More than 15 years experience as investor in B-to-C ICT ventures in Africa shares best practices in launching and scaling ICT ventures in Africa. MD of eventures. He is our favorite sparring partner for the setup of the incubator, based on his experience in early stage investments in Africa and his relation with numerous incubators and startup programs on the continent. If it doesn t work in ICT, it will probably not work in sanitation & water either. Jacqueline Barendse is a developer. Inspired by the idea that unusual combinations may be needed to solve persistent problems. She has more than 30 years experience in different fields, among others: in new media and IT as business / product manager for Philips; in banking, micro-finance and small business financing as investment manager for ING and Triodos Bank; in developing a pipeline for an own investment fund Asian Assets; in public-private partnerships and development financing as consultant for ECORYS, and in waste and sanitation as director for WASTE. Due to this broad background Jacqueline is quick to grasp impact potential, business feasibility and risks of new ventures. Jacqueline likes to give new ideas the benefit of the doubt. Because, by experience, she knows that the best ideas have emerged from failures. Jacqueline is director of WASTE. Arco van der Toorn is a senior water supply expert with more than 30 years international experience in the water sector in West and Southern Africa (Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, The Gambia, Mauretania, Tunisia, Benin), The Middle East and Eastern Europe. He had worked since 1987 for several consultancy companies as project manager, water supply expert and contract manager. Since 1996 he has been actively involved with project feasibility/ viability/ water tariff studies and project financing issues for water supply and wastewater projects. During this he was engaged in setting up business models for water enterprises, tariff setting and low cost water supply. He entered Aqua for All recently to enforce its technical and project financing capabilities and to assess the innovation potential for current development aid programs for which Aqua for All may provide co-financing. Arco is fluent in French. Marlies Batterink has a sharp eye for approaches and innovations which could potentially provide breakthroughs and sustainable solutions in the integrated water management arena. As an experienced program manager with more than 10 years experience in (inter)national water programs, she is able to develop programs, connect partners and manage programs in a professional and effective way. Marlies always tries to trigger and support partners in delivering the best they can, with a preference for sound business approaches. She is educated in Wageningen as a tropical land use engineer, specialized in soil and water conservation. After that she worked for the Dutch government, on agricultural and water management issues. She developed a commercial and pro-active approach during her career at ARCADIS Netherlands B.V., an international consultancy company where she specialized in project management of multidisciplinary projects where water is the connecting factor. At Aqua for All Marlies is one of our senior program managers, involved in large multidisciplinary, multi stakeholder programs and is our manager for one of our innovation themes 3R (recharge, retention, re-use of rainwater). Sophie van den Berg is a Solid Waste Expert and Recycling Business Developer at WASTE. She has more than 30 years of international experience in assessment of solid waste management systems, economic and environmental viability analysis of resource recovery systems, and marketing studies for recovered materials. She has the expertise in private sector development: implementation, financing, and organisation of productive micro-projects in solid waste management including training for income generating activities aimed at SMEs. Other experience include business development of (plastic) waste recycling plants, participatory planning, environmental sustainability, and gender equality, in emerging and developing countries. Page 2 of 6

3 She is always in search and up-to-date for innovative technologies in (plastic) recycling which can be used in low- and middle-income countries. She is passionate in connecting people, companies, and organisations to advance the field of business development of waste recycling enterprises towards sustainability. Valentin Post has been working in Public Private Partnerships in Africa and Asia for well over 20 years. He searches for and finds innovative financing opportunities and solutions. Combining this with a sound knowledge on technical and institutional issues he has helped in creating markets that previously did not exist or were not functioning. Initially working in industrial solid waste and waste water management, he has expanded his scope to include human waste and wastewater. Having had a good number of successes and failures, he has a welldeveloped sense of how development financing can be organised, but also what works and what does not. Yet he is always willing to be surprised by innovations. Myrte Koch works as a Technical and Business Adviser for WASTE's programmes in sanitation. As an Industrial Design Engineer by training (Delft University of Technology) she has knowledge of sustainable and strategic product design. The specialization program Technology in Sustainable Development combined with projects in Honduras and India resulted in an understanding of sustainable development opportunities in developing countries. At WASTE Myrte was involved as a consultant in the Sanitation Window. The Sanitation Window connects demand for better sanitation solutions in the South to a supply of innovative sanitation solutions from the West. In this role Myrte executed Quick Scans, Market Scans, Feasibility Studies and Business Model Development Workshops. Being a consultant in renewable energy and energy saving for 5 years, her special interest lies in the link between sanitation and energy. As such she manages biogas sanitation programs in India (dairy farmers) and Kenya (schools). Besides this she executed an assessment on the functioning of wastewater treatment plants in the city Blantyre, Malawi. Priska Prasetya is Waste Value Chain Business Adviser at WASTE. With her combined background in economics and environmental management, she is very much active in finding innovative ways and developing strategies to integrate business approach to address environmental challenges. Her passion is to boost livelihood improvement with innovation and entrepreneurship in integrated water, sanitation, solid waste management, and agriculture. She is up-to-date with the latest software and technology in the market and she exploits the use of technology to make her working becoming productive, which makes her to be a really good organiser and planner at her work. She is a fast worker, excels in proposal writing skills, and she appreciates public speaking. She is a people person where she understands different types of people whom she works with and adapt accordingly to make sure goals are achieved collaboratively in good and timely manner. As a young professional from Indonesia, she has gained international experience in Australia, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Ghana, and India from her studies and works for the last seven years. Jan Spit (1956) is managing the emergency sanitation programmes at WASTE and is sanitation adviser at WASTE. Jan advises on Urban Environment and Development aspects of projects. He also provide sanitation marketing input and expertise focused on valorization of collected fecal sludge. With over 33 years experience, Jan is a generalist with a warm hart for the content, a good feeling for the processes and a clear eye for solid project management. Jan is specialized in initiating new services and products and shaping projects in a creative way. Jan is educated as a sanitary engineer at the Technical University in Delft (1982, Civil Engineering), completed a post-graduate course on business administration in 1999 and became Master Practitioner NLP in 2004 Stan Maessen (1960) is sanitation adviser at WASTE and coordinator of the Sanitation Group., Stan also works on Urban Environment and Development aspects in projects and provides input on the Diamond Approach. Stan is educated as a civil engineer and a specialist on the urban environment with more then 20 years of professional experience in infrastructure, sanitation and waste management in Western & Eastern Europe and Asia. His specializations include: program management, participation and community partnerships; environmental management systems; good governance participation issues for local authorities and civil society strengthening Page 3 of 6

4 Grover Mamani (1982) is sanitation expert at WASTE and is in charge of sanitary engineering aspects of sanitation and collection, improving existing disposal/treatment facilities of fecal sludge. Grover is an experienced engineer in provision of water and sanitation services especially in rural areas of developing countries. He holds a MSc. in Municipal Water and Infrastructure at UNESCO-IHE in Delft, and a Master of Engineering with Specialization in Sanitary and Environmental Engineering at Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia. Grover has an updated knowledge of on-site sanitation systems with a focus in low-cost, resource recovery and appropriate sanitation solutions. Kim Coates works as a business adviser and has a technical background in innovative product design, healthcare and water purification. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree with specialization in Industrial Product Design. Before WASTE, Kim worked as a Product Manager at a company which develops water purification solutions, implementing and overseeing projects for water purification units for use in ground wells and low cost drinking water purifiers for countries with a low living standard/developing countries. Also she has worked as Senior Mechanical Engineer for several years, leading a team of mechanical engineers, and had the responsibility for the mechanical engineering of several receive coils to be used in newly developed MRI scanners. At WASTE she set up the SAWI ( connecting local sanitation challenges to European businesses (products and services) to improve the living conditions of the poor. This is by setting up sustainable and financially self-supportive businesses. Within SAWI she has set up or worked on several projects with a business approach in Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, South Africa and Uganda. At the moment she is based in the WASTE Malawi office in Zomba. Ger Pannekoek is an innovative, open-minded and enthusiastic connector. Ger is based in Mozambique and is as WASTE's Mozambican representative providing advisory services to make urban sanitation programs more sustainable. This, with a specific focus on private sector development and finance. Ger Pannekoek has a background in business development in the international water sector and holds a Master degree in Business Administration, with specialisations in marketing and strategy & non-technical innovation. Before he came at WASTE, Ger has worked as an entrepreneur in water purification technologies and worked at the Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) where he was responsible for the joint business development of the Dutch water sector. At NWP, Ger had a strong focus on BoP (Base of the Pyramid) related issues in the WASH sector and was also responsible for setting up the Dutch Nutrient Platform, a cross-sectoral network of businesses, knowledge institutes, governments and non-profit organisations working on the creation of a market for recycled nutrients and the development of nutrient recycling business cases. As such, he has a lot of valuable knowledge for waste valorization related businesses, specifically in the water, energy, food nexus. At WASTE, Ger has been involved previously in setting up the Sanitation Window, a match making platform for demand and supply of solutions to increase access to sanitation for the base of the pyramid. Additional to his native Dutch, Ger is fluent in English, speaks Portuguese and has a basic knowledge of Spanish. Chang Su is Finance and Business Adviser at WASTE. Her expertise is micro-finance and small business financing in sanitation and waste management (agri-related) business in developing countries. She works on monitoring and evaluation of financial-inclusion projects and develops financial models for various business cases. Besides her expertise on finance and business, she has solid understanding on Dutch policy, public-private partnerships, the stakeholder diamond model. With her previous work experience in banking, she is also responsible for WASTE internal partnership assessment. She holds MSc degree in Business Economics of Erasmus University Rotterdam. She speaks English (fluent), Chinese (native) and Dutch (good). Henock Belete Asfaw is a sanitation consultant at WASTE and holds MSc degree in Sanitary Engineering from UNESCO-IHE, The Netherlands. He is a certified PRINCE2 Practitioner. During his master research he investigated biogas based systems (such as UASB) for Organic and Nitrogen recovery and removal purposes. After the master study, Henock joined Waterschap Hollandse Delta and Worked on the Resource Oriented Sanitation Project (ROSSA Project) in Ethiopia. He played a key role in setting-up the DIAMOND Model, which is developed by WASTE, in Adama, Ethiopia. He also supported the project management and supervised market study research on biogas, struvite, urine and bio-solids; and pilot installations such as struvite plant, co-composting plant and testing of the production of charcoal briquettes from feaces/sludge and organic residues. Henock has valuable experience in designs of different types of toilets such as VIP and UDDT, and Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems such as ABR and Biogas Digesters. He has also participated in advanced trainings on biogas engineering and operation. Besides, in the past he has worked as a design engineer for conventional sewerage systems. Page 4 of 6

5 Niels Lenderink is a senior adviser and trainer in sanitation at WASTE. Background in hydrology and geography gave him a broad view and ease to construct bridges to other sectors. Experience in education combined with good listening skills made him an empathic trainer, who can adapt to different levels, interests and cultures in the same time. An analytical mind combined with a patient and perseverant personality provided him with advisory skills, that can last from a first meeting to an improved sanitation situation. 10 years of experience in sanitation (and some solid waste management and water supply) made him a generalist in sanitation, with a preference for institutional aspects. Ingrid van den Burg has a master s degree in social sciences. She studied Management, Economics and Consumer studies at Wageningen University and Research Centre.She has nineteen years of project management experience in both the profit and the non-profit sectors. She has extensive experience in the development, implementation and evaluation of programmes. Transferring knowledge to local people, training staff and improving (project planning and project management) skills has always played an important role throughout her career. Ingrid currently manages the WASTE programme of the Dutch WASH Alliance (NL Government subsidized, for the period ) in seven countries in Africa and Asia. Besides the overall management of this programme Ingrid is responsible for building systems for sanitation services in Uganda and Bangladesh via the WASTE diamond approach by supporting local partners. Craig Usswald: Senior Consultant Supply Chain and General Management Deloitte Monitoring Group. General Management experience with full Profit and Loss responsibility. Supply Chain Management emphasizing business process analysis, planning and sales and marketing. Entrepreneurial flair and vision is core with a strong work ethic and drive. High integrity and procedural compliance. He is advisor for Africa Funded. David Beckett is passionate about enabling entrepreneurs to show their true talents through concise, clearly structured and memorable pitches. Through working with Startup Boot camp, Rockstart and The Green Challenge in Amsterdam, he has developed a set of tools that help startups understand what the audience (partners, clients, investors) needs to know in order to buy into an entrepreneur's concept. David helps with Story in three ways: Building the right content; Telling the story with the right visuals; and Selling the idea through great delivery and communication. David is the author of Three Minute Presentation (Best3minutes.com/book) and has over 20 years experience within both the corporate and startup worlds. He is also a Speech Coach at TEDx Amsterdam, and was voted 'Most Valuable Mentor' at Startup Bootcamp Mark Bouman is an all-rounder with more than ten years of experience as a project coordinator, advisor and trainer at a non-profit consultant in Amsterdam. In this position he has been responsible for writing the consultant s project proposals and raising the necessary funding, primarily from local, national and European public funds. As advisor and trainer Mark also coached and supported its client base of social entrepreneurs in developing the hands on skills for successful fundraising and project management. Organization development, finance, accounting and marketing (at MBA level) are his main areas of expertise; coordination skills, a helicopter view and a structured, problem solving mind set his major competences. Mark works in the research team of Africa Funded. Vanessa Clark is a journalist by training, with 15 years of experience in a variety of communications roles spanning copywriting, PR, marketing, branding, social media and sales support. She loves telling the story of interesting companies. Vanessa worked in Cape Town and London, dealing with businesses as far afield as Mumbai, Frankfurt, Sao Paulo and San Francisco, building brands in new territories. Back in South Africa she managed the marketing and communication activities for Clickatell, the mobile messaging provider, as it grew its internet and enterprise sales activities around the world and moved its headquarters to Silicon Valley. Vanessa supports in writing content (articles, interviews, blog posts). Page 5 of 6

6 Willemijn Nagel (BA in Physical Geography and MA in Environmental Studies) started her career at Dutch Department of Waterways and Public Works, after which she managed an ecological farm with her partner in Bolivia for half a year. Back in the Netherlands she started at the youth division of Friends of the Earth Netherlands. Later on, she became one of the international campaigners. In 2004 she joined WWF as an associate expert on freshwater in Bolivia and Peru. Back in the Netherlands she became the programme manager of the municipality of Westland and set up a joint programme between Westland and the Waterboard of Delfland, before joining VIA Water in 2014 as Knowledge Manager and Project Coordinator. She is a hard-working professional with a handson mentality, with a soft spot for the human component of a project. Karin van der Weerd (BA in International Relations, MA in Middle Eastern Studies) started her career at Dutch peace organization PAX, after which she became a project officer at Amnesty International The Netherlands. At Amnesty she worked on campaigns focusing on the Arab Spring and on forced evictions in Africa. In 2014, she joined VIA Water as Project Coordinator and Communications Officer. Karin is passionate about getting a message across in the best possible way, and likes to find out what truly makes people - including project owners - tick, so she can work with them from that starting point. Testimonials: Aqua for All has guided Basic Water Needs through the years with both market knowledge as well as funding. The people at Aqua for All have been there as solid a reliable business partners all along our journey. Without Aqua for All BWN would not have had the achievements that it has today in the marketplace. Aqua for All supported the founder of Basic Water Needs with development of the Tulip filter and establishing the business. Nowadays Basic Water Needs sold about more than 2 million Tulip filters. "Some time back Saskia Reus-Makkink was conducting an online Free Feedback Friday Business Plan critique and I decided to contact her. Through the Booster Program has provided extensive support and guidance in every step of the startup." Nancy Wang, founder of m-kazi job app. Coached in 2012 and connected with an angel investor to fund the pilot and follow up investor for up scaling. Startup was cover story of Africa Business Review in October 2012 and role model for many aspiring African entrepreneurs. M-Kazi app was pre-installed on all handsets of Nokia in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya in Due to long term illness of founder the company ended its activities. Founder works now for the angel investor. My startup venture participated in the June 2013 Virtual Acceleration Program, which was managed by Africa Funded. We have participated in other programs, but the level of consulting and training we have received in this Online Accelerator Program has been outstanding. Saskia organized coaching sessions for us on financials as well as the business plan. We found it quite valuable to get feedback from several investors perspectives, and we are still in the process of implementing what we learned from the coaching. I am amazed at the amount of time and valuable in-depth consulting that we received Ken Griffith, Co-Founder at Dinero Social Savings System Limited (Kenya). Participant in June 2013 Acceleration Program. Selected as one of the finalists of DEMO Africa October 2013, the launch pad for innovative technologies in Africa. Secured lead investor in January On Friday 23rd May 2014, Saskia Reus-Makkink kindly spoke to me for over an hour in a Free Feedback Friday session, which was must longer than I thought I would have. She began my asking me what I wanted to get out of our feedback session and asked whether we could go through the business plan. She then proceeded to carefully go through my whole 62 page business plan, giving me extremely useful advice as to how I could tidy it up and get it ready for investors. Saskia pointed out things that no other experts who had looked over the business plan had noticed which now seem so obvious. Her advice was incredibly valuable and I now feel confident, having made the adjustments she told me, that the business plan is now ready to take to even the most experienced of investors. It is not often that you have access such expertise and talent. Thank you. - William Lloyd George, Founder MoSera Ethiopia. Participant in the Free Feedback Friday session for entrepreneurs in fragile economies as part of the Cordaid entrepreneurial program Page 6 of 6