Global Team

Jacob Vahr/ CEO and Founder https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobvahr/

Jacob started his entrepreneurial life early on by making a living from his childhood sport as an elite golfer turning greenkeeper. Here his understanding of soil, water movement and landscaping started to take form. After an inspirational journey in 2008 to the Gambian bush in West Africa, Jacob’s interest for plants initiated the first ideas around the company eGro. A new direction for business development and management created eGro’s sustainable model, that recreates the natural resources of impoverished soil, while the global food supply is stabilized. Building eGro since 2008 has lead to the daily pursuit of the mission to stabilize Earth’s climate. After corona he has moved to Brazil and runs the day to day business of eGro online, since the organisation went remote during corona. 

Diana Salkauskiene/ Agronomic Officer (Parental leave) https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianasalkauskiene/

As an ecologist, Diana is used to thinking in holistic systems connected in several ways. She has the ability to understand the complexity of the connections in the ecosystem and the interdependencies of its individual components, in a structured and effortless way. Diana works with the development of the agricultural aspects of eGro’s model by exporting plans to the Ghanaian team. She adapts these plans according to the specific villages and the farmers’ needs. Diana has since moved back to Lithuania, where she works in the ministry of Agriculture and has also held a position as webshop developer in an ecological specialty store.

Ghazal Torabi Kristensen/ Project Manager (Parental leave) https://www.linkedin.com/in/ghazal-torabi-kristensen-81569250/

Ghazal is one of the few people, who knows exactly what happened within the first 6 seconds of the Big Bang. As a structured scientist, mathematician and physicist, she has been eGro’s project manager from the very start, keeping eGro’s diligence on track.

Louise Pierrel Mikkelsen https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisepierrelmikkelsen/

Louise has been working in several start-ups, ranging from tea import to gaming software development. She is a diverse professional with a lot of passion and patience for start-ups. Apart from being an active Advisory Board member, Louise frequently devotes her time to provide eGro with strategic consultancy. Alos, she became our first investor, instead of putting money into buying art from her bohemian friends, has given a loan to Jacob’s personal company. Louise has herself had extensive experience in the startup scene of Copenhagen and has worked in a service company that advises small and medium enterprises, called gate2growth. Now she an independetn professional with a knowledge collective, called KnowledgeWorker.

Copenhagen Team untill 2019 (Former Interns and Volunteers)

Denisa Pirhalová/ Office Manager & Assistant https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisa-pirhalová-a4a994a1/

Denisa is currently studying her Master degree in International Development Studies & Communication Studies at Roskilde University. For the past several years she has been travelling and living in many different countries. She has worked as an English teacher and has also experience in non-governmental/ non-profit sector. Seeing the world around going not quite the right direction, she would like to contribute and make it a better place for everybody. She works at eGro as a part-time Office Manager and Jacob’s assistant.

Alejandra Rodriguez https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandra-rodr%C3%ADguez-morales/

Alejandra has studied Environmental Sciences Biology/Engineering at the University of Salamanca, Spain and is currently studying her Master in Environmental Biology at Roskilde University, Denmark. Her specialities are water management, quality management, physical-chemical and microbiological analyses of water. Alejandra works on tasks including environmental risk, ecotoxicology, edaphology and hydrology. She is enthusiastic and has a positive attitude.  

Daniel Gonzáles Carmena https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-daniel-gonzález-carmena-9904ab89/

Daniel has a MSc in Land Management from Ålborg University, Copenhagen. He has specialized in genuine sustainable development and understands issues regarding land degradation. Daniel is passionate about the phenomena affecting land, such as Urban and Natural landscape vulnerability, brownfields and how to tackle them through sustainable development with political and social approaches as drivers for progress. He will be working on delicious visuals and giving weight to eGro’s internal and external communication and knowledge-sharing. Daniel is honest, open-minded and full of initiative.

Elizabeth Løwe https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisabeth-dencker-løwe-jacobsen-754996a8/

Elizabeth has a BSc in International Business and Politics from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. She has been working part-time as an intern from July to August 2016. She has specialities in international relations, international and comparative political economy, development, gender equality and globalization. Her tasks at eGro included a geopolitical risk evaluation of Ghana. She is now a volunteer on occasions.

Enrique Santos Rodriguez https://www.linkedin.com/in/enrique-santos-rodriguez-259608a2/

Enrique is educated as a forest engineer and technical electrician, he has a Master degree in Biomass management applied international project. Enrique’s specialities are within wood technology and agroforestry health, forest management and resource exploitation and biomass management. Enrique’s tasks include investigating tree-species, plants, insects, pest and animals and their interaction. He is interested in learning new kinds of agro-systems and enjoys planting small seeds of happiness in the world.

Ina Juul Jensen https://www.linkedin.com/in/inajuuljensen/

Ina has a MSc in Economics from the University of Copenhagen. She has specialized in economic analytics, sustainable energy and -developments, socio-economic consequences calculations and social data. Ina has 10 years of experience with working as team leader, coach and project coordinator for several NGOs. She has worked with refugees, foreign homeless, African street children, clima politics and the fight against poverty. Ina is passionate about working with people, social, climatic and economic development. At eGro her tasks include economic analyses, sales work and a fierce focus on the people and social aspects that are affected by eGro. Ina has incredible drive and coupled with her unique expertise she is able to execute like no other.

Lorenzo Guerra https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenzoguerra7/

Lorenzo has a degree in International Cooperation and Development, Human and Economic Development, Globalization and International studies. He is currently studying his Master in Global studies and International Development studies at Roskilde University, Denmark. His specialties are within project management, team coordination and sustainable initiatives planning. He did an internship full-time in the months from February to May 2017. Lorenzo is interested in the linkages between the eGro model’s output and the international market. He is passionate about replicating the model on a large scale and is a very devoted person.

Manon Berend https://www.linkedin.com/in/manon-berend-b95153a5/

Manon has a BSc from Toulouse, France and a two-year degree from ESARC Evolution of Montpellier, France, studying Management of Commercial Units. In between her studies, Manon has worked in the French organic shop Biocoop because of her passion for a greener life. Currently she is studying for a degree at Grenoble Graduate School of Management and as part of that she has come to eGro for an internship. She was working for eGro as a marketing assistant full-time for 12 weeks, in the spring of 2017. Manon is interested in the global concept of eGro and the intention to change the conventional agricultural methods. She appreciates optimism and is an empathic and cooperative person.

Matteo Procopio https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteo-procopio-741819116/

Matteo recently finished his Master in Land Planning and Environmental Engineering from the Politecnico of Milan. He is passionate about Climate Change, Land Use, Hydrological issues and very interested in topics related to Mitigation and Adaptation. Matteo has specialities in Natural Resources Management and Water and Food Security. He works on tasks including the Environment, Climate Change and is responsible for the development of new technical solutions to improve our crop harvesting processes. Matteo is a genuine guy with strong determination.

Nérimène Hamel https://www.linkedin.com/in/nérimène-hamel-a8525b12a/

Nérimène has a Bachelor in International Trade and Languages from the University of Savoy, France. She is currently studying her Master at Roskilde University, Denmark on Global studies and International Development. As part of her Master, she did a full-time internship for eGro from January to May 2017. During her time at eGro, she researched on diffusion and implementation in France and other French-speaking countries in Africa. Nérimène is interested in sustainable development and enjoys contributing to visionary projects. She likes to be in movement and is an energetic person.

Roman Suleiman https://www.linkedin.com/in/romansuleiman/

Roman was studying his Master in Finance at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark when he started working with eGro in 2015. In the winter of 2016, he provided his time to work with tasks including building a viable business case, finding a suitable go-to production market, organizing production on the supply side, selecting relevant crops and establishing a business model. Roman is a sweet Swiss who knows about business, finance and working hard.

Ghana Team

Mubarrak Alhassan/ Agronomist

Mubarrak is eGro’s local agronomist and works directly with the farmers. He provides the farmers with educational material, field training and support. He has been trained in participatory methods by a Danish organisation and has gained a lot of experience working directly with local farming communities. Through the participatory methods, Mubarrak is able to identify eGro’s future high-quality suppliers and with a mass educational method, he educates any late adapters.

Ibrahim Abukari Zukpeni/ Manager (Deceased RIP)

Ibrahim is eGro’s local manager and our first connection to the Ghana team. He is the man on the ground and the main communicator between the teams in Ghana and Copenhagen. To gain inspiration for his dreams of development in Northern Ghana, Ibrahim has been through several training programs in Denmark and other European countries. Ibrahim is always remembered in what we do, since he unfortunately passed away after 72 hours of sickenss in early March 2020. He left a wife with an infant child. 

Abdalla Alhassan/ Media developer

Abdalla is eGro’s local developer of educational material for the farmers. He develops the material in the Ghanaian language and with a cultural understanding. He also produces and trains his own documentary crew for the recording of the material.

Canada team (former Master Student team at McGill Uni.)

Cole Caswell https://www.linkedin.com/in/colecaswell/

Cole was born in Vancouver, Canada and has spent most of his life living there. He is passionate about innovate businesses which are reducing humankind’s environmental impact. Cole got involved with eGro in October of 2016 when his team chose eGro as their client for a year-long consulting program out of Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. Now he works as an investment analyst for the family office of the owner of the largest restaurant chain in Canada and specifically works on the owner’s deals from the TV show Dragons’ Den. For eGro, Cole acts as an adviser and provides insight into the North American market.

 

Marcus Liu

Marcus comes from Tiajin, China and has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, with a major in financial engineering from 2016. He is currently studying a Master’s degree in Queen’s University, Canada in international business. Marcus speaks both Mandarin and English and is very competent in multinational and multicultural communication.

 

Maria Schultz de Morais https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariaschultzdemorais/

Maria is a cross-cultural person of Danish and Portuguese origin. She has an open mind and international view on life. Maria has a BSc in Business, Language and Culture with a focus on the Spanish-speaking countries and is currently studying a double MSc in Diversity and Change Management at Copenhagen Business School and International Business at Queen’s University, Canada.

 

Nagma Nathoo

Nagma is a motivated and outgoing individual. She has graduated in Hotel and Restaurant Management from the United States International University in Africa and also has a Minor in Tourism Management, where she worked as a Senior Holiday Consultant, allowing her to travel more than 38 countries. Nagma is currently studying her Master in International Business at Queen’s University, Canada.

 

Tucker Tu Pham

Tu is from Hanoi, Vietnam and has a BA in International Business Economics at Hanoi Foreign Trade University. During his education, he has been on a cultural exchange to Seoul, South Korea. In between studying Tu has worked in an e-commerce full solution provider in Hanoi, as a business development executive, responsible for developing UK market and supporting strategic partnership director in prospecting US market, to offer Hybrid software solutions. He also has a Master in Marketing Management from Barcelona, Spain and is currently studying at Queen’s Smith School of Business, Canada.

 

Vera Strasser

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vera-strasser/

Vera is from Vienna, Austria and has a Bachelor in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business. As an outstanding student, she was chosen for an exchange semester at a well-regarded partner institute, the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Afterwards Vera did a two-months internship at the Istanbul Office of the Austrian Economic Chamber and worked with international trade projects. She has also done an internship at the regional CEE headquarter of a global fast-moving consumer goods company, where she got familiar with brand management and various CEE markets. Vera is currently studying a double Master at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Strategy, Innovation and Management Control and International Business at Queen’s University in Canada.   

 

Advisory Network

Christian Tillegren https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-brix-tillegreen-47749a13/?locale=en_US

Christian is a social business innovator on a mission. He is currently the innovation lead in a department of new business development in Novozymes, the industry leader within bio-fertilizers.

Professional experience: Novozymes, CONNECTORS, CBS OBSERVER, DANSIC - Danish Social Innovation Club

 

Helle Dyrby Høy https://www.linkedin.com/in/enjoyspeaking/

Helle has a passion for making people interact and communicate with each other. She is a visionary that employs her skills to advise business leaders and entrepreneurs in communication through her own company www.danishmind.com. Helle has been advising Jacob on core personality and communication theory, pitch training and issues related to understanding his own external communication.

Professional experience: Editor, developer and production manager at TV 2 Danmark, founder of Danish Mind.

 

Louise Pierrel Mikkelsen https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisepierrelmikkelsen/

Louise has been working in several start-ups, ranging from tea import to gaming software development. She is a diverse professional with a lot of passion and patience for start-ups.

Professional experience: InvestorNet-Gate2Growth, Tryhart, Global Capital Market Solutions (GCMS), Louis Vuitton, Avicore P/S, VELUX

 

Maiken Nicolaisen https://www.linkedin.com/in/maikennicolaisen/

Maiken has worked with top executives and world leaders in the form of speakers, sponsors, media and board members. She has been running the volunteer driven organization CSR Fonden and its award show, CSR Awards, from 2011 to 2014.

Professional experience: Danish Architecture Centre, CSR Fonden, COWI, Centre of CSR - Copenhagen Business School

 

Martin Speiermann https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-speiermann-32b185/

Martin has since 2006 founded several companies and build more than one high-growth company with triple USD digits. Now, he has found his personal success after gradually withdrawing from the companies. As a scientific businessman, he is now devoted to innovation and entrepreneurial mentoring.

Professional experience: WattsUp Power, Clean World Innovation Invest, SMILICS Technologies, IBM, NeuroSyntek Inc., BG Partners Group

 

Mathias Andersen https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrmandersen/

Mathias is a creative innovator and business developer. With his eye for details in sales and customer experience, strategic mindset and global perspective, Mathias is able to understand eGro from a helicopter view. His view also implies an immense respect of the day-to-day operations at eGro.

Professional experience: Freelance, Darling Creative Studio, UNFAIR Fashion, 3 Days of Design, Danish Renewable Energy A/S

 

Morten Engmark https://www.linkedin.com/in/mortenengmark/

Morten is a create marketing professional. He has build up several companies and will probably continue to do so, as he prefers the company before it gets too big. Morten is generally absorbed by the people and the product.  

Professional experience: CREATE- Events and Social Media, Digitalmessen Aps, Eventbureauet, Social media lab

Morten Sejr-Olsen https://www.linkedin.com/in/mortensejrolsen/

Morten is a devoted professional with a law degree and an ambitious global business mindset. He has been in Afghanistan for the Military of Denmark and on a foreign assignment with the Danish Foreign Office in Iraq, in the early stages of these operations. As such he is particularly open-minded and knowledgeable of the complexities involved in working with local resources.  

Professional experience: Netcompany A/S, Guard Hussar Regiment, MSO Consulting, UMS Group Europe, DONG Energy, ReD Associates

 

Nadine Anouti https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadineanouti/

Nadine has lived a professional career as an executive. She has been working with BIWise before changing pace and focusing on more purposeful living. Now she is committed to organisations such as eGro.

Professional experience: BIWise A/S, PxC Advisory- Business Intelligence, Basisbank

Occasional consultation

Esben Mortensen https://www.linkedin.com/in/esben-mortensen-1a68815a/

Esben is a biochemist and engineer. He provide eGro with assistance on market research, sales criteria and customer relationships.

 

Kim Albertsen https://www.linkedin.com/in/aka8000/

Kim has a background as a business developer and provides eGro with inputs on business development ideas.

 

Louise Pierrel Mikkelsen https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisepierrelmikkelsen/

Apart from being an active Advisory Board member, Louise frequently devotes her time to provide eGro with strategic consultancy.

 

Maiken Nikolaisen https://www.linkedin.com/in/maikennicolaisen/?locale=en_US

Maiken is the former CEO of CSR Fonden. She has facilitated setting up the advisory board and is pushing progress on a Board of Trustees.

 

Mathias Andersen https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrmandersen/

Mathias knows and does fast company. He participates in workshops on business development and provides inputs on sales in G8 markets.

 

Morten Sejr-Olsen https://www.linkedin.com/in/mortensejrolsen/

Morten is a business intelligence consultant and helps eGro facilitate processes for our vision, mission, action plan and adds his strategic thinking.

 

Sofie Fruergaard

Sofie is a producer and former freelancer for Discovery Channel. She consults eGro on its educational material development and plans productions on professional education material visuals.

 

Ulrik Christensen https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulrikchristensen/

Ulrik has a background as a training and recruiting expert at Deloitte. He consults eGro on B-2-B and HR management strategies.

 

Gary Wenet/ US Agent https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-wenet-68198a/

Investors

Maxwell Brandon Hartman https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwellhartman/

Maxwell has emerged into both the startup world and "I want to make a change in this" world after an 18 year stint in the corporate landscape as a networking chip physical designer from Kansas. He is creating a social website and community called Humanitrack, where users can submit and follow news, links, and ideas for solving humanity's problems and for realizing our dreams. With Humanitrack, Maxwell hopes to be able to unite our collective resources, have an outlet for his and others crazy ideas, and influence the global progress of these quests towards a better world for his family and two children.

Max is a hardware engineer, who made his first little million on bitcoins, and has a humanitarian in his star trek heart. He has given convertible loans to eGro Holding and personal loans to Jacob for running the project in Ghana. Max now has his own startup called Humanitrack, where Jacob is user number 1. Max is also renting an office space at KPH, where eGro has its office.

 

Kristian Kjær https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristian-kjær-3794869/

Kristain Kjær is the CEO of a company that makes process line equipment like conveyor belts in different lengths and machinery for factories. Kristian is a volunteer in Connect Denmark.
He invests in eGro through buying consultancy services from eGro Ghana Ltd. in his investment company KK Holding. He payed in kind.

 

Christian Grønbech https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-grønbech-b3b8699/

Christian and Lene Grønbech had a wish to invest in a social startup rather than donate money to charity in 2017. They have a family life with two kids in a  residential area outside of Copenhagen. Christian runs the family’s Holding company, from his business as a real estate administrator.

 

Louise Pierrel Mikkelsen https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisepierrelmikkelsen/

Louise, instead of putting money in buying art from her bohemian friends, has given a loan to Jacob’s personal company. Louise has herself had extensive experience in the startup scene of Copenhagen and now works in a service company that advises small and medium enterprises, called gate2growth.

Partners

Jacob Vahr/ CEO and Founder https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobvahr/

Jacob started his entrepreneurial life early on by making a living from his childhood sport as an elite golfer turning greenkeeper. Here his understanding of soil, water movement and landscaping started to take form. After an inspirational journey in 2008 to the Gambian bush in West Africa, Jacob’s interest for plants initiated the first ideas around the company eGro. A new direction for business development and management created eGro’s sustainable model, that recreates the natural resources of impoverished soil, while the global food supply is stabilized. Building eGro since 2008 has lead to the daily pursuit of the mission to stabilize Earth’s climate. After corona he has moved to Brazil and runs the day to day business of eGro online, since the organisation went remote during corona. 

Diana Salkauskiene/ Agronomic Officer (Parental leave) https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianasalkauskiene/

As an ecologist, Diana is used to thinking in holistic systems connected in several ways. She has the ability to understand the complexity of the connections in the ecosystem and the interdependencies of its individual components, in a structured and effortless way. Diana works with the development of the agricultural aspects of eGro’s model by exporting plans to the Ghanaian team. She adapts these plans according to the specific villages and the farmers’ needs. Diana has since moved back to Lithuania, where she works in the ministry of Agriculture and has also held a position as webshop developer in an ecological specialty store.

Ghazal Torabi Kristensen/ Project Manager (Parental leave) https://www.linkedin.com/in/ghazal-torabi-kristensen-81569250/

Ghazal is one of the few people, who knows exactly what happened within the first 6 seconds of the Big Bang. As a structured scientist, mathematician and physicist, she has been eGro’s project manager from the very start, keeping eGro’s diligence on track.

Roman Suleiman https://www.linkedin.com/in/romansuleiman/

Roman is a former eGro team member, where he volunteered and built the first financial budget in early 2016. He has a MA in Finance from CBS and has worked in the social impact investment industry for some time after completing his master in 2017. He was engaged in advisory and strategic role every month, and holds 1% by the end of 2018.

 

Thor August Selander https://www.linkedin.com/in/thor-august-selander-a6863a/

Thor is a former wildlife hunter and safari guide. He mostly operated in the east and south Africa.
He has bought himself into the company early in 2018 for cash, he wants eGro to be his baby in the future, building parts of the company in Africa.

 

Freja Poulsen https://www.linkedin.com/in/freja-poulsen/

Freja has a Bachelor in Intercultural Marked Communication and a MSc in Economics and Business Administration. During her Master, she specialized in Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Communication. Her specialities include internal/external communication, management and perspectives on how enterprises handle increasing expectations, responsibility and communication with stakeholders. Freja has a global and local understanding and is passionate about sustainable development, food security, women empowerment, human rights and well-being. Within these fields, she wrote her Master thesis on eGro. Freja has worked with Jacob since 2013 and her tasks at eGro have included shaping the internal communication, creating structures for recruitment processes, being personal assistant to Jacob, facilitating onboarding of new team members and supporting the team in staying on track. She is emotionally intelligent and understands management and ethics.

 

Louise Pierrel Mikkelsen https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisepierrelmikkelsen/

Louise, instead of putting money in buying art from her bohemian friends, has given a loan to Jacob’s personal company. Louise has herself had extensive experience in the startup scene of Copenhagen and now works in a service company that advises small and medium enterprises, called gate2growth.