CleanStar Mozambique

Integrated food, household energy and forest protection business. Smallholders + processing facilities + urban distribution network.

  • Stage $3M in TTM Revenue
  • Industry Other
  • Location Mozambique
  • Currency USD
  • Founded January 2010
  • Employees 80
  • Website cleanstarmozambique.com

Company Summary

The dominant production systems in Mozambique for food and household energy are inherently unsustainable, resulting in an interconnected downward spiral of biodiversity loss, poverty growth and degraded family health.

CleanStar trains rural families in conservation agriculture, buys and processes their surpluses, and retails food and clean cooking stoves & fuel to urban families.

Investors incl. Novozymes, ICM and Bank of America Merrill Ly

Team

  • Bill Rustrick
    Chief Executive Officer

    30 years agribusiness & ops mgt experience, including 17yrs with CDC Group in Africa & Asia.

    Developed & managed 16,000ha farm in Zambia (96-03) + long history of successfully establishing smallholder programs in Africa.

  • Thelma Venichand
    Senior Manager (Sales & Marketing)

    Mozambican social entrepreneur who pioneered introduction of clean cooking in Maputo.

    Now leads CleanStar's retail sales & marketing activities through Maputo retail store network.

    30 years experience in public, private and NGO sectors in Mozambique.

    US-educated with degrees in science and business.

  • Erik Martin-Laborda
    Senior Commercial Manager

    Leads commercial function of business in support of CEO.

    Erik has strong experience in business development and new market establishment in Europe and Africa. Previous roles included the establishment of a new fruit juice factory in Morocco, setup of a commercial distribution network in Africa and managing an industrial products distribution network in Europe.

    Tertiary qualifications in Commerce, Sociology & Economics.

  • Leonor Cipriano
    Administration & Legal Affairs Manager

    Mozambican citizen with 35 years of operational management experience , mostly with BP Moz (75 - 01).

    Strong background in administration, finance, business development. After resigning from BP, Leonor has served for 10 years in variety of admin & general management roles.

    Tertiary qualifications in English, teaching and accounting.

  • Karolina Jakobsen
    Stakeholder Relations Manager

    Karolina manages stakeholder relations and human resources based from the company’s Maputo office.

    Karolina brings 15 years of marketing, production, innovation development and organisational management experience to the company, having previously worked with Novozymes, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble and STORA Enso.

    Karolina holds an MSc in Chemical Engineering and is a Swedish national champion skier.

  • Gianluca Luongo
    Agroforestry Manager

    >10 years experience working in a range of agricultural roles in Mozambique.

    An agronomist by training, Luca has worked extensively in project management and community engagement roles involving smallholders in Sofala, Manica and Inhambane provinces and focused on a wide range of products including cereals, legumes, oilseeds, fruit and vegetables, poultry, dairy and forestry.

    Degrees in Tropical & Subtropical Agriculture.

  • Boris Atanassov
    Monitoring & Evaluation Manager

    Joint Bulgarian/Mozambican citizen with strong household energy experience.

    He has previously undertaken bioenergy and household energy consulting work in Mozambique for Winrock International, the Swedish Government and the Stockholm Environment Institute.

    Boris holds a Masters in Science, specialising on household energy in Mozambique, from the University of Stockholm. He also holds tertiary qualifications in international relations and HR

  • Greg Murray
    Chairman

    Co-founder of CleanStar Ventures.

    Greg has strong expertise in the development of commercial opportunities in emerging and frontier markets, having lived and worked throughout Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

    In Mozambique, Greg led the identification and assessment of the opportunity, formed relationships with key partners, developed and implemented the financing strategy and recruited and onboarded the core management tea

  • Sagun Saxena
    Director

    Co-founder of CleanStar Ventures.

    Leads techno-economic research and field implementation partnerships in the areas of sustainable agriculture and agroforestry systems, bioprocessing technologies, clean cooking and electrification solutions for BoP markets, sustainable biofuels, community development, sustainability asssurance and lifecycle assessment.

    MBA Oxford & dual B.Sc Chem Eng / Mat. Sc from UC Berkeley.

  • Anders Tuxen
    Director

    Energy Strategist for Novozymes, strategic shareholder, working at a global level with the company’s commercial strategy and business development activities in relation to bioenergy and carbon markets, as well as on the company’s public affairs activities in relation to energy and climate. Formerly strategy consultant with Booz&Co + roles in public sector & military.

    MPA from Kennedy School @ Harvard + BA from Copenhagen Uni.

  • Andre Roberts
    Operations Manager

    Leads construction and operational management of the infrastructure and processing facilities.

    Andre has 25 years of construction, fabrication and operational management experience, including 13 years in Mozambique.

    Andre was previously the Country Manager for a major coconut oil producer in Mozambique, which involved the setup and running of two large factories. In 2007, was awarded "Best Businessman of the Year" by Moz President's office.

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