Meet the Team

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: AGRICULTURE

Ever since growing soya on her family farm as a young girl, Sarah has been passionate about integrating best practices in agriculture and business to create pathways for upward mobility for Malawian farmers. Sarah is a classically trained agronomist with experience in managing and optimizing commercial greenhouse production for over 60,000 tomato plants. Under her leadership. SFC has harvested over 600 tons of tomatoes. Alongside her agronomy work, Sarah focuses on investing in youth leadership development through our internship program and overall business operations and strategy, with a focus on contextualising Ag-Tech in rural Malawi.

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: HUMAN RESOURCES

Mpho Laisi manages HR at Mpingu Gardens and Njewa Development Center as well the driver of our marketing and internship programs. Mpho has hired and trained 100s of workers, with a speciality on entrepreneurship basics and digital education for those with minimal formal educations. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication and well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration and a Certificate in Accounting.

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: CONSTRUCTION/HR/FINANCE

Jonathan is playing a major role in leading the development of our newest site, Nsaru Titanium Gateway. With responsibilities ranging from construction, HR, and finance, Jonathan coordinates various departments to ensure construction moves forward safely, efficiently, and hyper-affordably. Jonathan’s background in communication across various companies and the government prove vital as he shares, contextualizes and builds new communities.

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION

Mickness brings ideas into reality by leading the planning, rendering, and construction of our new sites. A graduate of Inscape, South Africa, in Environmental Design, Mickness has pushed the boundaries of “hyper-affordability” for home and community construction by incorporating sustainable, locally sourced materials into the fabric of each design. Through her leadership, 50+ green structures have been build and successfully managed to date.

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: HOSPITALITY & AQUACULTURE

Isaac leads our hospitality department, comprised of 2 restaurants and a hotel with 20+ capacity. They have sold over 13,000 meals and hosted 2,000+ bookings to date. In addition to hospitality, he also leads our ESMP and sustainability work. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Aquaculture and Fisheries Science from Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources and is an expert in fish ponds, sampling and record tracking. 

DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE: ADMINISTRATION

Elcah has an Advance Diploma in Transport and Logistics and she is now pursuing a bachelor's degree for the same at the Exploits University. She has worked as a Clearing Officer at Bollore, an international transport company. At Small Farm Cities Africa, Elcah works as an Administrator. Her duties involve overseeing all the operations at the Njewa office.

DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE: AGRONOMY

Happy is an expert in greenhouse and open field precision agriculture management. He is deeply involved in mentoring our agronomy interns and developing our greenhouse teams’ agriculture skills. Happy is a graduate from Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Michael leads on-the-ground-teams turning ideas into tangible systems across departments. He graduated with honors from Wheaton College with degrees in Business Economics and Psychology.

DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE: PROCUREMENT

Will has a diverse background, serving as a manager at Annies Restaurant, a hospitality team leader at Flood Church, and a volunteer leader at YoungLife Malawi. He holds a degree in Business Administration and Christian Leadership.

TECHNICAL ASSOCIATE: AGRONOMY

Beatrice is an experienced agronomy leader in the daily operations of 14 greenhouses at Mpingu Gardens. Transitioning from an intern to full time, she is vital in mentoring our agronomy interns and teams. She is also technically skilled in open field precision agriculture management.

TECHNICAL ASSOCIATE: AGRONOMY

Moreen is skilled across multiple areas in agronomy, sales, and finance. She has delivered hundreds of tonnes of fresh produce across Lilongwe, regularly conducts market research, and builds strong customer relationships with local vendors, B2B buyers, and blue-chip institutions.

TECHNICAL ASSOCIATE: WELDING AND FABRICATION

Tionge holds a certificate in Welding and Fabrication and a certificate in Business Management. She has a wealth of experience working with companies such as Pamudzi Property Investments, THD Engineering and First Live Engineering.

TECHNICAL ASSOCIATE: CARPENTRY

Martin serves as a carpenter focusing on furniture construction and greenhouse maintenance. He comes with over 10 years experience, and has worked as a carpenter at Central Poultry, a sub contractor for Mercury Construction, and has opened a personal workshop

CO-FOUNDER AND COO

Leif Van Grinsven is Co-founder and COO of Small Farm Cities Africa. Most recently, Leif was Project Director for E-Commerce Africa for Dubai Ports World (DP World), where he was based in Rwanda. Leif is the founder of UPSource, a Rwanda-based technology start-up connecting talented African young professionals with remote digital work from around the world. Prior to this, Leif was an emergency consultant on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 team based in Denmark. Leif has degrees in risk management and development and has engaged with businesses, academic institutions, and multilateral organizations to manage operations in fragile situations in countries such as India and Pakistan.

FOUNDER AND CEO

Jon Vandenheuvel is CEO of Small Farm Cities Africa. Most recently, Jon was Executive Director for E-Commerce Africa for Dubai Ports World (DP World). He is an advisor to the National Planning Commission of Malawi, part of the secondary cities research group. Before that, he was private sector consultant for African e-Commerce for the Universal Postal Union in Ethiopia and organized infrastructure and research initiatives in Somalia, Kenya, and Nigeria. He co-founded a laboratory farm on the shores of Lake Volta in Ghana and co-authored a book based on the lab, Africa Risk Dashboard, with former Harvard Senior Fellow and Dubai logistics icon, Issa Baluch, while serving as a visiting scholar for African urbanism at MIT. Earlier in his career, Jon served as a staff director for the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., and during his school years, worked part-time on farms, landscaping, and land surveying in Iowa and Michigan.