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: 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: 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: 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.

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

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.

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.