Lou van Reemst
YEP period 2020 - 2021, batch 19
Young Expert at African Clean Energy - UgandaFirst position after YEP
Programme Manager at Signify Foundation, Netherlands
YEP Role
This year (2020) I am working for African Clean Energy (ACE) in Uganda. ACE makes a solar/thermal hybrid energy system providing off-grid households with clean cooking and electricity for light and/or charging a phone or radio.
As a Field Office Manager, I am working alongside the Operations Manager in Uganda to oversee the performance of field sales teams, customer service and maintenance teams. Apart from scaling up and setting up new offices around the country I will be responsible for M&E of new tech adoptions we are testing in the field and creating new strategies for sustainable fuel supply chains and sales. The improvement of current structures and work flows are part of creating a more sustainable environment to grow the business.
Skills
- Previous work experience in EA: Kenya and Tanzania
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Practical and analytical skills
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Motivate and enthusiast others
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Design thinking and using visual skills to convey messages
Nationality: Dutch
Education:
- Bachelor Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
- Master Integrated Product Design at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Experience before YEP
During my studies I have done an internship in Nairobi, Kenya on the business development of a start-up that makes affordable greenhouses for small-holder farmers.
Between my bachelors and masters, I’ve worked in Yogyakarta, Indonesia for a year. In Yogyakarta I was head of design for a start-up called ETEAQ that made accessories for mobile devices made from recycled materials. I was responsible for the complete product development, production set-up but also visual branding and communication between the different stakeholders involved.
For my master thesis I researched different possibilities of using waste glass for building materials for the island Zanzibar, Tanzania. The end-result was a recipe for the ‘bottle | brick’: a glass waste concrete mixture suitable for the island, used to make affordable and durable bricks. A fit for the local context. After my graduation I went to Tanzania to be the general manager of foundation bottle-up and scale-up the ‘bottle | brick’ project.
After a year in Zanzibar I worked for the start-up Ecosystem Kickstarter, researching and developing a foldable and biodegradable structure that is used as erosion prevention in Sub-Sahara Africa. Through the usage of embedded seeds in the structure these products are meant for places where sustainable land management lacks and top soil needs to be protected.
