Meet our trainers

With over 10 years of experience in entrepreneurship development, Josua serves as Business Coach & Mentor at Fiji Innovation Hub and Pacific Country Coordinator for Good Return. He has trained and mentored more than 100 entrepreneurs across the Pacific region, specializing in climate entrepreneurship, innovation acceleration, and sustainable business model development. Josua is a certified Innovation Mentor (Creative HQ) and is dedicated to building entrepreneurial capacity that drives both climate impact and economic development throughout the Pacific.

Hans joined ClimateLaunchpad in 2014 as Project Lead and Trainer. He's a start-up trainer, general manager, consultant and entrepreneur with a background in a broad range of industries and environments. His current focus is clean-tech start-up acceleration through entrepreneurship education, coaching and financing. Experienced in directing large projects and programs (US 100 million +). He’s the kind of guy that simply gets things done.

A facilitator on a mission to create social and climate impact, Hira has had the opportunity to work with organizations of all sizes across various industries and countries on their sustainability agenda. Hira loves interacting with new ventures and helping them align their business models for impact, particularly with a focus on SDGs.

Lawrence’s main goal is to empower people within start-ups and small & growing enterprises. He helps business grow and expand their impact. For the past 8 years he pursued various entrepreneurship training certifications and he is a certified business mentor in Kenya. Since 2017 he has been involved with Climate Innovation Center (KCIC) at Strathmore Business School and a Germany based organization (SEED) for Africa.

Emmanuel Okpala has over 10 years of experience in consultancy, design, operations and management across private, government and civic society sectors. He leads the operations desk of Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (a member of the Financial Sector Deepening Network in Africa), where he manages a portfolio of operations, data protection, communication, facilities, administration and HR Support functions.

Chretien has 10 years of experience as a business coach in the Life Sciences & Medtech and has mentored over a 100 companies through his LifeSciences@Work program. Next to that he is an experienced as business coach/trainer/mentor in the Climate-KIC Accelerator and ClimateLaunchpad.

With 15 of my own business start-ups completed in several sectors I bring significant entrepreneurial and business acumen to bear on the roles I fulfill. Director level appointments in regional economic development, policy think tanks, environmental charities, engineering businesses, rail infrastructure and sustainability consultancy.

Jennifer is a gender mainstreaming enthusiast. She enjoys working with women and youth to realize their business potential and drive growth and sustainability while still remaining authentically true to self. Jennifer has over 13 years’ experience in sales and marketing and has handled various leading household brands in Africa.

Since 2011, Monica has been involve with entrepreneurship support organizations. Currently, she leads as the Programme Director at CleantechHUB, where she promotes ecosystems that support climate entrepreneurs throughout Colombia, Peru, and Central America. Additionally, Monica mentors startup leaders and corporate executives, helping them enhance their impact, productivity, and well-being.

Sofia has 12 years of work experience and is the CEO of Samsara Development & Investment, a company focused on socio-economic development and impact, business consulting, and access to market support. Her various competencies and certifications include being a Women Empowerment specialist and activist (Women and Law, World Bank); Business Mentor, and Business Advisory by GrowthWheel International Inc.

Israel is the start-up ecosystem manager of the Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain and an experienced lecturer, trainer and mentor. His specialities are innovation, business models, business strategy and entrepreneurship. Israel is a Telecommunication and Electronics Engineer. He joined ClimateLaunchpad as a trainer in 2015.

For over 20 years, Ron more than earned his tracks in the global cleantech industry. He trains other coaches, early stage start-ups & scale-ups, and works with large international corporations and government. He founded and manages Start-U-up, a boutique cleantech accelerator. Ron holds a Msc. in Business Economics and a Bsc. in Physical Education.