Growing a global
cooperative
powered by
smallholder farmers

A biologist by training, Claire’s early career involved counting Costa Rican caterpillars and other environmental conservation efforts, before realizing much of the earth’s biodiversity is managed by smallholder farmers and there is a lot to learn from them.

Claire joined Cafédirect Producers’ Foundation in 2009, attracted by the goal to be an organization led by smallholder farmers for smallholder farmers.  Before joining Producers Direct, Claire worked with a number of organizations to promote the expertise and leadership of smallholder farmers and grassroots communities. This included seven years with the US-based non-profit Ecoagriculture Partners, and work with the United Nations Development Programme, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the UK Department for International Development.

As well as being passionate about making Producers Direct’s model work for smallholder farmers, Claire has a deep personal interest in the long-term sustainability of the world’s coffee supply. “Sin café, no hay mañana”

Katie joined the Producers Direct team in 2014 after relocating from Nicaragua to London with her family. Her passion for working with ambitious organizations was sparked over 15 years ago while advocating for the rights, voices and visions of indigenous peoples at Cultural Survival. From this foundation, Katie led youth leadership programmes with the YMCA and Peace Corps Paraguay, before pursuing a Masters in International Development Policy at Duke University. Katie worked with Save the Children US and Restless Development Uganda before returning to Latin America as the Nicaragua Country Director and later the Director of Operations for Manna Project International. Katie led Producers Direct’s Fundraising and Partnerships for 6 years before stepping into the COO role.

When Katie isn’t at work, you’ll find her chasing around her 2 young boys and trying to enjoy a hot cup of coffee.

Whilst studying for an MA in Conflict Resolution at the University of Bradford, Sam became interested in issues surrounding international and community development.  Working with an education and community development NGO based in Trujillo, Peru he ran a variety of workshops and programmes – including a photography programme with a  group of secondary students, helping them to explore their community, and communicate their stories to the outside world. He has also volunteered as a community mediator, and worked with education, refugee and community support organisations.

Since joining Producers Direct in 2015, Sam has worked on leading communications of the organisation. More recently he has used his experience of community-led and participatory projects to work on the development of a farmer-led data system to support smallholders across our network.

Outside of work Sam enjoys drumming, running and cooking.

Trilce’s passion for challenging the paradigms of development and deep interest to understand the realities of rural, underprivileged and neglected communities in Peru, Latin America and globally has been a priority in her life and career.

Trilce joined Producers Direct in 2015 when she returned to her native Peru after studying and living abroad for 8 years. Her academic training in Development, Sociology and Politics, by Utrecht and Leiden University respectively, grounded her in the social sciences and enabled her to experience work, research and field work in Southern Kenya and in Peru (2012-2014) with a multidisciplinary approach fueled with a critical-thinking that she identifies as key. Trilce has lead the implementation of our model in Peru for the last 8 years and is eager to dive into a more strategy-based role with a key focus on scaling our programs across Latin America.

As a proud feminist, political activist, and a committed Cooperativista, Trilce is sure that sustainability in a changing world is achieved by putting the voice of the smallholder farmers we work with at the center of everything we do.

Anncate’s passion in finance and accounts has helped in creating solutions for companies and farmers, especially in helping them understand their finances ,record keeping and decision making. Anncate is currently pursuing a Certified Investment and Finance Analyst (CIFA) professional accreditation and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA K), registered with ICPAK (Institute of Certified Public Accountants Kenya). She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance and Banking) Degree. She has extensive experience in accounting of over 7 years where she has worked in the Fresh Vegetables and Fruits Export industry in Kenya, with markets in the EU and the Middle East while supporting smallholder farmers as producers. She has also worked in an Architectural firm dealing in architectural design, planning and consultation. Her experience has given her a wealth of knowledge in finance analysis, problem solving, attention to detail, conformity to accepted financial and accounting guidelines and ability to make well thought out decisions.

Anncate loves cooking and travelling. Recently she has developed interest in yoga and cycling as a way of relaxing

Eunice lives and was born in Cusco. She has trained as an Anthropologist at the San Antonio National University in Cusco and has a masters degree in Gender Studies from the Pontifical Catholic University in Lima. She has worked as an Assistant Lecturer in the faculty of Anthropology, as an assistant in the educational resources programme with communities, teachers, students and parents with Mine Xtrata – Las Bambas in Apurimac and, in 2015, at the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society – IASSCS, to develop the activities and logistics of the conference program in Dublin, Ireland. All this experience has sought to build her knowledge on rural communities, social and cultural diversity and the gender gaps.

Since joining Producers Direct, her work has been focussed on developing the different aspects of the INSPIRE project in Peru. Concentrating on forming relationships through constant communication with the producer organisations, inclusion of women and young people, and the quality of life, and the recognition of the small producers’ initiatives in Peru.

Eunice is very interested in popular-traditional music, as an expression of cultures, identities and gender.

Talia was born and lives in Lima. She studied Forest Engineering at Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. At that time, she was passionate about Peru, its people, and its natural resources. By the time she finished her pre-graduate studies, she developed an interpretive plan for a Private Conservation Area in the north of Peru as her thesis work. Since then, Talia has worked on developing participatory projects related to conservation, ecotourism, forestry, and agriculture.

After having travelled throughout all the regions in Peru investigating and documenting different sustainable business models led by communities, she became part of Producers Direct in 2018 to support the fundraising team. She knows that she lives in a country full of opportunities, especially in rural areas, and loves to be part of its sustainable development.

Talia collects places. She dreams of visiting the 76 Natural Protected Areas in Peru (she has already been to 30).

Margaret K. Mimoh is a woman entrepreneur, highly experienced in beekeeping, honey processing, value addition of honey, dried fruits and vegetables, training small scale producer organizations in enterprise development and marketing with over 20 years’ of experience in the private sector perspective.

Mimoh was involved extensively in the management and coordination of beekeeping development initiatives in a number of countries across East Africa through Honeycare Africa Ltd for 20 years where she gained a wide knowledge and understanding of small holder enterprises for economic strengthening.

She has been involved in reviewing the Kenya Honey Standard through the Kenya Bureau of Standards. She has gained extensive knowledge in development, designing and implementation of profitable community initiative across the region.

She has undertaken various business supplies and consultancies across the region, she is from a management background and is result oriented. She has gained a wide knowledge in training small farmer organizations in business development and marketing. She is conversant with resource mobilization, markets and organizational development approaches for small farmer organization from a private sector perspective.She holds a bachelor degree in Business Development Studies -Entrepreneurship Option from The Management University of Africa.

Nick moved to London from New Zealand in 2007 to pursue a career in finance. After 2 years and one too many bad coffees, he decided to take the leap into entrepreneurship. Federation Coffee was founded in 2009 and grew to two locations, a wholesale coffee roasting business, as well as a commercial bakery, before being sold in 2014.

Nick then joined Virgin Start-Up and worked with over a thousand startups in his roles as a Business Advisor – helping founders fine-tune their business models, and subsequently leading the lending team as a Senior Investment Manager. After several years consulting in a wide range of industries from food-tech and hospitality to private healthcare, Nick joined Producers Direct as the Head of Business Development to lead commercial strategy and development of Producer Direct’s wider business model.

Diana grew up in a rural Colombian family, which has given her a deep understanding of the problems and opportunities of rural communities. After graduating with a degree in business administration, she co-founded Bive, a social enterprise facilitating access to high-quality healthcare for more than 100,600 people in rural areas in Colombia, particularly in coffee-growing communities. After eight years leading her social organisation, Diana moved to Malawi to work at mothers2mothers, an international NGO that empowers women living with HIV to eradicate pediatric HIV/AIDS. There, she became interested in sustainable food systems and climate change. She completed a Master’s Degree in International Development Policy, focused on technology, innovation, and climate-smart agriculture. Diana is our International Project Manager coordinating our efforts in farmer data for decision-making. She leads the development of our digital app Croppie in Colombia, Peru, and Uganda and is excited to scale this technology to millions of farmers.

Redempttah is a highly motivated senior sales manager with extensive customer service and sales experience. She is an outgoing sales professional with a track record of driving increased sales, improving buying experience and elevating the company profile with the target market. Redempttah is diligent about working closely with the sales team to maximise business revenue and drive the teams’ performance.

She has studied sales and marketing, a field of study she became passionate about and has had an opportunity to work in for over 20 years now. Being able to run the sales world for some time now has enabled her to start ventures like farming and beekeeping. Redempttah is looking forward to growing the company to greater heights. Running the Producers Direct’s commercial team has been the most fulfilling part of her journey here thus far. Redempttah prides herself in the number of business and relationships she has across the world which brings out the best leader in her.

Redempttah is a mother to many and inspires everyone who interacts with her. She is a loving and caring mother of 5 and truly believes that the most precious gift is family. She believes that families are like branches on a tree – we grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one.

Pablo joined Producers Direct in January 2023 as a user researcher. Since then he has been dedicated to connecting the Digital Team with users in the field, providing feedback for the development of the virtual platforms and for the organisation of the work of the PD teams.

As a philosopher, Pablo does not accept explanations with gaps or flaws. As an interviewer – he says – he feels – sort of – like Socrates helping his interlocutors to give reasons for their decisions and attitudes. But for him, there is nothing more valuable in life than connecting with others and understanding them deeply.

Pablo also likes to connect with people in other ways when he is not working: through music, literature, and cooking. If he invites you to his home for lunch, don’t pass up the opportunity.

Alessandro has more than 10 years of experience in the global food trading industry. He finished his career in Industrial Engineering at University of Lima, and has experience in financial modeling using information systems. Alessandro has professional experience in fruit trading companies around the world such as Tridge Korea and TruMarket. Both companies use technology to leverage market intelligence and generate business. This evidences that he is passionate in transforming and adding value to sustainable and responsible value chains, by leveraging technology. His work on Producers Direct is focused on increasing impact for the producers through commercial growth strategy. He also loves trekking and outdoor activities in nature.

Mutuku is a full-stack developer with an interest in transforming the agricultural industry through inventive technological solutions. With a deep-rooted commitment to merging agricultural expertise with cutting-edge software development, he thrives on creating solutions that optimize efficiency, sustainability, and productivity in agribusiness operations.

Daniela is a Data Analyst residing in Arequipa, Peru. She is passionate about using cleaning data to facilitate accurate predictions and she enjoys building data dashboards. Daniela has a special interest in agribusiness, where she leverages her skills to make meaningful insights.

Beyond her professional endeavors, Daniela is a fan of data science competitions, showcasing her enthusiasm for pushing the boundaries of her expertise. As a result of this, she became an ambassador for Women in Data Science in her city. In this capacity, Daniela is dedicated to encouraging more women and young students to explore the realm of data science and integrate its principles into their respective fields of study.

Pauline is a production assistant. She started her career in Sales and Marketing, specialising in cooking oil and maize flour. Driven by curiosity and passion, she made a career shift to the production team, dedicating six years to understanding the intricacies of processing these commodities. Along the way, Pauline studied food science and earned a degree in Marketing and Public Relations.

Beyond her professional pursuits, Pauline finds joy in cooking, cultivating the land, and she has a newfound interest in beekeeping.

William is a structured, creative and independent thinker, with a personal desire of building businesses that are fundamentally sustainable and socially good.  

Over the years, William has gained significant experience in building and accelerating startups especially in the agribusiness sector. He has helped in the founding of agribusinesses such as; Smartfarming Uganda – An ecommerce platform that sells and distributes farming inputs; Turaco Valley Foods – An agro-processing company that adds value to refugee grown crops; and MtotoCare – A company that makes affordable and reusable baby diapers.

In his free time, William enjoys playing tennis, reading books and watching movies.

Salama is an experienced social science researcher. She has conducted research in health, policy, agriculture, and gender. With a passion for socially impactful solutions that empower communities through evidence-based insights, her expertise lies in conducting thorough research, engaging with stakeholders, and translating findings into actionable solutions.

Salama holds a Master’s in Monitoring and Evaluation, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation, and a Bachelor of Development Studies. She enjoys traveling and learning new languages. In her free time, she enjoys taking long walks with her two kids.

Karol studied Management and Sustainability and has experience in Project Management, Strategic Planning and Digital Transformation, particularly in education and climate change. She is convinced of the potential that new technologies hold for rural development and sustainable value chains. As a Project Coordinator at Producers Direct, she focuses on supporting program management and collaborating with producer cooperatives to deliver data products.

Outside of work, Karol enjoys going for long walks and cycling.

Peruvian engineer. David helped build a social enterprise over a decade (Nature Services), becoming its Country Manager in Peru. He started working on the ground with Machupicchu´s park rangers and indigenous communities around Manu national park. David was part of technical assistance teams of international cooperation agencies and multilateral development banks focused on Latin America such as GIZ and IDB. Work concentrated on the design and execution of projects related to biodiversity finance, deforestation-free production, ecosystem services, watershed management, and bioeconomy. David has also advised private sector companies on how to best manage their ecological footprint, environmental offset strategies, and nature investments through the cost-effective practice of REDD+, Water Funds, Habitat Banking, and EUDR compliance. David studied Forestry in Peru’s National Agrarian University, La Molina; and, did his graduate studies in Coastal Management at the University of California, Santa Cruz (USA). As part of a new phase, David is now also helping with the creation of an Amazon Sustainability Research Institute within Peru´s Technology & Engineering University (UTEC)