Global Team
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
As a Founder and the Chief Executive Officer, Kaakpema drives the technology vision, global strategy and operations of access.mobile. He is a social entrepreneur with over ten years of experience in health and economic development and has lived and worked in multiple African and Caribbean countries. Prior to founding access.mobile, Kaakpema also founded an international health nonprofit organization called Network for the Improvement of World Health, which focused on rural health and eHealth initiatives in Ghana and Tanzania. Kaakpema also has start-up experience in national-scale health and agriculture program design, launch and implementation with the William J. Clinton Foundation and international management and strategy consulting experience with Dalberg Global Development Advisors.
In the U.S., Kaakpema served on the Governor of Colorado’s technology policy team during the campaign, as well as the Governor’s IT transition committee. He is currently a member of the Advisory Council to the Chief Technology Officer in the State of Colorado, with a focus on mobile technology innovation. Kaakpema is a member of the 2012 class of Leadership Denver, a flagship community engagement and leadership program of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, and an Adjunct Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economic Development and Global Health from Brown University and an MPH from the Yale School of Public Health. Kaakpema was the recipient of the 2007 Yale University Eric W. Mood New Professionals in Public Health Alumni Award for leadership and innovation in global health.
Chief Operating Officer
Kahwa leads access.mobile‘s global strategy and operations. Kahwa has extensive experience living and working across Africa, including experience working with the Africa Finance Corporation as well as the International Monetary Fund. Her work has included deep involvement on major projects across the Continent, from establishing new ventures to advising presidents and conducting academic research on-site in West Africa. In her role at the Constelor Group, Kahwa has provided a broad range of advisory services in the fields of mining, agribusiness, finance, downstream oil & gas, shipping and infrastructure. Kahwa draws from her economic research, advisory and business experiences to position access.mobile to take advantage of the dynamic business opportunities in Africa and beyond. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland, an MS in Mineral Economics from Colorado School of Mines and a BA from Stanford University.
Global Counsel
Josiah serves as Global Counsel of access.mobile and is responsible for the sound and efficient management of the legal affairs of the company. He is an international corporate lawyer with 37 years of legal and compliance experience in the public and private sectors. In addition to his role at access.mobile, he teaches courses in international law, business and financial policy at the Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, where he is also a trustee of the Social Science Foundation. Josiah was Special Assistant to the Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission, worked at the Federal Energy Administration in the aftermath of the OPEC embargo, and for seven years served as Assistant Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. He is a co-author of the legal treatise, Director and Officer’ Liability, Indemnification and Insurance, published by West Group, Inc. A Marshall Scholar, Josiah holds a B.A. summa cum laude from Princeton, an M.A. Oxon from Oxford, and a J.D. from Georgetown University.
Business Development Manager
Jenais has over ten years of experience working in the food and coffee industry. She leads access.mobile’s business development efforts in the coffee sector. Jenais has worked in various roles including Business Development and Project Manager for Thanksgiving Coffee Company, an artisan specialty coffee roaster, and pioneer in the specialty and sustainable coffee space. During her time with Thanksgiving, she was responsible specifically for the Mirembe Project, a grassroots campaign to link coffee drinkers with the certified organic and fair trade Mirembe Kawomera coffee cooperative in Mbale, Uganda. Her work in Business development included building strategic partnerships, developing the company’s outreach strategy, telling farmer stories, and building a bridge that connected Thanksgiving’s customers with the ten coffee growing cooperatives that made up the bulk of Thanksgiving’s annual buying contracts. In her nearly three-year tenure at Thanksgiving coffee, Jenais had the opportunity to develop a keen understanding of the coffee supply chain and various industry challenges around transparency, accountability, and finance. Jenais has an undergraduate degree from Stanford University.
Analyst
Michael supports access.mobile‘s executive and local teams on a wide-range of matters from business strategy to technology deployment planning and support. With over 8 years of Information/Communication Technology (ICT) experience, Michael has acquired two Cisco Certifications including the Cisco Certified Network Associate certificate. Michael worked for numerous years for an Internet Service Provider (ISP) as a lead technician acquiring knowledge and experience in Wide Area and Local Area Networks, wired or wireless, and has setup and managed numerous domain server environments. Michael has experience living and working in West Africa and is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) from The Gambia, where he taught science, basic and advanced computing, GPS and GIS and managed the backend of The Gambia’s Education Management Information System. Michael holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from Indiana University and a Master’s degree in International Development from the University of Denver.
Regional Account Manager
Jane is the Regional Account Manager for access.mobile‘s East Africa projects. She has been at the forefront of our innovations from a product and technology deployment perspective. She has driven complex, national scale technology implementations to successful completion while bridging the gap between client needs, product development and user support. Most recently, she was the access.mobile Uganda team lead for our national scale mobile health data collection and analytics initiative with Uganda Health Initiatives for Private Sector (Uganda HIPS). Prior to working for access.mobile, Jane served as Account Manager for Mapswitch Uganda, a subsidiary of MAP International, a New York based technology firm specializing in innovative financial infrastructure for developing countries. While at MAP, she coordinated the development, piloting and rollout of Uganda Telecom’s Mobile Money service (MSente) and a network of over 200 mobile Point of Sale vending/banking devices. She has a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering and Management from Kyambogo University in Uganda.
Product Innovation Manager
As access.mobile‘s Product Innovation Manager, Joseph Kaizzi drives product innovation by experimenting with new and existing technologies and quickly prototyping solutions that are appropriate for the information technology infrastructure of developing countries. He has received numerous awards for his work in using technology to solve some of the world’s toughest problems, the most recent being the Microsoft Imagine Cup Grants, 2012. These solutions have been deployed in multiple countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Joseph is highly skilled in not just gathering requirements for technological innovations but also understanding unmet needs, existing problems and opportunities for improvement. Incorporating that information into the development of a complete product, Joseph is able to provide new solutions to resolve existing and/or emerging problems. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Makerere University Uganda.
User Experience Technician
John serves as access.mobile‘s lead for user engagement on product feedback and technical support for projects in East Africa. John brings both a technical background in computer science and engineering and a strong customer service orientation. Currently, John is responsible for ensuring that our solutions align with user needs and constantly drive value. This includes supporting user trainings, leading our customer support hotlines during deployments for user queries as well as one-on-one field testing and configuring of user devices for our software when needed. He aids in the management of the company’s user database and administrative web-based software accounts. John has carried out surveys for access.mobile to assist in development of conclusive reports on software rollouts, positioning of access.mobile‘s strategies throughout East Africa and performing market research and assessments from device, functionality and user compatibility perspectives. John has extensive experience working for a number of organizations in Uganda, including the Uganda Telecommunications Commission. He has a Diploma in Electrical Engineering and Electronics from Kyambogo University in Uganda.