Meet our team
Leadership
Dr. Michael Grosspietsch Executive Director
Michael Hartmann Director of Operations
Management in East Africa
Arthur Kakai Country Manager (Nairobi)
Melissa Lesage Country Manager (Kigali)
Susan Chege Office Manager (Nairobi)
Gabriel Gahima Operations Manager (Kigali)
International business development
Lauren Caldarera International School Partnerships
Helaina Stein Business Development
Carmen Nibigira Outreach
Carolien Vis Business Mentor Program
Dr. Michael Grosspietsch, Executive Director
Michael desires to combine his interest in entrepreneurship solutions to social challenges in Africa with his passion for lifelong education abroad. As the co-founder of the Eos Visions group, his responsibilities include the coordination of policy research, visionary program development, strategic partner liaison, and client mobilization and facilitation. Born in Germany, Michael has spent the better part of the past eight years in Africa, founded half a dozen start-up companies, lectured at the Institute of Political Science at the Westphalian Wilhelms-University in Münster/Germany, published several books and articles, and traveled to almost 60 countries. His academic background is in international law, responsible tourism management, international relations and development politics, and his Ph.D. dissertation dealt with maximizing tourism's contribution to poverty reduction in Rwanda.
Michael Hartmann, Director of Operations
A German national, Michael is passionate about developing and optimizing structures and systems in entrepreneurial contexts. He is the second co-founder of the Eos Visions group, and his responsibilities include the supervision of the East African country teams, quality management for all Eos Visions operations and the coordination of the HR and finance work. Before his involvement with the group, he obtained a Diploma in Business Administration from Münster/Germany and held a junior management position with UPS Germany, a leading logistics company. Michael has traveled to more than 30 countries.
Arthur Kakai, Country Manager (Nairobi)
Born in the district of Kitui in Kenya, Arthur has spent most of his life working in the tourism industry. After graduating with a certificate in mathematics and statistics at Jomo Kenyatta University in Kenya, he joined Kenya Utalii College and obtained a Diploma in Tours and Travel Management. He gained practical experience working with top East African tourism organizations including Private Safaris (Kuoni) where he explored Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and built up extensive product knowledge. Arthur has a great passion for wildlife, the environment and natural history, and he is an avid birder and photographer.
Melissa Lesage, Country Manager (Kigali)
Melissa, our country manager in Rwanda is among the few lucky people in the world who were born on the paradise island of Mauritius. She holds a License de Droit from the University of Rennes (France) and a law degree from the University of Exeter (UK). Coming from a small island, she has always been interested in discovering new countries and cultures. She has lived and worked in several countries including France, England and Germany and has visited more than 20 countries. Before joining Eos Visions, she worked in Mauritius for a firm offering corporate services to local companies. She was delighted to have the opportunity to come to live in Rwanda and is happy to be able to contribute to the regional growth of the tourism industry in sub-Saharan Africa.
Susan Chege, Office Manager (Nairobi)
Susan is a Kenyan national with vast experience and training in hospitality and event management. At the world-famous Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi, one of the best restaurants in Africa, she worked in event management, reservations supervision, office administration, cashiering, and customer service. Susan holds a diploma in Public Relations from the University of Nairobi and certificates in Front Office Operations, and Food & Beverage Services and Sales from Kenya Utalii College. Her personal interests are general reading, socializing and networking, badminton, pool, and following everything about rugby.
Gabriel Gahima, Operations Manager (Kigali)
Born in Tanzania, Gaby is a Rwandan national who spent the whole of his childhood in Tanzania as a refugee. He came to Rwanda in 1996 and continued with his secondary school education. Later, he joined the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology where he obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Before joining Eos Visions, he taught math and physics at Collège Apecom de Gakenke, worked for the Rwanda National Electoral Commission and operated his own small internet café in Rwamagana. He is fluent in English, French, Swahili and Kinyarwanda, and, in his free time, enjoys watching soccer, travelling and acting. Additionally, he pursues further studies at the Adventist University of Central Africa where he is majoring in Networking & Communication Systems.
Lauren Caldarera, International School Partnerships
Lauren graduated from the University of Oregon with a Master's in Public Administration and a Certificate in Not-for-Profit Management. Her graduation research focused on engaging youth in decision making. She holds a Bachelor's in Anthropology from Trinity University, and has spent time studying and traveling in Israel, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Honduras and Rwanda. Based in Bloomington, Indiana, USA, she is responsible for our International School Partnership Program, developing service-based collaborations between international and Rwandan schools.
Helaina Stein, Business Development
Helaina, a U.S. national, is based in Kigali and works primarily on developing capacity building & training programs and building partnerships with local institutions. She graduated from Tufts University, where she studied international relations and co-founded a student initiative to support rural development through community-guided research in northern Haiti. Prior to joining the team, Helaina was a Princeton-in-Africa Fellow at Generation Rwanda, an organization that provides university scholarships to Rwandan students who are talented but disadvantaged. She has traveled extensively around East Africa and her interests include conflict management, institutional capacity building, U.S. foreign policy and international development.
Carmen Nibigira, Outreach
A Burundian native, Carmen has spent much of her adult life in the UK where she engaged in academic studies and gained about 10 years of work experience in the hotel and tourism industry. Since 2007, she became one of the leading personalities in the development and relaunch of the tourism industry in post-conflict Burundi. Her ambition is to see her country on a tourism map with a thriving industry based on sound and sustainable structures. She ran tour operations in Burundi and Kenya, managed a major hotel in Tanzania and currently also works at the prestigious Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland as an academic assistant and researcher in the department of service marketing. Carmen holds a BA in Travel Management from the University of Brighton and an MA in Tourism Destination Management from the University College of Birmingham in the UK.
Carolien Vis, Business Mentor Program
Carolien, a Dutch national, graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a Master's in International Development Studies. Her graduation research focused on education needs of women entrepreneurs in Kigali, and her initial stay in Rwanda led to the strong desire to continue to work in the region and to contribute to its growth. She holds a Bachelor's in International Business Administration from Tilburg University, has spent time studying and volunteering in Guatemala and Mexico, and has an interest in human development, entrepreneurship, gender and social justice. Based in Amsterdam and Kigali, she is responsible for our Business Mentor Program, the latest addition to the Eos Curriculum of short-term capacity building and master trainer programs for professionals and students.
