InspiraFarms announces appointment of new CEO
InspiraFarms is pleased to announce Julian Mitchell as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of InspiraFarms taking over from Michele Bruni, who will now fully dedicate his time being Chief Commercial Officer.
Julian has successfully shaped, led and developed organisations in Fintech, Off-Grid Energy and the British Military in Europe, Central Asia and East Africa. He spent the last eight years working in East Africa in fast-growing consumer businesses in C-Level roles. Initially setting up a consumer finance company. He then moved to M-Kopa Solar, a solar PAYGO company headquartered in Nairobi, focusing on upgrading lives of customers at the bottom of the pyramid, which has recently reached 1 million customers. He worked across the business, including as MD of the Kenya operations, Chief Customer Officer, A/Chief Credit Officer and laterally as MD of M-KOPA Uganda.
“I wanted to join InspiraFarms because of their vision to increase access to smart clean cold chains across Africa. Allowing agri-businesses of all shapes and sizes to reduce post-harvest losses, improve produce quality, improve their bottom line, and doing so with low-cost energy-efficient technology. I remain staggard by how few growers across the continent have access to quality cold chain infrastructure, with an unacceptable amount of food loss. InspiraFarms is determined to change this. Especially at a time when demand for fresh produce is only increasing.”
“Recent performance and customer satisfaction have been excellent under Michele Bruni’s leadership, setting the company up for an exciting 2021. Michele is a vital part of the business and will focus his time working with customers and prospective customers to ensure InspiraFarms Team deliver the quality clean cold chains that work for our customers.”
Julian joins InspiraFarms at a time of success for the company. The recent advancements of our technology and designs result in more and more companies opting to use our modular solutions to help grow their businesses. We remain proud that our solutions are helping to decrease post-harvest losses, improve your fresh produce’s quality, allowing exporting via sea and not air to help our customers grow. This is all achieved using highly energy efficient technology to lower costs and reduce impact on the environment.
Michele Bruni is now taking the leadership of global sales & business development, putting in place an ambitious and exciting growth and expansion plan over Africa, rolling out new features and service offerings. Michele will coordinate the sales and marketing teams for increasing sales, developing new markets and creating new and strong relationships with customers.
“It was an honour to lead the company through the last 6 months. I learned to embrace change and pivot when needed and to encourage our great global team during one of the hardest times of world history. I have the utmost confidence in Julian’s skills and experience to continue the incredible growth that we have achieved over the past eight years and I’m excited to start this new journey working together”.
About InspiraFarms
InspiraFarms designs, finances and supplies energy-efficient cold rooms & packhouses to agribusinesses and food distributors in East and Southern Africa. InspiraFarms technology allows its customers to access new higher-value markets, significantly cut energy costs, reduce post-harvest losses and meet international food safety certifications. InspiraFarms provides remote performance monitoring capabilities and long-term asset financing that allow customers to overcome financial barriers to acquiring new technology and grow sustainably.
