The Team

Meet the people working to energize the last-mile.
Afnan "Affy" Hannan
CEO & Co-Founder

Affy has a simple vision: to get power to everyone in the world, as fast as possible, and unlock their potential.

Damian "Damo" Veling
Software Team Lead & Co-Founder

He has a degree in accounting and knows a thing or two about building a vision using cutting edge technology.

Melissa Liu
Chief of Staff & HR Team Lead

Melissa has been passionate about poverty alleviation since she first visited her dad’s childhood village in rural China as a child herself. Now she merges innovation with positive impact, aiming to bring #powertothepeople.

Kisa Giebink
Head of Finance

Kisa knows sustainability, and she knows how to create successful projects that change the way people think about last-mile energy access.

Nithya Menon
Head of Product and Technology

Nithya Menon is an engineering graduate from Harvey Mudd College who has spent her career developing technology targeted towards empowering marginalized and developing communities worldwide. She has been pivotal in designing Okra's key power-sharing algorithms, IoT firmware, and grid management software.

Callum "Cal" Yap
Head of Operations & Supply Chain Team Lead

Callum's mission is to have a grand adventure with amazing people. When he's not climbing, he's belaying others as they hustle to get energy access out to the world.

Kisa Giebink
Head of Finance

Kisa knows sustainability, and she knows how to create successful projects that change the way people think about last-mile energy access.

Marco Freitas
Finance Lead

After 5 years working in finance, Marco has joined Okra, driven by purpose and community. He's a football enthusiast, budding chocolatier, and nature lover from Porto.

Ajibola Abiodun
Senior Project Finance Analyst

Ajibola, a certified project finance professional, has worked on financial advisory and capital raising engagements of over $100 million dollars from both equity and debt in sectors such as energy, infrastructure, healthcare, financial services and more.

Nithya Menon
Head of Product and Technology

Nithya Menon is an engineering graduate from Harvey Mudd College who has spent her career developing technology targeted towards empowering marginalized and developing communities worldwide. She has been pivotal in designing Okra's key power-sharing algorithms, IoT firmware, and grid management software.

Oscar Aitchison
Product Manager & Mech/Elec Lead

Oscar has over 10 years experience as a professional electrical engineer. Since 2017 he has developed deep expertise in the design, procurement, installation and operation of remote renewable energy microgrids, particularly Okra’s “Mesh-grid” technology in Cambodia and Philippines.


João Pedro Neto
Engineering Manager

From aerospace to robotics, through engineering and management, João is a true generalist who is now focused on bringing power to the people.

Oscar Aitchison
Product Manager & Mech/Elec Lead

Oscar has over 10 years experience as a professional electrical engineer. Since 2017 he has developed deep expertise in the design, procurement, installation and operation of remote renewable energy microgrids, particularly Okra’s “Mesh-grid” technology in Cambodia and Philippines.


Fergus McCracken
Hardware Lead

Sometimes he wears the leader hat and sometimes the friendly colleague hat. He's damn good at being both. Ferg comes from a background in hardware design for self-driving cars.

Sam "Buccaz" Bucca
QA/QC Lead

Testing. Adjusting. And strumming da bass. His name is Sam Bucca, and he's our main man in China developing quality control machines.

Loay Yari
Senior QA/QC Engineer

With nearly five years of experience in the renewable energy industry, Loay brings a strong background in quality assurance and embedded systems engineering to his role at Okra Solar.

Chee Hua How
Senior Hardware Engineer

Electronics design isn't a job to Chee. It's THE job. He's a gifted engineer that brings more than technical excellence to the lab - he also brings class.

Aditya Chandrasekaran
Hardware Engineer

Many people have test anxiety, not this man. He works on hardware design and takes the lead on test plans for our electronics.

Amr Ayoub
Senior Software Engineer

Patient with a team who cannot pronounce his name, Amr fearlessly tackles the hardest of firmware bugs. He is the man behind the Edamame screen – if we can dream it, he can build it.

Georg Lippitsch
Senior Firmware Engineer

From the road to the classroom and from one time-zone to the other. Georg is ready to jump on his (PCB) board and chase nasty bugs while working on new exciting features.

Akeem Adams
Mechanical Design Engineer

For Akeem, the thrill of the profession isn’t just about creating intricate 3D CAD models; it’s about watching these digital blueprints and simulations come to life, transforming them into tangible, eco-friendly solutions.

Desmond Ip
QA/QC Engineer

Testing devices forged by hardware and firmware. Desmond communicates in many languages; computer and human, to ensure ‘Unity, precision and perfection’ within our team of pods.-he is also working to be a writer-

James "Kenny" De Luis
QA Engineer

He is humbly watching out for typhoons and crossing oceans to make sure none of the two affect the electricity access of the community we serve.

Damian "Damo" Veling
Software Team Lead & Co-Founder

He has a degree in accounting and knows a thing or two about building a vision using cutting edge technology.

Diogo Costa
Senior Full Stack Developer

At some point Diogo played poker professionally, then worked in video production (mostly in the humanitarian sector) and later became a software developer in a career spanning over 12 years and has lived in locations like London, Geneva and now Porto. But his most satisfying work to date has been with the smaller startups and hopes to continue feeling that way here at Okra!

Ana Margarida Silva
Full Stack Developer

Ana studied at Informatics and Computer Engineering at FEUP, with a dissertation focused on Decentralized orchestration of IoT systems. She's worked as a full stack engineer since 2019 before joining Okra.

Yago Massiah
Backend Developer

Born and raised in Brazil, Yago tried a few things, failed a few companies, helped others get on their feet, moved to the Netherlands to work at a startup in Amsterdam and now works at Okra in Porto.

Matthew "Matty J" Johnston
Backend Engineer

Hailing from MIT, Matt is now a software engineer and data scientist at Okra where he works on battery management, remote monitoring, and grid optimization technology.

Lucas Ferreira de Souza
Head of Commercial

Lucas has more than 10 years experience in Commercial operations, working with organizations large and small to improve growth. Prior to Okra he worked in advertising and before that was a partner in a consulting company leading the relationship strategy with clients.

Markus Van Der Merwe
Senior Customer Success Manager

Markus is passionate about social impact. He's currently furthering his studies in computer science whilst pushing Sales and Marketing at Okra to become the finest commercial team in the energy access space. If you're looking for new ways to provide reliable power to last-mile communities, Markus is your man.

Indranil Roy
Haiti Country Manager

Comfortable in various environments, this bright chameleon always manages to make the absolute best out of each situation armed with resilience and serene energy.

Euromina Thevenin
Customer Success Manager

Euromina, a native of Haiti, is a skilled project and operations manager and is passionate about creating a positive impact in communities. She believes that access to electricity is a human right and a catalyst for social and economic development.

Kanayor Emeagwai
Customer Success Manager

Kanayor is an industry leader in renewable energy with experience spanning across SHS, Cold storage + PUEs, Mini-Grid and technologies that enable renewable energy.

Callum "Cal" Yap
Head of Operations & Supply Chain Team Lead

Callum's mission is to have a grand adventure with amazing people. When he's not climbing, he's belaying others as they hustle to get energy access out to the world.

Nikolay "Nik" Yakubovskiy
Supply Chain Lead

Supply chain and manufacturing lead by day and random joke generator by night. Nik is obsessed to make Okra Solar the Toyota of Mesh Grids.

Susan Yang
General Operations Manager - China

Susan has a business English background and worked in the hardware electronic industry in Shenzhen for 10+ years. She's extremely familiar with supply chain in the Great Bay Area of China.

Tim Ha
Marketing Team Lead

Tim has the technical chops from being an Electrical Engineer in Australia and a filmmaker in Cambodia. Now he’s able to combine his knack for breaking down complex technical concepts and love for telling stories as Okra’s Marketing Lead.

Catarina Marçal
Visual Designer & Content Marketer

Catarina uses Design as a tool to transform ideas into tangible projects, communicate with others and bring important topics to the mainstream. As a social and climate justice advocate, she focuses on projects that align with her beliefs and strives to make a meaningful positive impact in real world issues.

Melissa Liu
Chief of Staff & HR Team Lead

Melissa has been passionate about poverty alleviation since she first visited her dad’s childhood village in rural China as a child herself. Now she merges innovation with positive impact, aiming to bring #powertothepeople.

Marika Vallier
HR Lead

A company is as good as the people inside of it. Marika takes pride in ensuring the people in Okra are supported to be the best and happiest they can be.

Carolina Tavares
Recruitment & Onboarding Specialist

Carolina has hired for Portugal, Germany, Spain, Finland, Switzerland, and others. Her journey has been an exciting one, and it’s just beginning.

Sergei Avdeev
Technical Support Team Lead

Sergei launched his IT career at Mars, excelling in team and project management for 10 years, then pivoted to lead user acquisition at a mobile game developer, and finally found inspiration to support the development of a cool product at Okra.

Frantzo Joseph
Service Delivery Officer - Haiti

Frantzo Joseph, an Electrical Engineering graduate from UniQ, has dedicated his career to advancing solar energy in Haiti, currently serving the Okra Solar Team to ensure reliable and sustainable energy solutions for the community.

Fritzdjilex Milcent
Field Agent - Haiti

With on-the-ground experience in Haiti, Djilex specializes in renewable solar energy installations and passionately assists customers in optimizing and troubleshooting the system.

Tioluwa John
Service Delivery Officer - Nigeria

Tioluwa is our Nigerian solar expert and reggae man extraordinaire.

Onyinye Ifemkpa
Junior Tech Support

Onyinye's diverse journey ultimately guided her to her current role as a technical support professional at Okra, where she brings a rich blend of product design, data analysis, and technical expertise to the team.