Sofie Blakstad, CEO

Prior to founding hiveonline, Sofie has held senior roles in technology development, system architecture, infrastructure delivery and business transformation , having built technology and businesses for eight major international banks in more than 60 countries, with projects worth over USD 1bn. Sofie has written two books including Fintech Revolution (with Rob Allen) and multiple research papers, delivered 5 core banking systems, multiple payment systems and led transformation of Citigroup’s technology and retail operations.

Sofie advises international organisations on sustainable applications of blockchain. She is Chair of the Edinburgh Futures Institute FI and Fintech advisory board and holds an MSc in Informatics. Sofie has twice been included in the Innovate Finance’s Women in Fintech Powerlist.

Matt Mims, COO

Matthew has worked in several globally significant banks in a number of roles, across both strategy and execution. Spanning investment, retail and wealth banking, his achievements have included designing and deploying bank-wide business critical applications, managing multimillion pound strategic partnership negotiations and leading the integration of a core banking platform with downstream regulatory and financial systems.

Having worked on several startups and social enterprises alongside his financial services career, Matthew has been advising Fintech startups since 2013.

Latif Amars, Product Owner

Latif has published research articles on sustainability transitions and worked to connect pioneers to bring about systemic change in the energy sector. Before joining hiveonline, Latif worked with the World Bank analysing client country environmental and natural resources challenges.

Latif worked with Oxfam to bolster climate resilience in the Horn, East and Central Africa region; operationalised what became a leading organisation on climate change in Tanzania, and engaged in the UN climate negotiations.

Qusai Alfaki, Dev Team Lead

Having graduated with a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Tel Aviv, Israel, he had a stint in the automotive industry before deciding to pursue his passion for software development. Qusai is passionate about building software that impacts people’s lives positively.

Qusai is a software engineer with extensive experience in building high quality software solutions. He has worked on multiple customer-facing projects with great UI and straightforward user experience.

Jean Pierre Habinshuti, Lead Developer

Jean Pierre holds a Master’s Degree in IT from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Computer Engineering From National University of Rwanda.

Prior to joining hiveonline, Jean Pierre worked as head of research and development for a mobile money aggregating company where he designed and implemented distributed and reusable micro-services based software systems to extend services to last mile users.

Emmanuel Annor, Software Developer

Emmanuel holds a Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Engineering From Ashesi University.

He is a multi-faceted personality with immense curiosity with interest in areas like Software Engineering, Embedded Systems, Computer Organization & Architecture, Internet of Things, and Digital Systems Design. Emmanuel’s goal is to pursue a career that would be truly impactful.

Jean Paul Nishimirwe, Backend Developer & Security Engineer

Jean Paul Nishimirwe is an accomplished professional with a strong academic background and a passion for software and cloud DevOps engineering. He holds a Master’s degree in Information Technology from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Rwanda.

With a focus on research and software development, Jean Paul’s experience includes his role as a research associate at Carnegie Mellon University, where he made significant contributions to projects such as the Digital Public Goods Interoperability platform, Open Data portal, and DHIS2 customization. His expertise lies in backend software development and ensuring software security.

Known for his commitment to delivering exceptional results, Jean Paul constantly seeks to enhance the value of his work. 

Henintsoa Rakotoarisaona, Project Coordinator & Researcher

Henintsoa is passionate about sustainable sourcing and believes in empowering communities through entrepreneurial opportunities. She has a multidisciplinary background with experience in project management, scientific research, and in consulting with NGOs and tech companies. Henintsoa oversees projects relating to hiveonline’s products, as well as research and sales.

Henintsoa holds a Bachelors degree in Environmental Sciences and Management from Utah Valley University, a Master’s in Environmental Management and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of San Francisco.

Yvonne Karani, Business Development & Relationship Manager, Kenya

Yvonne is an accomplished professional with years of expertise in business development, digital marketing, and partnerships. She is renowned for fostering relationships with key partners, maximising operational excellence, and driving brand growth.

Yvonne spent 11 years working in the media sector before joining hiveonline, where she oversaw sales, product marketing, and account management. She has a passion for leveraging digital technologies to do research, analyse data, and get feedback in order to develop lasting solutions.

Diogo Navarro, Program and Relationships Manager, Mozambique

Diogo joined hiveonline after more than 8 years working in projects related to HIV, Malaria and malnutrition, to a more civil society work, where he took part in an advocacy and monitory, in projects with the aim of engaging communities to be more participative in decisions and responsibilities in regards to supply of public services by local governments. Recently, he went from being the Deputy Chief of Party in GiveDirectly Mozambique, leading the implementation and beginning of GiveDirectly in Mozambique and launching a cash assistance project in this country.

Before he spent more than 3 years as Project Manager for a Large Scale Food Fortification project, to being the Program Manager of an emergency program, KFMW- Keeping Food Markets Working, with funds from more than 8 donors including USAID, MFA, GAC and others, aimed to mitigate the immediate impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Food Systems. He left GAIN, to join GiveDirectly, as a Cluster Lead of the Supply Chains for Nutritious Foods Cluster. Diogo holds a master’s degree in Economics of Development from Universidade de Évora, Portugal.

Lilian Muthoni Maina, Project Manager, Kenya

Lilian is deeply committed to empowering marginalised communities to attain self-sufficiency. With extensive experience in program management, training, and capacity building, she has worked with farmers and refugee clients in Kenya, overseeing grant disbursement, training, and monitoring and reporting program activities.

Lilian’s current role involves overseeing the effective execution of hiveonline’s projects by equipping partners with the necessary skills and knowledge to attain their desired milestones.
She holds a Master’s of Science in Finance from the University of Nairobi and a Bachelor’s in Business Management with a major in Finance from Masinde Muliro University.

Leila Gilda Sitoe, Lead Field Officer, Mozambique

Leila is passionate about the environment and sustainability and truly believes technology must be used to make our surroundings safer and clearer for us and the upcoming generations. 

Leila received a degree in electronic engineering and telecommunications at The Superior School of Nautical Sciences of Maputo. She has worked with Bureau Veritas Moçambique as a trainer and developer, dealing daily with the operations and managing the education cycles and strategies. Facilitating knowledge and tools to enable people’s growth became part of her professional essence.

Social innovation is a concept she was exposed to when going through training at Girl Move Academy, where they had the opportunity to develop an electrical motorcycle as an option for electrical mobility for rural communities, reducing fuel costs and granting economic growth. We developed this model with Energias de Portugal(EDP), and the final result led us to believe that we can reduce our carbon footprint and reduce costs all with this simple solution.

At hiveonline, Leila will be managing and supervising the field officers’ activities, and strategically organising approaches for efficient onboarding processes of cooperatives to myCoop.online.