Meet Ruben, Chalé's newest team member
After a successful production pilot in Kumasi, we are ready to set up our commercial production facility. This also means that the workload will become bigger and new challenges need to be addressed. To be able to keep the momentum going, we recruited a new team member, Ruben. What makes Ruben the right person for the job and why did he decide to join Chalé Spirulina? In this blogpost, he will tell you all about it.
Hi there, my name is Ruben and I am beyond excited to share that I have joined Chalé Spirulina. First I will tell you a bit about myself. I am 25 years old and currently live in Rotterdam, where I studied at Erasmus University. I did a bachelor in Business Administration, for which I went on exchange to South Africa for six months. Needless to say that I witnessed a lot of inequality and poverty there. During this time, I also travelled to Uganda where I stayed on a small coffee farm in a valley close to the Sipi falls. I wondered, how can it be that big coffee brands in Europe are making so much money while these coffee farmers are living in extreme poverty? I was intrigued by this topic and soon it became clear to me that I should use my knowledge and privileges as a force for good. Ultimately, this led to me doing a master in Global Business & Sustainability.
After I was done studying I started working for purpose-driven companies. I worked for Pieter Pot, The Good Roll and Seepje. At these companies I combined the two things that I am good at and aimed to incorporate sustainable practices into the supply chain processes. During my time at The Good Roll, I moved to Akosombo in Ghana for four months. During the project I worked together with Jeroen, Floris’ brother. Seeing the impact that we were making in Ghana was very fulfilling and rewarding. Even though I knew that I was making an impact in The Netherlands as well through my previous jobs, I could not compare it to what I felt when I was working in Ghana. Literally standing with my feet in the mud and working with people is what gives me energy and motivates me most.
In January of this year, Jeroen brought me in contact with Floris. I was immediately enthusiastic about his plans and was genuinely impressed by how much he had accomplished in the timespan of less than a year. After a while, we both decided it was a great fit and I got the opportunity to join Chalé Spirulina as Co-Owner and Head of Operations. The 26th of May I will move to Ghana to assist with the construction of our production facility and to run the day-to-day operations. This will give Floris the opportunity to focus more on the commercial and financial aspects of the company. I am very excited to go back to Ghana and get the commercial production facility up and running. Not just because I think spirulina is the food of the future, but also because I cannot wait to create impact through jobs and our donation programme. Not alone of course, but together with the next generation of Ghana!
