Our Team

Violet grew up in extreme poverty in Uganda after her parents fled the Rwandan genocide. So she founded Grow Movement in 2009 with Chris to serve her community which had suffered so much. Thanks to her efforts with the rest of the team, Grow Movement has pioneered a new method of international poverty relief; coaching entrepreneurs over mobile phone. Violet holds a degree in business from Nkumba University.

Chris developed a passion for a more just world after meeting atrocity survivors living in extreme poverty in Mozambique. So he joined the British army and fought ISIS in Iraq to protect human rights. He served as a military advisor alongside Iraqi Forces. Chris also served as a British diplomat to build peace. After working in London as an accountant and investment manager, Chris founded Grow Movement with Violet when he saw the potential of mobile technology to support entrepreneurs to reduce conflict and poverty. Chris holds Masters degrees from London Business School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Evelyne leads the implementation of Grow Movement’s projects in Africa, Asia and the United States. She is particularly passionate about empowering women and young people by helping them to develop income generating projects. Evelyne holds an advanced diploma in business management and entrepreneurship from the Akilah Institute.

Kate is an established board contributor and strategic leader with excellent judgement and impact focus. This has been honed by 25+ years of experience in international development, philanthropy, impact investment, city management and education. She worked for the World Bank Group, Bain & Company and Government of South Africa under Nelson Mandela before building a leading education foundation.

Professor Naufel Vilcassim is Professor of Marketing and Head of Department of the Department    of Management, London School of Economics. Naufel’s expertise is business performance among  growth- orientated micro-entrepreneurs in Africa. Naufel s an expert on the use of economic theory and econometric techniques to analyse substantive marketing problems. He has focused his research on problems in the areas of the marketing mix, competitive interactions and market structure, pricing and price promotion, marketing channels, measurement of market response to investments in advertising and other marketing mix elements, and household choice behavior. He has published extensively in leading research  journals. He was previously Deputy Dean (Faculty) at London Business School.

Professor Rajesh Chandy is Professor of Marketing and the Tony and Maureen Wheeler Chair in Entrepreneurship at London Business School, where he is also the Academic Director of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development. Rajesh’s current research lies at the intersection of business and development. His recent projects have covered the impact of business skills among micro-entrepreneurs in South Africa, novel financing approaches in Ghana, property rights in slums in Egypt, innovation among farmers in India, highways and private education expenditures in India, and using big data for development outcomes.

Professor Pradeep Chintagunta is Joseph T. and Bernice S. Lewis Distinguished Service Professor of Marketing at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. Pradeep is interested in empirically studying consumer, agent and firm behavior. He has studied packaged goods, pharmaceutical, technology and online markets to answer questions related to pricing, advertising and channels of distribution. More recently, he has started working in “development marketing” – studying the role of marketing in economic development. “I am interested in studying how marketing practices can impact small businesses and entrepreneurial enterprises in emerging economies and how we can leverage marketing knowledge to improve health outcomes.”