Meet Tim Kasperidus, Head of Education at The Pharo Foundation

Tim Kasperidus is the Director of Education at The Pharo Foundation. Tim has 10 years of experience working for social enterprises in Africa. He is a hands-on problem solver with vast experience in international expansion as well as scaling of operations. Prior to joining the Pharo Foundation, Tim worked as the COO of Jibu and led their operations in five Countries of East and West Africa. Tim is a passionate leader and team player, always on the lookout for improvements and efficiencies and he is highly committed to supporting and growing his team and peers.

- Who is Tim Kasperidus??

I grew up in a small town close to Cologne in Germany. I studied Engineering and Business Administration in the city of Aachen. As a student, I was always excited about sports and mostly did Savate (French Kickboxing) and running. I am also a music enthusiast and started collecting Vinyls during university times and still do so. I can only return to East Africa from Germany if I carry at least one or two new records for my collection. Now, I am a father of two children (boy and girl) who were both born in Kampala, Uganda. I am married and live with my family in Nairobi.

- How did you come to love development??

It became pretty clear to me during the early times of my studies that I did not want to find myself working in a “classic” engineering bureau somewhere in Germany. I have always been thinking about the inequalities in this world and felt that I wanted my work to contribute to addressing this global challenge.?

Throughout my professional career, I have always worked for social enterprises with products and business models designed to contribute to achieving SDGs.?

At Mobisol - a solar home system company – we significantly contributed to increasing rural electrification rates in Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya. I joined the company when we had less than 100 customers and left when we had electrified more than 100,000 homes with solar systems. This was a fascinating and equally intense journey. However, it made me realise that long work hours are much more enjoyable when the outcome is a tangible impact on people’s well-being.?

After that, I joined Jibu, where we equipped, trained and empowered local entrepreneurs to run safe-water enterprises. Through our Franchising model, we made safe drinking water accessible while offering meaningful entrepreneurship opportunities.?

Now, at The Pharo Foundation, I am honoured to contribute to development in the most fulfilling way – making quality education more accessible and educating Africa’s leaders of tomorrow. All these engagements were different in terms of the business model, product and approach and yet similar in their nature, which was to tackle big problems and improve various development indicators of the East African Region.?

- How long have you worked/been in the region??

When I first came to Tanzania for a work assignment, I intended to stay only for 6 months. I immediately got excited about the beauty of the country, the people and the nature of work. That was a decade ago; I?have since lived in Arusha & Mwanza in Tanzania, Kampala and finally, Nairobi.?

I gained all of my relevant professional experience in the East African Region, made plenty of friends, and personally find it hard to imagine ever moving back to Germany and living there.?

- What does your every day look like?

In my role, I oversee the Education Pillar of the foundation, which has two main facets: (1) Our Pharo Schools and (2) the Programme Work we are doing in our countries of focus.?

I am blessed to be working with a very competent and well-established team running the daily operations in the different regions and cities of Ethiopia, Somaliland, Rwanda and Kenya.?

As the Director of Education, my work life is a good mix of office and fieldwork at the schools.?

At the office, it is all about coordinating team efforts and ensuring our various activities are aligned, within budget and contribute to the common strategy of the foundation.

The work at the school is much more hands-on. I work with teachers and school leaders to understand their successes and challenges and I also have the pleasure of interacting with the students. The aim is better to understand the daily operations of our Pharo Schools and extract the ingredients for success to scale our model and impact further.?

- What would you like to achieve in this role??

My most crucial success factor is a happy, productive, collaborative, well-aligned team. Once this is achieved, success will inevitably follow.?

Our Mission is to make the highest-quality education accessible and raise future leaders. We want our graduates to be readily employable and well-equipped to excel at top universities across the globe. This is how the Education Pillar contributes to the Foundation’s Mission of unlocking Africa’s potential. We can achieve this at Pharo Schools and through other initiatives like scholarship and career counselling programmes.

On top of this, we do programme work to address structural challenges in the education space and positively contribute to school completion rates and the learning environment, especially in rural areas. I want all our programmes to have a sustainable and long-lasting impact beyond monetary investment. We want to change the mindsets and attitudes towards education and convey a sense of ownership for the student’s well-being and academic performance.?

- How will the Pharo Foundation allow you to accomplish this?

The Pharo Foundation offers a very conducive work environment for all employees. Also, we have an excellent team of seasoned industry experts as much as young and dynamic talent. The work culture and our diverse and competent team contribute to my motivation and, hopefully, success. Furthermore, the Pharo Foundation offers professional development opportunities for each employee to address any training gaps.?