Livestock Trade Services (Mauritius). Limited

Our Management Team has over 300-years combined experience in the region. 

Board of Directors LTS Mauritius 

Mobolaji Adeoye
Dr. Chip Stem
Paul van Jaarsveld
Yacob Aklilu
Beverley Bathija

Auditing Services provided by Peter & Co

Dr. Chip Stem, LTS Group CEO & Executive Director

Dr. Stem is an American veterinary economist and graduate of the University of Nairobi, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy with more than 30 years’ large-scale project design, senior management, strategic planning, and implementation experience in Africa, the Middle East, S. Asia, W. Asia, and N. America. His project management portfolio exceeds $150 million.

He is at the leading edge of efforts to resolve the recent failure of established safeguards to halt the spread of livestock diseases threatening economic crisis and raising the risk of global disease pandemics. He led the development of a thermostable rinderpest vaccine, which when combined with an innovative community-based delivery system that he developed made key contributions to the control and eventual eradication of the disease—only the second disease to be eradicated globally by man. He actively serves regional governments in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Mobolaji Adeoye, Managing Partner Consonance & Board Member

Born and raised in Nigeria, Mobolaji Adeoye relocated to the United States (US) at 16, where he studied at business school and started his investment career. Having graduated from the University of Maryland, Adeoye moved to San Francisco in 2000 to work for hedge fund Farallon Capital. From there, he pursued an MBA at Columbia Business School, and then moved to Barclays Capital.  He moved back to Nigeria where he set up the office and team at Kuramo, and made investments worth US$100 million across Sub-Saharan Africa.  In 2017 he went solo and launched Consonance which was seeded by Kuramo. 

Paul van Jaarsveld, LTS Quarantines – COO

With 22+ years of professional and practical experience in livestock, crop, forage, feed, meat production, trading, animal nutrition and breeding in international countries, Paul is skilled in directing the focus on core business issues whilst adding pro-active support to drive transformation and improvements, with the ability to manage budgets and finance of projects. 

As Director of Operations for Food Security Projects at a leading UAE Business, he is tasked with the immediate and 5 to 10 years’ vision, strategy and milestones managing multi-million-dollar projects with no/minimal supervision. He brings 7+ years of specific experience in meat regulations, imports, marketing and storage in the UAE and the Middle East. 

Hugh Simpson, Agriculture Director

Hugh Simpson is a Farm Management, Fodder, Irrigation and Marketing expert with 35+ years’ experience in the African and Middle East agricultural regions who has specialized in livestock feed production including Alfalfa, Lucerne, Rhodes Grass, Wheat and Maize. He was Advisor and/or Farm Manager of several large farms up to 15,000 acres in size including Al Dahra Agriculture, Al Ain Holdings UAE (50 x 50 ha Pivot Irrigation Systems), in charge of all daily activities, operations and marketing; a Dutch agricultural program in Kenya, Arab Authority – ACCP Atbara Project; the DAL Group, Sudan on a new large-scale agricultural project and Marula Estates, Kenya and has owned and managed his own fodder production farm for 10 years. His expertise extends to wind farm projects throughout Kenya. He is fluent in English and Swahili and has working knowledge of Arabic and French. 

Julius Mwambanga, Senior Environmentalist

A seasoned environmental and social safeguards expert with a bias in climate change adaptation and rural livelihoods, with extensive experience in implementing climate change adaptation projects, wildlife conservation, data collection and analysis and participatory rural development. He is adept at designing ecological management and monitoring plans with tangible experience in developing of research methodologies and project management.

Beverley Bathija, Business Development & Partnerships

A highly experienced British Asian communications specialist and writer with 35 years’ global experience in the advertising, communications, marketing, and international development sectors.  Her geographical focus has been the UK, and Middle East, Ethiopia, Guyana and S. Asia.

Yugoh Grace, Social Worker

Grace has a Social Work Degree from St Paul’s University and has experience working with individuals, communities, and families addressing social and emotional issues with a focus on serving marginalized communities. 

As LTS’ Community Engagement Officer she works under the guidance of Social Impact and Research Director, Ms Rutere Kagendo, with communities in Tana River County, Dalu Sublocation. Her role is to raise awareness about LTS and its businesses, research study, conflict resolution, capacity building and engaging the communities in adopting Regenerative Agriculture by assisting them in the formation of producer groups. She currently works with five communities: Pokomo, Giriama, Orma, Wailuwana and Wardei to support and empower them to overcome challenges and improve livelihoods.

Yacob Aklilu, Livestock Economist

Yacob Aklilu is an Ethiopian, a seasoned livestock trade economist and strategist with vast experience in the livestock sector throughout the greater Horn of Africa including Sudan.   As a faculty member of Tufts University Feinstein International Famine Center for more than 15 years, Yacob has led a wide range of donor funded projects and studies in the region and has demonstrated expertise in obtaining donor support and has worked with Dr. Stem on many of his projects and activities. 

Charles Murunga, Chief Accountant 

A Bachelor of Commerce graduate with a Certified Public Accounting qualification and 20 plus years of experience in the financial accounting field. He is currently serving the LTS group as Senior Accountant and Finance and Administration Lead for Solar Floppy Irrigation, Ltd.   In his different capacities over the years, he has developed various financial and managerial capabilities that make him a valuable broadbased accounting resource.  

Under the employ of audit firms like E&Y, PWC and Deloitte, Charles acquired various analytical competencies and the application of professional skepticism in reviewing financial information. These attributes enabled him became a competent team leader and helped him develop colleagues and guide them to achieve assignment objectives.  Thereafter, as an independent financial consultant for small and medium enterprises, he cultivated strategic business qualities that continue to enable him to support the management in making sound decisions to improve profit margins, mitigate losses from inefficiencies and tax exposure and improve their cash flows. 

Isaac Kakai, Accountant & Tax Advisor

A Bachelor of Commerce graduate with a Certified Public Accounting qualification and 13 years of experience in Accounting, Auditing, and tax consultancy. He is a Member of the Institute of Certified Accountants of Kenya and a Member of the Institute of Certified Internal Auditors (Global).

Advisory

Rutere Kagendo, Social Impact and Research Director

Rutere is a sociologist, with over 20 years of experience working on livelihoods across livestock and crop value chains in pastoral agricultural and urban communities in over 15 African countries, including communities living in humanitarian emergencies. Rutere has been working with agricultural and pastoral communities in a wide range of subsistence, cash-crop horticulture, and livestock value chains. Her focus has been on capacity building for both entrepreneurs and community members to generate both social and economic benefits from their livelihoods. Rutere is also a Monitoring and Evaluation specialist who has been supporting the foundations I/NGOs and businesses to set up M/E and knowledge management systems reflecting on the socio-economic impact of the communities that they serve.

Kariuki Njenga, Laboratory and R&D Advisor

Kariuki Njenga is a former Kenyan American Professor of Veterinary Medicine at University of Minnesota, St Paul, USA who has specialized in diagnostics, infectious disease control, disease prediction and climate change, and diseases of economic significance to livestock and meat trade. He served as Director of Laboratory at the Kenya Medical Research Institute for 8 years and has led research on prevention and control of zoonotic livestock diseases with severe public health and economic impact to the public. He is an internationally recognized scientists with over 135 scientific papers on infectious diseases of humans and animals published in high-impact journals.

Dr. Ghazi Yehia, Middle East Business Development, OIE Liaison, and ME Region Government Veterinary Liaison

Dr. Ghazi Yehia is a world-renown veterinarian globally who has been the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) representative for the 27 country Middle East Region for more than 15 years. He has been instrumental in facilitating the acceptance and approval of the livestock export quarantine concept by the GCC and ME countries. Additionally, he worked half-time with Dr Stem as they developed the first modern livestock export quarantine from Djibouti. Dr. Yehia will serve as our GCC and Middle East importing government liaison officer, our OIE Liaison Officer, and our Middle East Business Development Specialist.

Technical Advisor Roles — OIE ME and East African Offices

 The World Animal Health Organization (OIE) sets the standards and works to help ensure disease free trade.  Through the ME Regional and Eastern Africa Sub Regional offices we work with OIE staff to help us design and plan our operations to ensure freedom from disease in livestock and meat export trade.  Dr. Walter Masiga former head of  the Eastern Africa Sub Regional Office and through the OIE has provided and will continue to provide support, technical assistance and advice.