About Us
Our Story
Seeing the high cost of purchasing and refilling a cylinder of LPG and the prohibitive burden such costs place on poorer families, Circle Gas has found an innovative solution.
In 2018 a group of investors with extensive experience in energy, infrastructure and African investments formed what became Circle Gas to find a way to bring clean cooking to low-income households at a scale never achieved before. They went out and identified technology that would be key to achieving this vision. Circle Gas is now bringing its latest technological innovation, a NBIoT-compatible smart meter to Kenya and expanding the provision of LPG to the mass market in Tanzania and Kenya.
Our Team Philosophy
Serving the customer is at the heart of everything we do. Delivering excellence for our customers and shareholders will deliver a strong, sustainable business and make a meaningful improvement to the lives of millions.
Our Leadership
We believe in diversity and collaboration
Carey Ngini
Board Chairman
Carey is an entrepreneur who has built businesses in sectors ranging from oil and gas field services to archiving and records management. He serves on the boards of various companies in the banking, education, engineering and real estate sectors. He is chairman of the Kenyan chapter of the non-profit organisation Farm Africa
Michael Joseph
Board Member
Michael was appointed Chairman of Kenya Airways plc in October 2016. Michael is the founder and former CEO of Safaricom plc. He built Safaricom into the leading mobile phone company in Kenya and he was behind the highly successful launch and growth of M-Pesa and its related service. Michael is also a keen conservationist and serves as Chairman of Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, a leading conservancy in Northern Kenya.
Susan Githuku
Board Member
Susan is a human resources specialist, publisher and entrepreneur. She has founded both an organisational development & HR consulting company and a publishing house. She was previously Coca-Cola’s Eurasia Africa Director for Learning & Development based in Istanbul and prior to that, the Director for Human Capital for Coca-Cola Africa based in the UK and later Johannesburg. Susan sits on the Boards of Centum and M-Kopa Solar. She has also served on the Boards of UAP Insurance, East African Breweries and Kenya Women’s Financial Trust (KWFT) amongst others.
Peter Ndegwa
Board Member
Peter is CEO of Safaricom, Kenya’s leading telecom. Before that he was responsible for overseeing Diageo operations in Continental Europe and Russia. He has served as CEO of Guinness Nigeria PLC and Guinness Ghana Breweries PLC. He was CFO and Group Strategy Director at East Africa Breweries Ltd, winning the Most Respected Business Award East Africa. He holds an MBA from London Business School, is a CPA and started his career with PWC.
Elena Lobodina
Circle Gas Chief Executive Officer, Board Member
Elena has more than 20 years of experience leading large global trading companies. For the last five years, Elena has been CEO of NLMK Trading SA in Switzerland, where she was responsible for annual sales of 10 million tons of steel, revenue of 6 billion USD, and development of a global trading organization. Elena was CEO of Trafigura Eurasia, prior to NLMK Trading SA, where she managed a trading business with revenue of 1.5 billion USD. Before joining Trafigura Eurasia, Elena worked for eight years with BP and TNK-BP. Elena holds a MSc in Mathematics and a MBA.
John Bish
Circle Gas Chief Financial Officer, Board Member
John has 30+ years of experience as a Chief Financial Officer in a range of industries including manufacturing, logistics, B2B & B2C SaaS. John has worked and led financial teams within both digital start-ups with footprints in Africa as well as with large corporates such as Wincanton PLC and DHL. He has led cross border M&A and funding schemes from multi-billion-dollar enterprises to small scale multi-million-dollar start-ups.
Morten Viktor
Circle Gas Chief Technology Officer, Board Member
Morten has more than 20 years of leadership experience within the digital, product and service strategy, design and development, e-commerce and technology environment. Morten has led and built global tech teams to develop and deliver new digital platforms and businesses for companies such as Berlingske Media as their Group CIO & COO of e-commerce. As SVP of Digital & E-Commerce for Coop Denmark, Morten created the technological foundation and digital ecosystem across +1,000 brick-and-mortar stores in a complex landscape.
Dr. Sebastian Rodriguez
Circle Gas Head of Research and Development, Board Member
Sebastian is responsible for Kopa-Tech in China and is responsible for technology development and smart meter production. He is co-founder of KopaGas in Tanzania and is an award-winning expert in energy and advanced metering infrastructure. He is a former World Bank consultant and research scientist at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He was also Chief Technology Officer for the first biodiesel plant in West Africa. He holds a PhD in Engineering from Imperial College London and an MSc in Engineering Design from the University of Manchester.
Martin Kimani
Circle Gas Head of Kenya
Martin leads Circle Gas operations in Kenya. He was formerly the General Manager of Rubis Energy Kenya, one of the three largest oil marketing companies in Kenya and has spent over 15 years in the oil and gas sector in various leadership roles including General Manager, Strategy at Kenya Pipeline Company. He has also held roles in downstream and midstream oil and gas operations, marketing, oil trading, supply chain management and commercial and retail sales. He holds an MBA from Nairobi University, and various public accounting certifications.
Our Values
Our values drive our behaviour
Transforming Lives
We want to transform the lives of millions of households, by providing them with affordable clean cooking. We want to contribute to achieving a number of sustainable development goals.
Customer Obsessive
We are a customer obsessive organisation and tirelessly work to improve our customer experience (safety, reliability, affordability, ease of use, responsiveness, operational excellence).
Innovation in Technology & Business
We will use innovation in technology and in our business model to drive further improvements in all aspects of the customer experience to accelerate our growth.
Trusted Partner
We will engage as a trusted partner in our communities, keeping our promises and striving to be sensitive to local issues. We will be inclusive and welcoming.
Absolute Integrity
We will act with absolute integrity. We will be honest and transparent, and always remain compliant with our anti-bribery and corruption policies and all related legislation.
Employer of Choice
We’re striving to be an employer of choice, by providing a diverse and inclusive working environment, and a fair, friendly and stimulating culture.
Safety and Security
We will never compromise on the safety and security of the public, our customers and our employees. Awareness of safety best practices is a way of life for us and flows through into everything we do.
Delivering Returns
Delivering returns to our funders is a pre-requisite to our success. We are conscious that we will only succeed if we get substantial support for our growth aspirations from our current and future shareholders and lenders.