Leadership

Lorimer Gray

Chairman

Lorimer joined Malawi Fruits as Chairman at the beginning of 2015. Previously Lorimer was Executive Director of the Abernethy Trust and Chairman of More than Gold 2014. Lorimer brings a wealth of experience in leadership, strategic planning and developing non-profit organisations.

Kevin Simpson

Executive Director

Kevin co-founded Malawi Fruits in 2011 after visiting Malawi and seeing the need and possible solutions to address these needs. Kevin has more than 20 years experience working with non-profits including Crusaders, Glasgow Simon Community and Mission Aviation Fellowship. Kevin is also an entrepreneur and has run several successful companies.

Russell Crawford

Communications Director

Russell joined Malawi Fruits in 2012. Russell is a general manager and previously worked as a business development manager. At Malawi Fruits Russell takes the lead in organising our social media and presenting at talks to educate and inform groups of the work of Malawi Fruits and how we are addressing the many needs in Malawi.

Jordan MacKellar

Jordan joined Malawi Fruits in 2013. Jordan is an entrepreneur and co-founder of an award winning electronics company. Jordans insights and entrepreneurial thinking are valuable assets when working with the fledgling business in Malawi.

Eric Wagner

Eric joined Malawi Fruits in 2011. Eric worked for 20 years as a research scientist before moving into industry and developing industrial process and quality control systems. Recently he has founded a contract manufacturing organisation. Eric brings an understanding of process control and quality control to the crop processing facilities we are developing.

Hilary Storm

Hilary joined Malawi Fruits in May 2018. Hilary brings experience of seven years living and working in rural eastern Uganda, where conditions are similar to those of northern Malawi. Hilary has 27 years experience of working within the NHS where she initially trained as a nurse and family health visitor. She then gained a wide range of management skills including working with organisational change and as partnerships manager with Eastbourne Downs Primary Care Trust This aspect of her role involved serving with statutory and voluntary agencies including local implementation of Surestart. In Uganda, Hilary helped develop a nurse training school. In 2006, she co-founded a successful nursery and primary school which is giving an opportunity for the poorest to benefit from a good education in an area where none existed. In 2013, Hilary co-founded Friends of Hilary Storm School Uganda, a charity registered in Scotland, which is working to enable the school to become self-sufficient.

Dr Josephine Munthali

Dr Josephine Munthali is a woman educationalist from both the western and Africa traditions. Josephine played a significant role in setting up the Child Support Project in Scotland, which supports children in Malawi. She has raised the profile of Malawi in Scotland and abroad. Josephine has wide experience of research and coordinating various gender responsive programmes in over 10 countries in Africa. Notable and reputable international development organisations include the Forum for African Women Educationalists Regional Secretariat based in Nairobi, Kenya and the Scottish Catholic International Aid fund in Glasgow, Scotland. Josephine’s latest article on issues related to child labour and education was published in a book entitled “Global Ideologies Surrounding Children’s Rights and Social Justice” in May 2017. As a member of the Examining Gender in Higher Education Network at the Robert Owen Centre, at the University of Glasgow, Josephine mapped out key pressing current issues and knowledge gaps in relation to gender and Higher Education in multiple African contexts. As a Research Associate, at the School of Education at the University of Glasgow she led a scoping exercise to identify empirical and normative aspects of access to education internationally, in Chile, Malawi, Scotland and Swaziland.

Charles Howie

Agricultural Consultant

Charles joined Malawi Fruits as a consultant in 2015. Charles brings a wealth of experience in Rural Development, Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security from areas as varied as the Antarctic to Vietnam. Charles guides and advises our discussions on projects then asks critical questions to ensure we have considered everything.

Bill High

Director Malawi Fruits Holdings

Bill joined as a Director of Malawi Fruits Holdings. Until recently Bill was the Commercial Installations Manager for Scotland. He has a considerable breadth of experience in many branches of engineering. During his career, Bill has worked both with and for businesses of all sizes in both the private and public sector, and has a strong and successful background in sales and marketing. Bill has considerable experience and training in project management and health & safety.

Malcom Cunningham

Finance

Malcolm joined Malawi Fruits in December 2018 as Treasurer. Malcolm is a director of a property development business having previously trained as a chartered accountant and then worked in various finance roles and also in economic development and business advisory work. In his spare time Malcolm has been active in the promotion of Fair Trade starting a retail venture in Aberdeen in the 90’s and multi sports adventures to raise the profile of Fair Trade. He has a keen interest in east and southern African economic development which arose during his days as a Geography student and furthered through visits and work teams.