Uganda Team
Who We Are / The New Forests Company
Tonderai Kachale - General Manager
Tonderai joined NFC in July 2009 as General Manager of Uganda. He was previously employed by Border Timbers, Zimbabwe’s biggest private sector timber company, where he has worked for fourteen years. For the last four years Tonderai had been the Border Timbers' head of forestry, managing all forestry, harvesting and protection operations for the company’s 47,000 hectare estate (of which 23,000 ha is planted to pine and eucalyptus). As Division Head Tonderai directly supervised five plantation managers and sat on the Border Timbers Operational Board. Tonderai has forestry qualifications from both the Zimbabwe College of Forestry and NMMU (Saasveld) in South Africa and has an MBA from the Zimbabwe Open University.
Carl Clur - Plantation Manager, Kirinya
Carl started his forestry career as a student with Sappi Forests in 1974. He received his diploma in 1978 and worked his way up to plantation manager over the next 10 years gaining valuable experience. After serving on numerous plantations he left Sappi to join an herbicide marketing company who sold chemicals into the forestry industry. Carl gained enormous knowledge on weed control over the following seven years, especially in dealing with contractors working for the large forestry companies.
Carl joined NFC Uganda in march 2007 and was responsible for the establishment of Kirinya Plantation. Now that Kirinya is fully planted, Carl was transferred in June 2009 to accelerate the establishment of Luwunga Plantation, north-west of Kampala.
John Filmer - Plantation Manager, Namwasa
John started out as a student for Masonite and after qualifying as a forester from Saasveld, worked for more than 10 years for North East Cape Forests. Here he progressed through the ranks from forester to estate manager and finally as their harvesting forester.
John joined NFC on June 1st 2008 and took over the reigns of Namwasa from Pieter du Plessis, who is now leading NFC Tanzania.
Grace Alande - Financial Controller
Grace holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University of Nairobi and is a Certified Public Accountant. She joins The New Forests Company from The Diamond Trust Properties Uganda Limited, where she hled the role of Financial Controller. Previously, she has held top financial positions at Intertek International, Kenya Office, Redlands Roses Ltd and GTZ/Agricultural Research Support Programme, among others. She has worked in Kenya, Uganda and also on a short-term assignments in Sierra Leone. She brings with her, from many diverse industries, her financial management experience as well as a thorough understanding of systems development and control.
Meredith Bates - Corporate Responsibility Manager
Meredith began her career teaching primary school where she started an after school programme in the townships outside Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She came to understand the importance and challenges of quality and accessible education. Meredith is extremely passionate about social enterprise and the possibilities of using effective business models to achieve environmental, social and economic development objectives. Next she came to Uganda to work with a Ugandan public relations firm on environmental and investment promotion projects. Before coming to The New Forests Company, she was the General Manager of SocketWorks Uganda (the Ugandan subsidiary of the West African company SocketWorks Global), which develops and implements Information Management Systems for universities and public institutions across Africa. She is on the board of Amani Africa and Enjuba, both social enterprise organizations in East Africa. Meredith got her Bachelors of Science in International and Community Development from Vanderbilt University in the United States.