Molly Burke

CEO | Co-Founder

Molly has led Cycle Connect from a start-up project to a fully operational enterprise. Under her leadership Cycle Connect has grown across two different cities in Northern Uganda, serving over 10,000 clients all of which is supported by a team of over 40 full-time staff. She led the organization to grow the portfolio of products, moving it from a lease-to-own bicycle distributor to that which serves multiple tools for farmers to pay back over time. Her passion is to push the boundaries of exploration and challenge what's possible to further unleash the potential of smallholder farmers in Uganda. This is why she led the establishment of Cycle Connect's innovations department to ensure that the organization continuously adapts.

Molly's work with Cycle Connect led to achievements such as being a 2019 Social Entrepreneur member of the Miller Center's GSBI program, a 2015 SHONA fellow, a Mulago Rainer Arnhold fellow, and a National Geographic Traveler of the year.

Emmy Okkema

Managing Director

Emmy Okkema is the Managing Director at Cycle Connect and is responsible for driving the expansion and growth of the organization. She holds an M.A. in Social and Cultural Anthropology from VU University in Amsterdam. Emmy has lived in Uganda since 2013 with her husband and two boys. Before joining Cycle Connect, she worked for six years in leadership positions at companies focused on micro-entrepreneurship and start-up development. Her most recent position was General Manager at Expat Assist where she steered their strategic direction to accomplish the company’s operational goals and implemented lean operating procedures and structures to lead the company to profitability.

Kintu Aggrey Fred

Regional Manager

Fred is responsible for our team and portfolio management. He has nine years of experience in banking and microfinance. Before joining Cycle Connect, Fred worked at Opportunity Bank as branch manager from Jan 2013 to Sept 2017 with a demonstrated track record of successful business planning, leadership, agricultural business and risk analysis. He holds a B.A. from Makerere University in Community Psychology and a PGD in Agricultural Risk Finance and Management from Mountain of the Moon University. He is certified in credit management from The Uganda Institute of Banking and Financial Services.

Anika Mohideen

Development Manager

Prior to joining Cycle Connect, Anika has worked at multiple different NGOs and social enterprises in East and West Africa. She has held roles in fundraising, marketing, and program management. Whilst Anika was working at a social enterprise that specialized in water filters she increased grant funding by 50% and facilitated the installation of over 1,350 filters across eighteen schools and three refugee camps. Anika also led the marketing and sales department for a social enterprise providing solar energy services in African markets, where she launched the company’s own original brand of solar products and maintained partnerships with government ministries, NGOs, customers, and business partners. Anika most recently returned to the UK to complete her MSc in Public Policy at University College London (UCL) and moved back to Uganda to join the Cycle Connect team. 

Hope Okoronkwo

Head of Operations

With 12 years’ overall experience, Hope’s technology background in the US coupled with his social enterprise expertise in Africa provides him with an impressive skillset to help address the operational and systems needs at Cycle Connect. After earning his Master’s in Sustainable International Development, Hope moved to Africa to work in social enterprise. He assisted a mobile payments startup in Zambia close a $3M Series A investment from US investors while growing its electronic platform’s loan transactions volume through the introduction of Service Level Agreements (SLAs). He also developed a soybean project targeting 7,000 rural women farmers in Ghana that generated support from USAID-FinGAP.

Daniel Mukuye

Finance Manager

Daniel leads our Finance Department. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science (Bsc) degree in Accounting from Makerere University, an Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Business from ACCA UK and is an ACCA UK Strategic Professional. Before joining Cycle Connect, Daniel worked as a Manager at Edes & Associates CPA for over 7 years. While at Edes, Daniel led several teams on a number of audit and advisory assignments for both profit and non-profit making organizations. He brings on board over 9 years of acquired knowledge from recent experiences in over 10 African countries that include; country, statutory and project audits, financial and fund/grants management advisory, management consultancy support in governance, risk and human resources areas, accounting support, and financial reviews.