Team Bios

Team Bios 
 Short bios of NFE's co-founders, for event programmes, funding applications and partner introductions. Copy them as they are, or trim to fit. Headshots and full CVs are in Nextcloud under Fundraising › Project Spark - EU › Team CVs . 
 Owner: Aaron Tushabe · Last reviewed: 23 Oct 2026 
 Aaron Tushabe: Co-founder and [Managing Member / CEO] 
 Aaron co-founded Nearly Free Energy in 2024 to build community-owned microgrids in Uganda. He leads NFE's strategy, product and fundraising. He delivered NFE's 25 kWh pilot microgrid, designed a 1 MW microgrid for a multi-family residence of 360 people, and designed the business model that funds microgrid development. Before NFE, he spent over a decade building large-scale software platforms. He was Director of Product for Platform Engineering at DroneUp, and before that he spent eight years as a Senior/Lead Technical Product Manager at ThoughtWorks, where he co-founded its Tech PM community and grew it to over 500 members. Aaron holds a BSc in Computer Science from Makerere University. 
 Dansturn Kimbowa: Co-founder and Operations Lead 
 Eng. Dansturn Kimbowa is co-founder and Operations Lead at NFE, where he leads operations for community microgrids and distributed energy systems. He brings over 10 years of experience in power systems design, grid integration and renewable energy deployment. Before NFE, he was Lead Station Engineer for electric-mobility charging infrastructure at Zembo. He spent eight years at UMEME, Uganda's largest electricity distributor, rising from graduate trainee to Senior Design Engineer. There he designed substations, power lines and grid–solar hybrid systems, including the Busitema University solar plant. Dansturn holds an MSc in Power Systems Engineering and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Makerere University, and a PG Diploma in Project Planning & Management from Uganda Management Institute. 
 Hillary Arinda: Co-founder and [title] 
 Hillary Arinda is a co-founder of NFE and a full-stack software engineer and energy-technology entrepreneur. He specialises in scalable systems for energy distribution and smart-grid applications, and at NFE he works on [the gateway and platform software behind NFE's microgrids]. [Previous roles, education]