Our Team
Niels Sievertsen, PhD - Director & Commercial
Niels has extensive experience in East African tourism as a co-founder of a local travel and tour operator and as a development aid worker in Uganda, particularly in the Virunga and Bwindi areas around Kisoro district.
With a technical education and a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from ETH Zurich, including a research stay at Harvard, Niels is now a senior strategy consultant in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. He advises pharmaceutical companies on R&D, pipeline, and access issues across various therapeutic areas.
Nearly blind without vision aids, Niels understands the importance of early and correct ophthalmological interventions, including prescription glasses, for individuals and communities.
Believing that we are urged to live life to the best of our abilities, Niels, a 3x Ironman and ultra marathon runner, aims to transform lives through competition, dedication, and community awareness. He has created the Bwindi 85k Ultra, Uganda’s longest long-distance race, to further this mission.
Craig William - On-site Support & Activation
William and Niels first met in 2010 in Rubuguri, Uganda, and worked together on community-based tourism projects for years. Across engagements, they founded a hardware rental, credit and loan system, and a library and Internet cafe in the village.
As a next step in providing support to accelerating local community development, William and Niels joined forces and created Grassroots Glasses. Built on the constant need for driving attention to issues influencing community development and identifying solutions approaches, William supports the effort through local engagement and vision testing in rural Uganda.