Andrew grew up in coffee growing countries including Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Burundi.

Andrew is an engineer and industrial designer and developed the concept for IKAWA while studying Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art in London. He’s dedicated years of toil to making IKAWA a reality.

As the team has grown, his “Kaizen” approach to design and manufacturing has helped not only to build hundreds of coffee roasters, but to harness, build and refine the skills of the workshop team.

Ben joined as Managing Director in 2015 and has overseen a period of strong growth since then, seeing IKAWA move to our current workshop, and the team growing from 4.

In return, IKAWA has helped Ben to become more cultured in coffee and he now possesses a decent grinder, espresso machine and aeropress. And a Home Coffee Roaster.

He has previously worked in senior management in the travel industry and founded start-ups in architecture, sports travel and tech, and has a fantastic ability to get excited about the big picture and managing the delivery.

Alex joined IKAWA to manage a short project – IKAWA’s Kickstarter Campaign for the IKAWA At Home system – but quickly realised the project really starts when the campaign finishes. He has enjoyed the ride of delivering our Home Coffee Roaster, as well as marketing the Sample Roaster and drinking some fantastic coffees along the way.

Before joining IKAWA, Alex worked for UK coffee brand Cafédirect and founded Espresso Mushroom Company, which he runs in his ‘spare time’. He was a finalist for IGD Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2014.

Bradley joined IKAWA in 2015 to head up our Sales and Business Development team and has the perfect niche combining his love of coffee with application of start-up business theory, particularly anything Seth Godin.

He is a qualified UKBC judge and in charge of keeping the team in good coffee. His choice of brewing equipment in the office reflects the growth we’ve achieved – moving from a 3-cup to 6-cup Chemex, through a Technovorm Moccamaster, and we now have two Wilfa Svart a Linea Mini and selection of V60 and Kalita filters. He’s doing a good job!

Daniel joins IKAWA with an impressive background in Operations, including time in senior management with McLaren Racing as well as Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains.

After growing up in Hamburg, he relocated to London in 1994 where he studied at Brunel University, and continues to live with his young family.

You might find him outside IKAWA on his cruiser board commuting to work or discovering the city’s pinball halls on the weekend!

Helen is a guiding force on the IKAWA team, and also has one of the most interesting backgrounds. Her Law experience is comprehensive in Switzerland, where she lived for 12 years, spent a month in Jersey and finally ended up in Liverpool where she is based today. Her experience has helped steer IKAWA throughout the past few years, and she still finds time to play tennis, football, run, govern the local secondary school, and raise 4 children. You can ask her about doing loops in small airplanes or meeting Robbie Williams!

Jess has a Degree in Culinary Arts Management and has worked around the world in Media and Hospitality, including co-founding The Clocktower Café in London before joining IKAWA.

She's progressed from Office Manager to Operations Manager, and now does her best to make things run like clockwork!

Maria brings years of experience working as an Accountant for companies in the private, public, and NGO sector. She was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and moved to London in 2015. Maria loves traveling but loves coffee even more.

The love for coffee started from a young age with Maria as she was drinking coffee from 2 and a half years old because she didn’t like milk!

Ornella was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and moved to London in early 2018. She studied and became an Accountant in Argentina and after moving to London, joined our Finance Team alongside Maria.

An avid traveller, Ornella is now soaking in the culture in Camden and slowly but surely coming around to our office coffee. She still favours her Grandmothers, who mixes and grinds two special types together, her secret recipe!

Linnea was born and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden and moved to London in Autumn 2018 to complete her studies. Prior to joining IKAWA, Linnea achieved a further qualification in international business management, which she’s already putting to use in her role as finance assistant. A keen sportswoman, Linnea has already established herself as a fine footballer, achieving the status of MVP at the annual Roaster’s 5-a-side tournament in London. She has never been a coffee drinker, but is beginning to enjoy the ritual of brewing.

Like many of the most useful things in the IKAWA office, Fredy has come from Amazon.

Jokes aside, his experience working for Amazon and as an Operations Manager is a massive asset to our growing workshop team in its prime and will help us to build our manufacturing and operations capabilities, systems and processes.

While Fredy is new to the roasting side of coffee, he comes from a coffee region of Colombia and is already in training to win the next company Latte Art competition.

Matyas is a multilingual world traveller having lived and worked on 3 different continents.

He has spent time in Washington, DC, Brazil, and Europe. He’s a portrait artist, sports fan and now a coffee lover. His family owns and operates a successful cafe restaurant back home in Hungary where Matyas first learned to make and serve coffee. Recently, Matyas has been keen to learn even more and has begun to tumble down the coffee rabbit hole. Currently his favourite coffee is from Kenya!

Ask Sophie about her hot sauce and/or fridge magnet collection, both of which are impressive.

Sophie has a degree in marketing and experience in restaurant management. She’s run the Midnight Sun Marathon in Norway, enjoys making latch hook rugs. To know what's on, what's cool, and where it's worth visit - ask Sophie.

Csenge joins the IKAWA team with impressive experience as a Management Consultant Intern at PwC in Hungary. She studied for her BA at University, while simultaneously studying Sociology at the Széchenyi István College for Advanced Studies.

A newcomer to London, she’s hit the ground running, and is looking for a place to dance: she’s a former DanceStar World Champion!

Complex, with notes of umami and a zippy acidity; Miles joined IKAWA to open our US office in Los Angeles, and help the business create a foothold across the pond.

She brings a wealth of speciality coffee knowledge (note how we’re maintaining the second i in speciality), most recently working as Director of Education at Royal Coffee New York, and previously Production and Roasting Manager at Allegro, and Roaster at Blue Bottle.

We’re delighted she’s part of the team, and it’s a pure bonus that we’ll have to spend time in LA – we’ll also be making the most of sharing roast profiles and doing calibrated cross-Atlantic cuppings!

Julian has over 10 years of purchasing experience, 9 years in manufacturing and a business studies degree. It’s fair to say that such experience is needed in the complex role that is purchasing.  Outside the office Julian loves to keep fit by running, cycling and boxing. He’s also a proud father of two and insists he’s still able to find time to read autobiographies, redecorate his home and enjoys puzzle games!

Before joining IKAWA, Danielle made coffee for the Queen (yes really - ask her about it!). Her time in the Royal Household was precluded with a life that would naturally lead her end up working with coffee.

Danielle has an Italian heritage and was born in Brazil. To add to her coffee-centric background, her husband Fabio is was a relatively early IKAWA Sample Roaster customer using it for Notes where he is a co-owner. In her spare time, Danielle is a lover of great food and a chocolate maker.

Ansel has experience working in kitchens, high fashion, and highly collectible coffees. He joins IKAWA as a former customer - he was using the IKAWA Sample Roaster everyday as a coffee trader in London.

Before his career in coffee, Ansel studied Fine Arts and Architecture in Italy, cooked in an Italian restaurant, sold high-end fashion and art, and finally trading the higher priced coffees at a coffee importer in London.

In his time outside work he’s still cooking, exploring Dalston, and exploring natural wines.

A self-described Georgia peach, Rachel joins IKAWA’s LA office after working in specialty sales at Balzac Brothers in Charleston, SC. She studied photo journalism at the University of Georgia, which brought her to the University of Oxford here in the UK.

Post-graduation, Rachel lived in Costa Rica and Guatemala, where she took photos and wrote blog posts for UGA and a volcano hiking company.

She’s a culinary explorer, exclusively wears the colour burnt orange, and a lover of yin yoga.

Kimiyo joins IKAWA’s LA office with over a decade of experience in specialty coffee, including 2 years at Café Imports in Minnesota and time at Kéan Coffee and Peets in Orange County.

She’s a native of Southern California and lives for the sunshine, surf, and snowboarding (and puts sriracha on everything).

Ask her where to find the best Buffalo Wings (she finds the best places everywhere she travels to) and vintage furniture spots!

Daniel was born in Miami and moved to London 3 years ago to complete a Masters degree in Marketing at Queen Mary University of London.

He’s fluent in English, Spanish (helped by his Colombian background), and Portuguese, and is practicing his Italian. His Italian improves the more he cooks - he’s often perfecting his pasta or pizza at home while enjoying Italian wine.

As we teach him more about coffee (his favourite right now was a Kenyan v60 brew), he transfers some of his previous pro football experience to our growing IKAWA Thursday night matches!

Veronika joins IKAWA after 4 years of working at Workshop Coffee, an early IKAWA customer and local roaster to us. Her experience there began as a barista, and when she finished she was head of the Wholesale Team. She’s a self-proclaimed coffee geek who loves filter coffee, natural wines (Alsatian Riesling, Grüner Veltliner or Georgian Orange are her top choices), and Scandinavian and Dutch interior design. Veronika was born in the small town of Chomutov in Czechia, grew up in Prague, and moved to London 6 years ago. Ask her about her studies into a genetic link to forming culture, art and tribes!

After having worked in Costa Rica, Spain, and France, Sarah joined IKAWA in our Customer Service role and then moved into an Operations role.

She was born and raised in Kenya and moved to the UK for school. She’s brings a mean latte to the IKAWA cafe and is always up for sushi!

Brad is always first on the pourover station in the morning at IKAWA, and will generously encourage you to try whatever brew he's exploring that day.

You might see Brad around London on his skateboard, trying not to spill his coffee, or you may have seen him managing the coffee program at Bonds in Hackney, a coffee/concept store that's taking off.

All in all, Brad has a passion for food and drink (flavours!) which started when he would make trips into London from his hometown just outside Cambridge. He's never too far from his family dog, unless he's off exploring - he is, like a lot of our team, an avid and active traveler!

Geoff first encountered IKAWA before most of us, meeting Rombout at SCAA about five years ago, and became an IKAWA customer this year in his previous role as Director of Coffee for DETOUR, one of Canada's top speciality roasters. “Coffee is a bit of a rabbit hole” Geoff told us when discussing quality coffee. It’s one he’s dived in deep, which is great because Geoff is in charge of educating our customers on the finer points of coffee.

Beyond coffee, you’ll find Geoff playing squash, exploring his new home city London, searching out the best ramen, and appreciating our relatively milder climate!"

Tony grew up in the highlands and coffee producing region of Panama. Tony has a family background of over 100 years in coffee production–it’s in his DNA.

Growing up in coffee, and working for both roasteries and coffee importers, has meant that sample roasting has been a big part of Tony’s professional career. In-house, he might have the highest roast count on the IKAWA!

Before joining IKAWA Tony completed his Masters from the London School of Economics in Public Policy and International Migration. Tony is an avid traveller, multi-linguist (9 languages!), and despite being from Panama, he says he loves working in London and the weather isn’t as bad as people say!

Rosie joins the IKAWA team from the roastery world, and the third on the “user-to-employee” journey. As an Operations Manager at Suffolk Roastery she was often at a cupping table full of IKAWA roasts. Her experience there, in addition to her natural affinity for marketing and her love of photography make her a welcome addition to the marketing team. Catch her playing high-level sports, chasing light, and demonstrating her mastery of the Aeropress outside the office.

We have welcomed George back into a full time position after his 3 month internship with IKAWA in 2016. While studying engineering, George was part of the team that created the bike that holds the current human powered British land speed record!

When not working with production and R&D at IKAWA, George is a bit of a chef, making fresh and local meals at home. He even takes the time to forage and grow his own food!

Harriet says she’s probably a little too keen on Bill Murray so she obviously fits in well here. Her time in fashion and branding gave her some interesting opportunities but felt drawn to hospitality which eventually led her to coffee.

She's a bit of a green thumb and grows her own veg when she’s not dancing to Talking Heads and sampling London’s best Negroni’s.

Tamir was born Slovenia and moved to the UK to study for a BA in business administration. Part of his course included an internship with Rolls-Royce where he helped deliver their latest luxury vehicle! Tamir found his love for coffee whilst working with trendsetting clients that operate within the coffee industry eventually leading him to his role of Home Marketing Manager at IKAWA. To wind down and relax he enjoys watersports, photography, and by his own admission, visiting the ‘trendiest coffee spots in London’.

Gabor comes from Hungary, where he studied in Budapest. Before joining IKAWA he was a barista at Alchemy Coffee and, like many aspiring baristas, is now in the roaster side of the industry!

In the workshop, he tends to be in charge of the music, with eclectic tastes that keep the team happy.

Lydia joined IKAWA as a Production Technician, coming from the world of prop production and finance. Lydia enjoys working with her hands and creating. She also loves coffee and so IKAWA has been a natural choice where she is part of the incredible team that builds each roaster in London, UK.

When not working you may find her at a music gig or walking around town taking photographs with a camera in one hand and a coffee in the other.

Born in New York and raised in London, Peter has always had a passion for food and drink. Before joining IKAWA Peter worked with PACT coffee and instantly fell in love with the coffee industry, forming a passion for V60 brewing. His eye for precision and detail serves him well on the line hand assembling roasters each day in his role of production assistant. Outside the workshop, Peter can be found track and road cycling. However since the introduction of Cally (his poodle puppy) Peter spends a lot more time on foot. Cally ought to have a profile of her own, but can regularly be found asleep upside-down in the workshop — or cuddling Ornella in finance!

Timo brings an impressive technical background with him to IKAWA. He studied Mechanical Engineering at London South Bank University and worked as a Production Technician making submarines!

Timo was born and raised in Jinja, Uganda (“the most beautiful part of Africa”) and brought with him a love for sports. Since he moved to the UK, he’s been part of the National Baseball League playing for the London Pirates!