Tombo is an engineer passionate about sustainable development, with a focus on closing the energy access gap for over 500 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is based in Nairobi where she leads CrossBoundary’s Mini-Grid Innovation Lab. The Innovation Lab is supporting the energy sector transition to the ‘power grid of the future’ – a decentralised network balancing millions of nodes of generation, storage and consumption across utilities, public-private partnerships, and consumers. Her work entails trialing new business ideas that drive commercial viability and ultimately public and private investment into mini-grids. Mini-grids are a least-cost technology for delivering renewable energy to many communities, an essential enabler for transformative rural economic development.

Tombo holds a MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge and a MEng in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London. She is a chartered engineer registered with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers UK.