A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Bob Arnot
Programme Manager
Justice for All Nigeria
For over 25 years Dr Bob Arnot taught economics and political economy in the university sector in the UK. He was the Head of Department of Economics at Glasgow Caledonian University and is currently a Visiting Professor at the Caledonian Business School. For two years he worked in the former Soviet Union on a UK government financed economic development project and whilst in Russia was appointed as Visiting Professor at two Russian university institutions.
Jo Beall
Director of Education and Society
British Council
Dr Jo Beall is the Director of Education and Society at the British Council. As an academic Jo published or co-published numerous books and articles in the areas of gender and social policy, social development, local governance, cities and conflict and state fragility. Her work in the field of international development spans twenty years and has taken her to Africa, Asia and Latin America, with significant periods of time in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and South Africa.
Kamal Bhattacharya
Dr. Kamal Bhattacharya is and IBM Distinguished Engineer and the inaugural Director of the IBM Research - Africa lab, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. The recently founded, 12th IBM Research lab's mission is to address key challenges of the African continent through commercially viable innovation that impact people's lives. Prior to moving to Africa, he has held various technical and management leadership positions at IBM Research in the US and India. Dr. Bhattacharya's technical expertise covers a wide range of topics in the area of Services research including business process management, cloud computing and enterprise social computing.
Dr. Bhattacharya has been the recipient of multiple IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement awards and best paper awards at international computer science conferences for his contributions to Services research. He is an elected member of the IBM Academy of Technology. He started his career at IBM after graduating with a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Göttingen University, Germany.
Mamadou Biteye
Managing Director
The Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office
Mamadou Biteye is the Managing Director of The Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office.
In this role, Mr. Biteye oversees the Foundation's work across Africa, which includes initiatives such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, Digital Jobs Africa and Transforming Health Systems.
He joined the Foundation from Oxfam Great Britain's West Africa Regional Center, where he was the Regional Director, responsible for strategic program leadership and overall management of the West Africa region, including eight country offices.
Mr. Biteye has over twenty years' experience in strategic leadership, human resources management, financial management, program development and implementation, public policy analysis, advocacy and campaigning and community participatory development.
He holds a Master's degree in Agricultural Economics with specialization in Microfinance/Microcredit and Management of Financial Institutions from Ohio State University in USA. He has also earned a Master's degree and Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the Crimean Agricultural Institute in the Ukraine.
He has had extensive field experience in Senegal, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Chad and Zimbabwe. A native of Senegal in West Africa, and is multilingual, speaking English, French, Russian, Portuguese and Wolof.
Volkan Cakir
Director
Africa Regional Office
RTI International
As director of RTI International's Africa regional office, Volkan Cakir supports RTI business development and client relations and oversees all regional support teams for our program activities in Africa. He has worked in more than 10 African countries during the past 15 years to create policy change that achieves better development outcomes on the ground. Mr. Cakir is a skilled health economist and manager with more than 15 years of experience in health sector reform, decentralization, sustainability, strategic planning, health systems strengthening, management and information systems, and supply chain operations. He has managed large and complex health programs and built effective working relationships with U.S. Agency for International Development and European Union missions, the World Bank, United Nations agencies, various global development funds, and host country counterparts across Africa
David Deng
Director
South Sudan Law Society
David Deng is the research director of the South Sudan Law Society, a civil society organisation dedicated to promoting the rule of law and respect for human rights in South Sudan. Since obtaining his law degree from New York University School of Law in 2010, David has organised multifaceted advocacy campaign on the risks and opportunities of large-scale land investments in South Sudan. In partnership with other civil society actors in the country, David has comprehensive field research on land investments throughout the ten states in South Sudan; organised numerous capacity-building and awareness raising workshops for communities, civil society organisations, and government institutions involved with land investments; and developed a handbook on community engagement to help promote responsible investment and sustainable development in South Sudan.
Deng recently supervised a yearlong research project examining local justice systems in six rural counties in South Sudan. The research included a household survey that compiled statistically significant information about the incidence rates of different types of disputes, the actors that households complained to in order to resolve the disputes, and people's opinions and perceptions of justice. The main findings have been published in a report entitled, Challenges of Accountability: An assessment of local justice systems in South Sudan.
Samuel Gichuki
International Staffing Specialist
World Vision East Africa
Samuel Gichuki is the International Staffing Specialist for World Vision International for the East Africa Region. He joined World Vision in April 2012 and provides recruitment support for international roles in the nine countries in East Africa. Prior to World Vision, he was a Senior Consultant in charge of recruitment at International Development Partners (EA) Ltd and Head of Compensation and HRIS at Essar Telecom. He also served as Compensation and Benefits Specialist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and as Unit Leader at Pan Africa Insurance Holdings, a member of the South Africa Financial Services firm, Sanlam.
His experience spans both not for profit and corporate sectors and has experience in all key areas of Human Resources.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature from Kenyatta University, Diploma in HR Management from the Kenya Institute of Management and is currently pursuing his MBA in HR Management.
C.D. Glin
Associate Director
The Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office
C.D. Glin is an Associate Director at The Rockefeller Foundation's Africa Regional Office since July 2011. As Associate Director based in the Africa Regional Office in Nairobi, Kenya, Glin supports and leads the development and execution of several initiatives. He serves as the regional champion for the Foundations initiatives in strengthening food security and the building of resilience to the devastating effects of climate change to enable real, sustainable and equitable economic growth. Prior to joining The Rockefeller Foundation, Glin was an appointee in the Obama Administration where he served as the first Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Partnerships for the U.S. Peace Corps. In that capacity, he led interagency collaboration efforts and leveraged more than $19 million dollars through agreements with public and private sector entities to enhance the developmental impact of almost 9,000 volunteers serving worldwide. Previously, Glin served as Vice President for Business Development at CDC Development Solutions, an industry-leading global non-profit dedicated to corporate responsibility, international volunteerism and economic development and as Director of the MBA Enterprise Corps and MBA Without Boarders programs. Glin worked for the State Department, USAID and the World Bank while living in Ghana and Nigeria and he served as volunteer in the first Peace Corps South Africa group during the Presidency of Nelson Mandela. Glin holds a B.A. in Political Science from Howard University; a Master's in Business Management from Tulane University and is member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Kindra Halvorson
Kindra Halvorson is the Regional Director for TechnoServe East Africa. In this role, she leads the expansion and deepening of TechnoServe's impact in East Africa, and assures quality and cost effectiveness of its programs. Kindra is an international development professional with 16 years of experience in the public and private sectors, including eight years in economic and small business development. Kindra started her business development career by launching a $2 million investment fund with a double bottom line including financial returns and social impact through the creation of high value jobs. She oversaw investments in 17 technology companies that ultimately created hundreds of high-wage jobs. Kindra later joined McKinsey & Company in Johannesburg as a consultant specializing in growth strategies in Africa and business expansion. She subsequently joined Population Services International (PSI), where she was responsible for a portfolio of programs in east and southern Africa, and later managed its development of a cutting-edge impact measurement system. Kindra holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. in International Relations from University of Minnesota. She resides in Dar es Salaam with her partner and two children
Mark Hankins
CEO
Africa Solar Designs
Mark Hankins has been working in rural electrification and renewable energy in East and Southern Africa for over 20 years. A leader in development and execution of PV projects in Africa, he has been involved in renewable projects for private clients, the UN, the World Bank, UNIDO, the GEF, Sida, USAID and Shell Foundation. He was also involved in the formation of Rural Energy Agencies in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Zambia. He is a permanent resident of Kenya.
In the PV sector, he specializes in training, commercial market development, policy, system design and project development. He has worked on off-grid electrification projects in over 15 countries in Africa. He managed Energy for Sustainable Development's (now Camco) Nairobi office for 12 years. He is currently managing African Solar Designs, Ltd., a Nairobi-based project manager and consultancy. He has authored 5 books on solar energy and renewables.
Simon Karoki
Microfinance Program Manager
Catholic Relief Services Kenya
Simon is the Microfinance Program Manager for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Kenya. He manages a portfolio of CRS microfinance programs which focus primarily on savings led programs know by CRS as the Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) model. Under his supervision, the Kenyan SILC programs currently have over 220,000 clients. Before joining CRS, Simon worked with Swedish Cooperative Centre-Regional office of East Africa as a Microfinance Coordinator and Business Development officer.
Jane Karuku
President
AGRA
Mrs. Karuku is the President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a dynamic Africa based, African-led organization committed to fighting food insecurity in Africa and uplifting millions of smallholder farmers out of poverty through smallholder agriculture transformation. Mrs. Karuku's career spans over 20 years, most of which has been in the agriculture sector. She has held senior positions in a number of international corporate organizations including Farmers Choice and Cadbury Limited where she served as the Managing Director with responsibility for 14 countries in the East and Central African region. Mrs. Karuku joined AGRA in April 2012 from Telkom Kenya, where she was the Deputy Chief Executive and Secretary General from July 2010. She sits on various boards including Barclays Bank -Kenya, Junior Achievement-Kenya, United States International University-Kenya, The Global Reporting Initiative and East African Breweries Ltd. Mrs. Karuku earned an MBA in Marketing from the National University of California, USA and holds a degree in Food Science and Technology from the University of Nairobi.
Harriet Kongin
Head of Capacity Development and Quality Assurance
Act Change Transform (ACT)
Harriet Kongin is a development practitioner with over 17 years of combined working experience in capacity development; partnership development and networking; organizational and institutional development , HIV programming and management; peace negotiation and conflict management among others. She has served in senior management positions both in the civil society and public sectors in Kenya. She has vast experience in capacity development for civil society, private sector and the public sector.
She holds a MA in development studies majoring in local and regional development from the Institute of Social Studies, the Netherlands and has advanced training in Institutional and Organizational development.
She currently serves in the senior management team of Act Change Transform (Act!) as the head of capacity development and quality Assurance. In this role, she provides leadership and strategic direction to capacity development, monitoring & evaluation and communications functions of the organization. This includes supporting the organization and partners in achieving capacity development and quality assurance goals; development of capacity development & quality assurance frameworks for the organization; definition and implementation of standards for capacity development.
Hellen M. Kong'ong'o
Regional Director for Human Resources
Hellen Kong'ong'o is the regional director of human resources for RTI Africa. Ms. Kong'ong'o has over 13 years of senior level HR experience working within diverse multicultural settings in both the profit and not for profit sector in the Africa Region. At RTI, she serves as the senior human resources generalist and advisor in the Nairobi office. Kong'ong'o provides strategic and operational support services to regional projects and activities in human resource strategy and workforce planning, operations and administration, employee relations, compensation and benefits, organizational development, and performance management.
She holds an MSc. Global Human Resource Management – University of Liverpool UK, MBA major in Strategic Management – University of Nairobi – Kenya, and a B.Ed. Literature Major – University of Nairobi – Kenya.
William Kedrock
Director
Deloitte Kenya
Deloitte
Bill Kedrock, Deloitte Consulting, brings nearly 30 years of experience tackling problems along the agriculture value chain – competiveness, enterprise development, enabling environment, association strengthening, financing, smallholder linkages. His assignments are as varied as the countries in which he has worked (more than 30 in Africa, Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia). He has worked long-term in the Caribbean on an agribusiness venture capital initiative and Uganda serving as an agribusiness advisor. He currently is on secondment to Deloitte Kenya addressing challenges related to agribusiness from aggregation to inclusive business development that targets rural populations, while expanding Deloitte East Africa's agribusiness portfolio. A former Peace Corps Volunteer (Cameroun), he holds an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Change Management Advanced Practitioner (Georgetown University McDonough School of Business)
Raj Kumar
President and Editor-in-Chief
Devex
Raj saw the world-shaping potential of Devex while studying at Harvard. He began his career organizing campaign events for President Clinton and later became Principal and Political Director at Penn, Schoen & Berland. During the dot-com days he took a detour from politics in co-founding SmartPortfolio.com. Yet Raj had a lifelong interest in the developing world after spending his childhood in India. Raj is member of Council on Foreign Relations and Clinton Global Initiative. He writes and speaks about global development, and appears as a guest analyst in the media. As President of Devex, Raj has been profiled in Forbes, FT, Foreign Policy, and the Washington Post, where Devex was called the Bloomberg of foreign aid.
Augustine Langyintuo
Senior Operations Officer
Agribusiness with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - World Bank Group
Dr. Augustine Langyintuo is a Senior Operations Officer – Agribusiness with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - World Bank Group, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Before then, he worked as the Head of Policy & Partnerships Program of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Nairobi until June 2013 when he joined IFC. Prior to joining AGRA in March 2009, Dr. Langyintuo worked in several positions within national and international research institutes including the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) for over 20 years as an Agricultural Economist.
A trade economist and an agribusiness expert, Dr. Langyintuo has published over 100 articles in several international peer review journals and conference proceedings on issues related to input and output market development policy and spear-headed various agricultural policy reforms in Africa. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of the African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics and reviews for several international Journals. Affiliated to several professional bodies, Dr. Langyintuo is the current President of the African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE). He also serves as a Member of the Advisory Board of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project of CIMMYT and the UNDP Report on Inclusive Business and their Ecosystems in Africa.
Dr. Langyintuo holds a PhD (Agricultural Economics) from Purdue University, USA an MSc Degree (Agricultural Economics) from Reading University, United Kingdom and a BSc (Upper Honors) Degree in Agriculture from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Veronica Letelier
Agriculture and Food Security Practice Area Manager
International Resources Group
Veronica Letelier is the Agriculture and Food Security Practice Area Manager at International Resources Group, the development division of Engility Corporation. Ms. Letelier has 20 years of experience working in agriculture in both the private and development sectors. Over the last three years, she has focused on designing capacity building activities for USAID's Bureau for Food Security and providing technical assistance in the nexus of food security and energy, water, and climate change. Ms. Letelier is an agronomist and a Food Processing specialist with degrees from Zamorano Panamerican School of Agriculture in Honduras and Kansas State University in the United States. She can be reached at [email protected].
Eme Essien Lore
Senior Associate Director
The Rockefeller Foundation
Eme Essien Lore is a Senior Associate Director at the Foundation's Africa Regional Office in Nairobi. She primarily works on two initiatives: Digital Jobs Africa and Harnessing the Power of Impact Investing. Harnessing the Power of Impact Investing works towards consolidating and catalyzing the evolving industry of Impact Investment for both social and environmental benefits. Digital Jobs Africa is building on Impact Sourcing work and seeks to improve the lives of 1 million people in six countries in Africa by catalyzing sustainable Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled employment opportunities for high potential youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. Ms. Essien Lore, a graduate of Columbia College at Columbia University, earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania and an MA from the School of Advanced International Studies, at Johns Hopkins. She joined the Foundation in April 2011, before which she spent many years at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank.
Ibrahim Mamma
Organizational Development and Capacity Building
Vantage Consulting
Ibrahim Mamma is an organizational Development and Capacity Building professional with ample years of experience in Africa. He is a partner at Vantage Consultancy Ethiopia, a firm engaged in Energy Business Development and Promotion, Capacity Development and Management Advisory Services. He works on the development of management models for expanding energy business in Ethiopia and Eastern Africa for improving rural local economic development. He consults with a numerous organizations in introducing innovative renewable energy utilization for improving agricultural productivity and household earning in rural areas. Together with his team, he has developed a wide scale application of productive uses for renewable energy to support agricultural productivity for rural areas in Ethiopia. He is also currently serving as a consultant for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa on the Global Strategy for Improving Agricultural and Rural Statistics. This is an intervention that would help African countries improve their capacity to monitor agricultural productivity and development through the effective monitoring and evaluation of interventions using reliable and quality statistics. Ibrahim Mamma holds postgraduate qualification in Institutional Economics and Public Administration from Germany and South Africa respectively. He has various training in energy business management and development.
Gerlad Makau Masila
Executive Director/CEO
Eastern African Grain Council
Gerald Makau Masila is the Executive Director/CEO of the Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) since March 2011. A general management, marketing and communications professional, Gerald has previously worked with various organizations in the private and public sector including British American Tobacco, New Kenya Cooperative Creameries Limited –NKCC, Kenya Wine Agencies Limited-KWAL, Kenya Planters Cooperative Union – KPCU, and Acumen Business Consultants.
At EAGC Gerald's role includes offering overall leadership to the EAGC Secretariat in providing members services including design of intervention programs to address grain sector challenges, fundraising, program implementation, monitoring , evaluation and reporting as well as communication and stakeholder management including members, development partners, media and government.
Gerald holds a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics and a Bachelors degree in Economics both from Egerton University, Kenya.
Janet Mawiyoo
Chief Executive Officer
KCDF
Janet Naumi Mawiyoo (Ms) is the Chief Executive Officer of KCDF, a national foundation that promotes sustainable development of communities for social justice through local institution building, policy influencing, resource mobilization, and forging partnerships & collaborations.
Janet has been in the development space, primarily within the non-profit sector for the last 30 years, having spent 14 years with ActionAid International in Kenya and Tanzania.
Janet has been instrumental over the last eight years in making KCDF a leading and recognizable Kenyan local development actor that continues to commit significant resources into a diverse range of community initiatives that cut across issues affecting vulnerable Kenyan communities.
Janet is a certified Organization Development consultant, with a Masters in Development Administration and Management (MA-Econ) from the University of Manchester (UK), and a Post Graduate Diploma in Organization Development Consultancy from the Swiss Institute of Applied Psychology, Switzerland.
Anne Mbaabu
Director for Market Access Program
Alliances for a Green Revolution in Africa
Anne Mbaabu is the Director for Market Access Program at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), charged with market transformations to link smallholder African farmers of food staples to markets (maize, cassava, sorghum, millet, grain legumes, bananas), promoting structured trading systems, value addition of food staples and directing investments into alternative uses of staples (feed industry etc.), and addressing issues to create an enabling environment for markets to perform efficiently.
Prior to joining AGRA, Mrs. Mbaabu was the Executive Director of the Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) in Nairobi, Kenya. She has undertaken various consultancies in management in the food industry with UNIDO, FAO, CDE-SIDA among others. She was previously the Managing Director of Proctor & Allan East Africa Ltd, a consumer foods manufacturing and marketing company and has held other senior management positions with Unga Group Ltd, Unga Feeds Ltd, and CPC Kenya Ltd. In total, Mrs. Mbaabu has more than 35 years of extensive involvement and experience in a wide range of food industry management, development areas in Small Medium Enterprises (SME), development work in the agricultural sector and commercialization of SME projects in Africa, institutional development, development and implementation of innovative structured agricultural trade systems and strategic planning with emphasis on Micro and Small Medium Enterprises (MSME's), sub-sector value chain analyses and business development services, and training and counseling of SME's.
Anne holds a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in Food Science & Technology (Processing and Control); and a Bachelors degree in Food Science and Technology, both from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. She is also finalizing her Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Strategic Management and Production & Operations Management at the same university.
Eva Mulema Matsiko
Chief of Party
USAID
Eva Mulema Matsiko is the Chief of Party for USAID's 5-year Governance Accountability Participation and Performance Program in Uganda. She has also served as the Chief of Party for USAID's for –year Strengthening Democratic Linkages in Uganda (LINKAGES) 2007-2011. Ms. Mulema has nearly a decade of program design, implementation and management experience on civic education, conflict resolution and legislative support projects. She has worked on a variety of issues including women's and children's rights, land and property rights and institutional capacity building for civil society organizations. In addition, Ms. Mulema has practiced law, specializing in human rights, international and constitutional law.
She is interested in improving the lives of people whether through public policy activities that seek to improve the entire system, mentoring smaller groups of people on individual skill development, or volunteer work that meets a given need at a particular time.
Ms. Mulema served as a Parliamentary Program Advisor to the Parliament of Uganda on behalf of United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) in Uganda. She also has served as a Deputy Program Manager for the Partners for Democracy and Governance Election Support Programme (ESP), supported by a wide range of development agencies, and as Deputy Chief of Party for the USAID Legislative Support Activity.
Hans Meusen
Development Services Manager
British Council
Hans Meusen is currently the Manager of the British Council's sub-Saharan African Development Services business. The British Council in sub-Saharan Africa manages a range of development contracts with a value in excess of £100m across 4 portfolios:
- Security, Justice and Conflict Resolution
- Governance & Civil Society
- Education & English for Development
Hans is an experienced programme manager and programme director with in-depth knowledge of justice sector reform in Sub-Saharan Africa especially in fragile contexts. He has substantial project management experience of DFID, EC and World Bank technical assistance projects as well as extensive monitoring and evaluation experience of donor – funded projects. Hans can also draw on in-depth experience on a number of donor funded justice sector development programmes in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan.
Edward Mungai
CEO
World Bank's Climate Innovation Center
Edward Mungai is the Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Climate Innovation Center (CIC). CIC supports a holistic country driven approach to accelerate the development, deployment and transfer of locally relevant climate technologies. Mr. Mungai has a multifaceted background, working with business advisory, entrepreneurship, and investment management, from the Danish International Investments Funds (IFU), KPMG East Africa, and Genesis Investment Management Limited. He has thorough experience in development financing mechanisms, with special interests in agribusiness, renewable energy, and water and sanitation sectors. Mr. Mungai holds an Executive MBA from Scandinavian International Management Institute and a Business Management degree from Moi University, Kenya.
Mike Mutungi
Founder and CEO
I Choose Life- Africa
Mike Mutungi holds a Masters' Degree in Divinity in Counseling (NIST) and a B.Sc in Engineering (UoN). He is the Founder and CEO of I Choose Life – Africa, an NGO whose vision is, "A Healthy Africa, Empowered People" and supports the implementation of Vision 2030 through cascading it to the Counties. The organization has programs around five pillars: Health, Economic Empowerment, Academic and Career mentoring and Leadership and Governance and Institutional Strengthening (HEAL&I). I Choose Life-Africa has not only received grants in the past from international organization but currently also sub grants and is one of the local organizations under Fanikisha project that seeks to build the capacity of local organizations in order to receive direct USAID grants in the future.
Mike is passionate about leadership and aligning the leadership vision to Kenya's Vision 2030 development. He has a vast experience in the Kenyan development landscape that spans from NGO, government, and the corporate. He also sits in corporate Boards including being the Chairman of Planning Interiors Group of Companies which is the largest Interiors design company in East Africa, Ebatech Engineering Company Limited, Jiinue Company Limited among. He is married to Josephine Mutungi and they have two children; David, 16 years, and Michelle, 12 years.
Ben Ngoye
Director, Institute of Healthcare Management
Strathmore Business School
Nairobi, Kenya
Dr Ben Ngoye trained as a clinician and a public health and organizational development professional with degrees in medicine, public health and organisational development.
He has been a Country Advisor and Program Director of two large USAID-funded projects, and been engaged in the technical backstopping and quality assurance of diverse national level technical assistance and capacity building assignments in health in the Eastern Africa region.
He has a profound interest in teaching and knowledge management, and demonstrable experience in curriculum development having co-developed the Strathmore MBA in Healthcare Management as well as a number of healthcare executive education programmes. He is currently the founding director of the Institute of Healthcare Management at Strathmore, and a member of the governing board of the African Institute for Healthcare Management.
Zipporah Wangui Wathingira Ngumi
Zipporah is an Anaesthesiologist and Critical Care Physician with close to 30 years of experience in this field. Her area of expertise is cardiac and renal transplant anaesthesia and critical Care.
A Graduate of University of Nairobi with Bachelor's Degree in Medicine and Surgery (MB ChB) and post basic studies in anaesthesia, fellowship in anaesthesia and fellowship in Clinical Sciences at various institutions of higher learning in England.
She started her career with internship at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) in general surgery and paediatrics, and later on worked as a Senior House Officer in Anaesthesia in the same hospital. After leaving KNH she went to United Kingdom where she worked as a Senior House officer in Anaesthesia in Southampton General Hospital and group of Hospitals and later returned to Kenyatta national Hospital where she worked as a Specialist Anaesthetist for about seven (7) years before becoming a Honorary Consultant in Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine in the same Hospital where she is working to date.
Jamie Bay Nishi
Director for Member Services
Devex
Jamie Bay Nishi serves as Director for Member Services at Devex, a social enterprise that operates the world's most popular international development website (www.devex.com). She manages a team that supports more than 1,000 organizations globally and who assist international development practitioners in tracking funding opportunities and identifying skilled professionals to complete projects in the field. Before joining the company in 2008, she completed her master's degree in conflict analysis and resolution at George Mason University. Prior to that, she spent nearly three years as marketing associate and health care consultant for the Advisory Board Company. Jamie also served as an intern in the U.S. State Department's Office of South Central Europe. She holds a bachelor's degree in government from the College of William & Mary. Jamie has lived in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France, Germany and now resides in the Washington DC area.
Pamela O' Connor
Executive Vice President, Human Resources
CRS
As Executive Vice President for Human Resources, Pamela O'Connor leads Human Resources strategy and best practices for Catholic Relief Services, focusing on supporting a diverse, high performance culture that emphasizes excellence in the acquisition and ongoing development of its workforce.
In this role, Ms. O'Connor is responsible for overseeing the coordination and implementation of services, policies and programs through the Human Resources staff. She is a member of the Executive Leadership Team, and she plays a role in defining and leading the rapidly changing Talent Marketplace; aligning resources to meet the needs and solutions of a diverse multi-cultural environment both in the United States and overseas.
Before coming to CRS, Ms. O'Connor was the Chief Administrative Officer for Search for Common Ground, an international NGO in 30 countries throughout Africa, Asia and Europe. Ms. O'Connor also spent 30 years in private industry as Senior Vice President, Human Resources at Charlotte Russe and Senior Vice President at The Wet Seal Inc., Headquarters located in Southern California. In those positions, Ms. O'Connor was responsible for cultural change management covering more than 12,000 employees. She was the Ethics Officer, served on the SOX planning committee and the compensation committee for the Board of Directors.
Ms. O'Connor was born in Richmond, Virginia. She is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University and holds a degree in Business Administration. Ms. O'Connor is a Board Certified Coach specializing in individual career development.
Vincent Okele
Managing Director
Transtec Africa
With a business and information technology academic and professional background, Vincent Okele has over 25 years of experience in providing business strategic management advisory, training and execution expert services to a broad spectrum of enterprises, government institutions and organizations in Europe and Africa.
After an early career as research assistant at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium where he pursued research work in Management Information Systems with a focus on Computer-Aided Software Engineering Systems, he worked for a number of corporate firms as information system design specialist. He subsequently founded TechTrans, an IT professional services firm that operated in Europe and Africa, designing and implementing Management Information Systems at approximately 19 corporate sites.
In 2007, he was engaged as Senior Adviser, Business Development by TRANSTEC, a Brussels-based multi-disciplinary development consultancy providing project management and technical assistance services on international donor funded projects worldwide. In February 2013, he was appointed Managing Director of TRANSTEC AFRICA, the newly established Abuja (Nigeria) based subsidiary of the firm with responsibility for the company's operations in the Sub Saharan African region.
Mr. Okele holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium and a Masters in Applied Computer Science from the Vrije Universiteit te Brussels, Belgium.
Patrick Onwumere
Director for Youth Enablement
Microsoft 4Afrika
Patrick Onwumere is the Director for Youth Enablement under the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative. His role spans each of the execution pillars of the 4Afrika Initiative: Innovation, World Class Skills and Access.
Patrick acts as the connection between Africa and Microsoft's global Education team, leveraging Microsoft Youth Spark and other important corporate investments to the benefit of African Youth. He is specifically focused on accelerating the adoption of world class technology, services and devices amongst the youth population to enable them to proactively shape the future of Africa.
Patrick previously served as the President of the Africans @ Microsoft employee network, and in his new role he continues to serve as their strong advocate and advisor. Patrick joined Microsoft in 2008 and has been responsible for driving business development across multiple internal and external business units to meet revenue goals. He was instrumental in the growth and evolution of the Africans @ Microsoft charter, and he is deeply committed to helping people and businesses connected to Africa realize and exceed their true potential. Before joining Microsoft, Patrick worked at Apple Inc., Texas Instruments and attended university at Prairie View A&M University where he earned his BSc. in Electrical Engineering.
Elizabeth Oywer
Registrar
Nursing Council of Kenya
For the past 20 years, Elizabeth has been involved in improving nursing education and practice in Kenya. She has been the Registrar of the Nursing Council for the last 10 years.
Her working experience include clinical nursing in various hospitals in Kenya, teaching at the mental health nursing school, leadership and management at the Ministry of Health headquarters and Nursing Council of Kenya. She has participated in the facilitation and development of standards documents/regulatory tools and several curricula for training health workers. Under her leadership at the Council, the Council built the prestigious NCK Plaza and there is a functional nursing database which is a best practice in the region. Secondly, over 7,000 nurses have been upgraded from certificate to diploma using distance learning and six universities have been approved to upgrade nurses from RN-BScN using the same strategy.
Finally, Elizabeth has had a lot of exposure in global nursing issues both as an active member of NNAK; longtime contact person for regional body- ECSACON (East, Central and Southern Africa College of Nursing) and member, board of directors for the International Council of Nurses (Area 1). Her interest is in workforce issues.
Jens Riese
Director
McKinsey
Jens Riese is a Director at McKinsey and is the global founder and leader of McKinsey's Economic Development Practice, which is supporting the governments of more than 50 developing and emerging economies. Jens is consulting various developing country governments, as well as development agencies on issues related to national and sector competitiveness, economic policy, industrial growth, agricultural development, poverty alleviation, climate mitigation and adaptation, energy access, infrastructure, public finance, aid effectiveness, inclusion of marginalised groups and other economic and social development topics.
Jens has broad international development experience from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. His clients include multiple prime ministers and presidents. He has served most of the biggest bi-lateral and multi-lateral development agencies, as well as some of the leading foundations focused on development. Jens is one of McKinsey's experts on development aid effectiveness- a topic on which he led a major research project, and which he passionately addresses in his day-to-day work. He is also a global expert on green growth, and has had the opportunity to support many of the pioneers in developing and implementing their strategies. Prior to joining McKinsey, Jens spent 6 years in research in Cambridge, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Dresden.
Barbara Rudin
Senior Vice President
ICF International
Dr. Barbara Rudin has more than 25 years of experience in designing and conducting research, needs assessments, and program evaluation in early childhood development, youth programs, adoption and foster care, and child care. She leads a staff of more than 900 consulting professionals in health, education, housing, international development, child welfare, justice programs, human services, and community development.
Dr. Rudin has extensive experience providing corporate oversight to large contracts for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), and has supported early childhood and family support projects for military clients. Her skills include survey development, data collection, evaluation research, statistical analysis, training development and delivery, and technical assistance. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in Child and Family Development from the University of Georgia.
John Ruyter
Vice President for Human Resources
Abt Associates
John M. Ruyter, a seasoned human resources professional, is the Vice President, Human Resources for Abt Associates. John helps lead Abt's global HR strategy and operations, including recruitment, compensation and benefits, professional development, and talent management.
John previously served as Senior Director of Human Resources at DLA Piper, a global law firm. During his tenure, he led numerous projects that positively impacted the recruitment, development and retention of employees. Before DLA Piper, John held human resources positions within healthcare, insurance and legal organizations. John has also served as adjunct faculty at Towson University's Human Resources graduate program and holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree from Towson University. He is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from the HR Certification Institute.
Rolf Schaller
Chief Recruitment
UNICEF
Rolf Schaller joined UNICEF as the head of recruitment and staffing in 2010. Previously he spent 10 years as the HR Business Partner for KPMG Europe and KPMG Switzerland, applying and developing best practice in variety of areas. Before getting into the field of human resources he spent 10 years as a delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross, mainly in East Africa and in Latin America. A Swiss national, Rolf currently resides in Geneva with his family.
Schuyler Thorup
Executive Vice President
Overseas Operations
Catholic Relief Services
As the Executive Vice President for Overseas Operations, Schuyler Thorup is responsible for the oversight of programmatic activities in more than 90 countries, with a budget of over $500 million and a staff of over 3,500. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, he ensures the fulfillment of the agency's mission while particularly focusing on assistance to the poor and marginalized, respect for human dignity, justice and peace and partnership with local institutions.
Mr. Thorup was the Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean from 2006 until 2012. During this tenure, he oversaw diverse humanitarian and development programs across 17 countries including the agency's emergency response to Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake which claimed over 300,000 lives.
Mr. Thorup began his career with CRS in Angola in 1990, implementing emergency feeding and relief operations in the midst of that country's civil war. During the following years, he managed challenging emergency and humanitarian programs in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho and Peru. Mr. Thorup was appointed CRS Country Representative in Armenia in 1997, serving until 1999, when he returned to the United States to work for the next four years as a Major Gifts Officer for the Southwest Region based from San Diego. In 2003, Mr. Thorup returned to Africa as the agency's Country Representative for Malawi, a post which he held until named Regional Director in 2006.
Prior to joining CRS, Mr. Thorup worked for the Private Sector Division of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Colombo, Sri Lanka and was Coordinator of the Venture Capital Network of Texas at the Small Business Division of the Texas Department of Commerce in Austin.
Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Mr. Thorup holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies and Spanish from the University of Virginia. He earned M.A.s in Public Affairs and Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Thorup received a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship and an Inter-American Foundation Fellowship to support Master's level studies in International Relations at the University of Belgrano in Buenos Aires, Argentina as well as community-based field research in the Brazilian Northeast. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese.
Marionne Tucker
Director of People and Culture
World Vision Kenya
Marionne Tucker is currently the Director of People and Culture (Human Resources) for World Vision in Kenya; a position she has held since 2009. She graduated from the University of Sierra Leone in 1986. During university, she started her career as a radio and TV presenter. Simultaneously, Marionne entered the NGO arena with Plan International, Sierra Leone in 1986 as Head of Donor Services where she served for three years before joining CARE International in 1989. She served in various capacities in programming, Human Resources, External Engagement, then as Support Services Director (supervising Human Resources, Finance and Administration) when she resigned in 1997. Shortly afterwards, she joined World Vision International in Rwanda as HR Director. Marionne has also done assignments for World Vision in Mauritania, Chad, Angola and the USA (Global Center) while at the same time furthering her education in HR, Legal and doing other leadership courses. She is a member of the Society of Human Resource Management and the American Association of Christian Counselors.
Marionne is also an accomplished HR Professional, author, preacher and motivational speaker. Her passion for her work is contagious and under her leadership she continues to discover and identify leadership potential in various individual contributors in the organization and helps to mentor and channel these individuals into successful leadership roles.
Guy Vanmeenen
Senior Technical Advisor
Catholic Relief Services
Guy Vanmeenen is Catholic Relief Services' Senior Technical Advisor for Microfinance in Africa. In this role, he provides strategic leadership and technical guidance to staff and partners across Africa who are implementing the agency's microfinance strategy. Guy is responsible for strengthening the capabilities of CRS and partner staff, reviewing and adapting best practices in rural finance, and working with the regional team to integrate microfinance activities into other CRS programs. In addition, he developed CRS' Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) model and supported its roll-out in more than 34 countries reaching over 1.2 million members. Guy also developed a market-based delivery model, called Private Service Providers (PSP), whereby communities pay a fee for SILC training.
Guy joined CRS in April 1996 as Microfinance Program Manager in Lebanon. In August 1998, he became Regional Technical Advisor for microfinance in East Africa, later adding the West Africa region and eventually supporting CRS' microfinance activities across the continent. During this time, he helped the agency to develop its strategic framework for microfinance through 2010.
Previously, Guy worked for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Morocco, where he helped the government support private sector development through policy initiatives and by promoting activities such as small enterprise development and solar technology. He also has experience in both exporting and sales.
Fluent in Dutch, French and English, Guy grew up in Keerbergen in Northeast Belgium. He holds a Master's of Science in Applied Economy from Belgium's Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
Kate Warren
Director
Recruitment Services
Devex
With over a decade of international recruitment experience, Kate Warren is the Director of Global Recruitment Services at Devex- the leading provider of recruiting services to the international development community. As director, she provides recruitment support and guidance to the human resource departments of major donor agencies (like World Bank, United Nations, USAID), NGOs and consulting firms that make development happen. She also authors a popular career advice blog, Career Matters, for professionals working in global development.
Prior to joining Devex, Kate was a recruitment officer for International Relief and Development- an NGO working in over 40 countries- and a deputy program manager and international recruiter for Checchi and Company, Consulting Inc- a USAID consulting firm focused on institutional reform in developing and post-conflict countries. She previously recruited interpreters in more than 300 languages for US immigration courts and international conferences. Kate graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Latin American Studies, has lived in Argentina, Costa Rica and Mexico and speaks Spanish. She is a frequent speaker at seminars and contributor to articles on careers in international development. Kate lives in Washington, DC with her husband and their two daughters.
Aaron Williams
Executive Vice President
International Development Group
RTI International
Aaron Williams is Executive Vice President of the International Development Group, at RTI, International. Mr. Williams served as the Director of the U.S. Peace Corps from 2009 to 2012, and as Vice President of International Business Development for RTI from 2003 to 2009. He has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in public service and the private sector, which began when he served for three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Before his previous tenure at RTI, Williams served as a senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he reached the rank of career minister in the Senior Foreign Service. His awards include the USAID Distinguished Career Service Award in 1998 and the Presidential Award for Distinguished Service in 1988 and 1992. He has extensive experience in the strategic design and management of assistance programs in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and he has served on the advisory board of the Ron Brown Scholar Program, as well as the boards of directors of CARE, the National Peace Corps Association, and the Institute for Sustainable Communities. He has a BSci from Chicago State University and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin.
John Works
Senior Energy Manger
IRG/Engility
Mr. Works currently serves as the Senior Energy Manager at IRG/Engility. In this capacity he manages international projects by supervising the selection, preparation, placement, and support for all technical experts, overseeing project budget, contract management, and LOE expenditures, and interfacing with clients to ensure adequate quality control and achievement of project objectives. Mr. Works brings over 3 decades of progressively responsible work experience managing and implementing a variety of energy programs, including 17 years supporting energy projects in developing countries. He brings a cross sectorial and full cycle understanding of the international energy arena from his work as a consultant, government official, corporate executive, investment banker, and lawyer. He has directly supervised interdisciplinary professional teams and support staff, including teams of energy professionals to respond to complex assignments.
