I bring strategic judgment, organisational leadership and board experience to complex decisions and institutional change.
Strategic judgment and organisational risk
Extensive experience guiding executive teams and boards through uncertainty, competing obligations and significant institutional risk. Leadership of humanitarian ethics and access has involved negotiating operating space, balancing security and legal constraints, and making consequential decisions where organisational purpose and human welfare are at stake. This experience includes representing institutions publicly and defending difficult decisions under sustained political and media scrutiny.
Institutional leadership and change
A record of building global preparedness, response and risk-management systems that enable organisations to act decisively and deliver at scale. This work has established clear responsibilities, decision thresholds and escalation routes, strengthened oversight of substantial emergency portfolios, and embedded learning into organisational practice. It also requires aligning headquarters, country leaders, donors and partners when authority is distributed and agreement cannot be assumed.
Governance, partnerships and technology
Board and sector leadership experience includes serving as a board member of Kobo, the organisation behind KoboToolbox, and as founding board chair of the Collaborative Cash Delivery (CCD) Network. Participation in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s Emergency Directors Group has brought expert judgment to decisions and coordination across the humanitarian sector. Together, these roles demonstrate experience in technology governance, collaboration between institutions and collective decision-making during major crises.
Years of Professional Experience
27
Emergency Response Launched in
42countries
Newly Opened + Registered Country Programs
29
Staff Managed
Current80
Largest800
Annual Emergency Portfolio Overseen
Up to$100M
Executive, board and sector leadership
Executive appointments
International Rescue Committee
2018–present
Vice President, Emergencies & Humanitarian Action
Scaled global emergency capability and rebuilt preparedness, decision-making and risk-management systems. Led humanitarian ethics and access practice, alongside oversight of major emergency responses and public representation during complex crises.
2011–2018
Director, Emergency Preparedness & Response
Designed and institutionalised global emergency preparedness and response architecture, improving the speed, scale and quality of decisions across rapid-onset and protracted crises.
2009–2011
Country Director, Afghanistan
Led programme expansion through conflict and transition, balancing delivery with humanitarian access, staff security, financial stewardship and donor relationships.
2007–2009
Country Director, Democratic Republic of Congo
Led IRC’s largest country operation during active conflict, overseeing a $42 million portfolio of health, protection and community reconstruction programmes across multiple provinces.
1999–2007
Earlier humanitarian appointments
Logistics, field coordination and emergency country leadership across multiple organisations and crises.