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Founding Partners
Environment, Resilience, Technology
Denise works on scaling clean technologies and delivering complex, multi-national projects in multi-cultural settings. Denise has worked with numerous organisations including the private sector, NGOs, humanitarian and UN institutions. She is the author of several publications on the use of UAS/drones in disaster risk reduction and sustainable development, and was named winner of the Women and Drones Leadership award 2020.
Denise further focuses on ethical innovation, mitigating the negative impact of climate change on human health and wellbeing — by responsibly and equitably adapting social and technology innovations. Previously, Denise has worked in researching environmental crimes and environmental health.
Denise is based in Geneva, Switzerland. She holds a Masters’ degree in Environmental Management and a BA in Environmental Studies from Yale University. She also represented Germany at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Ice Hockey.
Humanitarian Sector, Innovation, Scaling
Louis has a wide range of experience covering development, health, innovation, technology and research. Having worked in DRC, Zambia and India with Medecins Sans Frontières as well as with other NGOs, he is well acquainted with the practical realities of delivering impact in the field, in the long and short term.
In recent years, he has been consulting with a range of humanitarian organisations, universities and companies to improve innovation processes and outcomes. In particular, this has included managing projects focused on improving healthcare provision in hard to reach contexts through new technologies. He is an experienced facilitator and has been closely involved in efforts to improve collaborations between the nonprofit, academic and commercial sectors in recent years. He also has significant experience in humanitarian monitoring and evaluation, as well as utilising human-centered design methodologies. Before this, previous roles included government, tech, business and research sectors.
He is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and received his MSc in Global Health from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. His BA (Hons) in International Politics is from Warwick University, UK.
Associates
We work with a range of topic experts on a needs basis as our projects demand, enabling us to to scale-up or down rapidly. This multidisciplinary network also brings with it an unmatched level of cross-pollination and synergy between sectors which would traditionally be kept separate: bringing new and innovative results.
Gunes Kocabag
Service Design
Gunes is a researcher and service designer specialising in the development of human-centred solutions in complex stakeholder environments. She has worked as a consultant for public and private sector entities as well as global development organisations in areas including global health and financial inclusion.
Data Scientist
Devangana is a data scientist with years of experience in building intelligent systems across domains. She has a research background in theoretical computer science, information retrieval, and social network analysis. Her interests include data-driven intelligence, data in the humanitarian sector, and data ethics and responsibilities. Devangana currently works as Lead Data Scientist with ThoughtWorks.
Global Health
Evan is a trained MD and MBA with degrees from Havard and MIT, he has dedicated his career to improving access to health. Initially practicing medicine in community health centers; for the past 20 years, he has worked across the private sector, NGO sector, and collaborated closely with UN partners to address access issues related to medicines, diagnostics, and other health technologies.
Michelle Chakkalackal
Impact, Tech, Gender & DEI.
Michelle is an experienced entrepreneur, researcher, and impact strategist, specialising in growing a project or an organisation from start to scale, globally. She has 15+ years of experience working in systems change and facilitation at the crossroads of impact, tech, gender, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Hanna Phelan
Global Health Innovation
Hanna is an expert in digital health implementation. In the past, she has advised leadership teams in health systems and pharmaceuticals. She received her MSc in Global Health from Trinity College Dublin, during which she conducted field assessments of rehabilitation approaches by Handicap International for Syrian refugee populations in IDP camps and community settings.
Energy Team Lead
Ben is an energy expert engaged with critical elements of the energy transition across Asia and Africa in the Humanitarian and wider International Development sectors. He champions innovative and disruptive socio-technological ecosystems to enable the forcibly displaced, and other marginalised communities, to be the protagonists of their own energy futures. See his most recent publications here.
Lucie Gueuning
Digital Project Management
Lucie is an experienced international programme manager eager to share her project management skills to develop innovative projects for social impact. She has managed the development of innovative platforms for non-profit organisation from inception to pilot implementation; facilitating stakeholders engagement at international level and leading the daily management side. She is passionate about using her data and information management technical skill to create sustainable solutions.
Rohit Wadhwani
Humanitarian IT
Rohit has a wide range of experience covering development, health, judicial, innovation and technology. Having worked in Sierra Leone with a local startup iDT Labs, UNDP, other NGOs, he is well acquainted with the practical realities of delivering solutions from the donor and beneficiary perspective. In recent years, he has been working on the MSF eCARE platform focusing on improving healthcare provision in hard to reach contexts through new technologies.
Dan McClure
Complex Systems Innovation
Dan has 30+ years experience as a hands-on leader of systems innovation for complex challenges. He supports ambitious efforts to architect systems level innovations, scale sustainable ideas in low resource environments, design collaborative networks, and build adaptive organizations. He is chair of the Humanitarian Innovation Fund Advisory Board and supports a range of aid sector innovation initiatives.
Harriet Milsted
ESG, M&E, Reporting
Harriet specialises in sustainability and system change, usually related to child and labour rights. She helps organisations measure, improve and sustain their social impact. This includes developing internal operational, financial and stakeholder management approaches and systems, in order for initiatives to sustain their social impact. She was previously the coordinator for GAHI (the Global Alliance for Humanitarian Innovation) focused on system change in the humanitarian sector.
Joachim Mangilima
Data Analyst & Open Data Expert
Joachim is passionate about harnessing the power of data and technology for social good. His vast experience covers: the Digital Transformation of health systems through the building of clinical decision support tools; founding the Google Developer Group (Dar es Salaam); digital inclusion; and building of open and trustworthy data ecosystems. Joachim is a registered Open Data Trainer and holds an M.Sc. in Business Analytics from the University of Surrey and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Dar es Salaam.
Media & Communications
Monique is a communications specialist with significant experience across the non-profit and media sectors. She is passionate about all things digital, especially the potential of the Internet to amplify the concerns of minority groups by creating channels for exchange and engagement. She has worked as a freelance journalist and photographer in conflict-zones, with a focus on Indigenous, women's and environmental rights.
Data Analyst & Innovation
Bo specialises in leveraging Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for development. He has a mixed background of electronic engineering and development study. Previously working as a consultant with FAO, Bo has supported the internal digital strategy development of the organisation. He is also the author of several published book and papers in the domain of ICT for development.
Vyoma Sheth
Graphic and UX Design
Vyoma has significant experience as a Graphic Designer, and has pivoted towards User Experience Design to practice human-centered problem solving through the lens of digital products. Currently, she's working for an education technology company in India. She is also a Graphic and UX design consultant for MSF SIU. Her end-goal is to create impact via social innovation.
Pablo Busto Caviedes
M&E, Legal and Policy Research
Pablo specialises in monitoring and evaluation (M&E), policy research, qualitative and quantitative data analysis. His experience includes a diverse range of social and economic development topics such as rural development, agriculture, or social inclusion. He currently primarily works as an Impact Analyst for evaluation studies at another non-profit organisation.
Eva Kaplan
Innovation Strategy
Eva is an innovation specialist with expertise in co-creating with communities, streamlining inclusivity, design and evaluation. She spearheaded scalable innovation initiatives as Regional Director of Innovation at the IRC and as Innovation Specialist at UNICEF. She combines methodologies from strategic foresight, behaviour science, and data science for high-impact strategy and program design. She currently co-teaches a course on Humanitarian Innovation at MIT’s D-Lab.
Advisors
We are proud to be advised by some highly-respected veterans of the humanitarian, development and innovation sectors.
Valeria Fabbroni
Operations & Fundraising
Valeria is the Director of Italy-based NGO, Helpcode. An architect by training, and relief worker by experience, Valeria possess over 20 years experience in the field (over 10 years in-country) and has built more latrines than she cares to remember. A rules nerd, trainer and lecturer, Valeria is an expert in the regulations and politics of European institutions. She strongly believes in development, technology and that no idea is too crazy to try, if it can contribute to making the world better.
Andreas Larsson
Innovation Strategy
Andreas is Associate Professor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Blekinge Institute of Technology, and Innovation Practice Advisor at MSF Sweden Innovation Unit. He has worked with applied research in product development and innovation for the last 20 years, in industries including: aerospace, automotive, biomedical, consumer electronics, paper, packaging, and IT. His research agenda aims to create a rich blend of needs-motivated activities dealing, among other things, with cross-functional knowledge sharing, local and distributed teamwork and participatory innovation.
UAS Strategy & Policy
Sara is a technology advocate who has been working in the drone domain since early 2012. Her focus is situational awareness applied to public health, maritime operations, humanitarian aid, and international development. Her areas of expertise include policy strategy, business development, partnerships management and government relations. She holds an MSc in Satellite Remote Sensing and a PhD in Polar Geophysics.
Dr Francesc Galban
Digital Health Solutions
Francesc has extensive experience developing, implementing and assessing patient-centred digital health platforms: experience gained in the academic (Cambridge University and KTH in Stockholm) and humanitarian sector (with MSF). More recently, he has worked with MSF testing remote access to patient support for TB patients, and designing data-driven assessments of quality of care on a humanitarian context.
Simon Berry
Developmental Sustainability
Over a 40-year career Simon has been a leader in the voluntary, private and public sectors. He has lived and worked in South America, the Caribbean, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and the UK. He is an expert on self-sustaining development – development that out-lives the resources that were used to achieve it.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Gail Womersley, clinical psychologist and researcher, has worked for over ten years as an expert consultant on mental health and psychosocial support for refugees and displaced communities in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Greece, Iraq, Israel, the Philippines, South Africa, South Sudan, the Ukraine, and Zimbabwe.
Dr George MacKerron
Behavioural Economics
George is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Sussex. His research is in subjective wellbeing, behaviour and the environment. He runs Mappiness, the world's largest experience sampling study, and is a co-founder of startup Psychological Technologies. George gained his PhD at the LSE, and prior degrees from Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge.
Nicola Wheeler
Climate and Health Research
Nicola is an environmental health specialist, with expertise in climate change and health and environmental determinants of health. She is a Consultant at the World Health Organization, working with national governments to help them better understand the links between climate change and health, and recommend policies to address these challenges.