Team
Our team combines expertise in management, technology, finance, and development logistics.
Work with us.
Team members join us at every stage in their career, from a wide variety of sectors. We hope you’ll join us.
About our culture & values
Our goal is to maintain a high performance workplace where our team feels supported, respected, and able to thrive professionally.
Meet the team
Leadership
Nick Allardice
President and CEO
Ruchi Agarwal
Director, Global Treasury
Leith Baker
Senior Director, Product
Kimberly Belk
Director of Compliance and Grants Management
Will Bishop
Country Director, Mozambique
Kayla Fishman
Director, Philanthropy Special Projects
Ellen Fitton
Director, Internal Audit
Becca Frank
Vice President, Technology
Tyler Hall
Senior Director, Communications
Heidi Hirvonen
Director, People
Grace Jackson
Country Director, Malawi
Stephen Kalungu
Programs Director, Kenya
Omalha Kanjo
Programs Director, Mozambigue
Laura Keen
Programs Director, US
Ariana Keyman
Director, Partnerships
Sam Kreter
Director, Program Technology
Miriam Laker
Director, Research
Stella Luk
VP, Programs
John Paul Makoni
Country Director, Kenya
Sarah Moran
Vice President, Product
Yvonne Namala-Murindiwa
Programs Director, Malawi
Gloria Ngabire
Country Director, Rwanda
Ivan Ntwali
Country Director, Uganda
Dan Obus
Chief Financial Officer
Dustin Palmer
Country Director, US
Isabelle Pelly
Director, Partnerships
Daniel Quinn
Director, Humanitarian
Lamia Rashid
Regional Director
Harris Roberts
VP, Growth, Product, Comms & Marketing
Marie-Sophie Pocha
Programs Director, DRC
Caroline Teti
VP, Safeguarding, Risk, Compliance
Carolina Toth
Product Lead
Maureen Trantham
Chief Operating Officer
Caitlin Tuloch
Senior Director, Research and Learning
Eelco Vugs
Director, Safeguarding
Rachel Waddell
Director, Partnerships
Lydiah Wangechi
Regional Director
Ben West
Chief of Staff
Yolande Wright
Vice President, Partnerships
Joseph Yarsiah
Country Director, Liberia
Board of directors
Aly Jeddy
Chairman (US)
Aly Sheezar Jeddy is a Director at McKinsey & Company. He has led the Firm's Private Equity & Principal Investing Practice for the Americas as well as the Strategy Practice on the U.S. East Coast. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Dalton School, the Board of Overseers of the International Rescue Committee, the board of the Aziz Jehan Begum Trust for the Blind, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Jeddy's experience includes work at the War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Office of the Prosecutor, at the World Bank, and with the leading human rights lawyer in Pakistan, advising the Prime Minister on advancing gender equality.
Michael Faye
Executive Chair (US)
Paul Niehaus
Director (US)
Paul Niehaus is co-founder and chairman of GiveDirectly, currently the top-rated nonprofit by GiveWell and ranked among the 25 most audacious companies (Inc) and 10 most innovative companies in finance (Fast Company). GiveDirectly is a recognized leader in the use of modern technology to transfer funds directly to the extreme poor, and in the use of rigorous scientific methods to document its impact. Paul is also a co-founder of Segovia, which builds enterprise technology for the management of social programming in the emerging markets. He holds an academic appointment in the Department of Economics at UC San Diego, where he works with governments in India to improve the implementation of social programming. He is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Junior Affiliate at the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), an Affiliate of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), and an Affiliate at the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA). He holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University and is a National Science Foundation Fellow and a Sloan Fellow. In 2013 Foreign Policy named him one of its 100 leading "Global Thinkers."
Oyin Solebo
Director (US)
Oyin Solebo is a seasoned investor and operator with deep experience in venture capital, startup acceleration, and innovation across Africa. As Managing Director at Techstars, she launched and led the ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator, investing in 24 early-stage startups across fintech, ecommerce, healthtech, logistics, and cleantech — nearly half of which had women co-founders. She previously co-founded MoveMeBack, a Google-funded platform connecting global professionals to African opportunities.
Oyin began her career at Goldman Sachs in Private Wealth Management, managing investment portfolios for ultra-high net worth clients across EMEA. She later joined Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Lagos, where she helped launch the firm’s Sub-Saharan Africa presence and advised clients across sectors.
She holds a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and an Executive MBA (with distinction) from London Business School.
Rohit Wanchoo
Director
Secretary
Treasurer (US)
Rohit is a Principal at a private equity firm in New York. He previously worked as a Research Analyst for the United Nations Millennium Project (UNMP), a group headed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, tasked with preparing a plan for low-income countries to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Prior to his work at the UN, Rohit worked in finance as an investment banker for Lehman Brothers in New York. Rohit holds an MBA from MIT Sloan and an MPA in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Country office boards
Samuel Mwamburi Mwale
Board Member (Kenya)
Samuel founded Farasi Strategy Advisors Ltd, a firm that provides investment and strategy advice to public and private sector clients. He has served in senior positions in the Government of Kenya in the last 10+ years, having served for five as Principal Administrative Secretary and assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, in the Cabinet Office, Office of the President. Previously, he served as Economic Secretary to the Presidency at State House and as Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Planning & National Development and the National Economic & Social Council. Mr. Mwale holds a Master's degree in agricultural economics from the University of Oxford, a Postgraduate Diploma in Development Economics from the University of East Anglia, a Bachelor of Science in Range Management from the University of Nairobi, and has attended executive training on policy analysis at Stanford University and leadership at Harvard University.
Rachel Sibande
Board Member (Malawi)
Rachel Sibande is a Digital Development Specialist. Ms. Sibande established Malawi's first technology and innovation hub; mHub. The hub provides digital skills training, financing and investment readiness support for emerging innovative entrepreneurs. Rachel currently serves as Senior Director at the United Nations Foundation. She leads Big Data for development and Digital Transformation work in Africa. Rachel has over a decade of extensive experience managing development projects in more than 16 countries cutting across digital financial services, public health, agriculture, disaster management and elections monitoring. She became a Google Scholar in 2015, being a recipient of Google's Anita Borg Award for outstanding computer science students from around the world. Rachel has been listed twice by Forbes as one of Africa's 30 under 30 entrepreneurs in 2016 and as a new wealth creator in 2019. In 2018, Ms. Sibande won the Climate Smart Innovation pan African competition of the Next Einstein Forum after inventing a thermal chemical plant that produces light and gas from maize cobs for mini grids to power rural households in Malawi. Rachel completed a PhD in computer Science at Rhodes University in South Africa. She read Cyrptography and Coding Theory for her Masters degree from the Mzuzu University and holds a Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Malawi.
Advisors
Rory Stewart
Rory is an advisor at GiveDirectly.
Previously, he was the UK Secretary of State for International Development, Minister of State for Justice, Minister of State in Foreign Office and DFID (covering Africa, Middle East, and Asia), Minister for the Environment and Chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee.
After a brief period as an infantry officer he joined the UK Diplomatic Service, serving overseas in Jakarta, as British representative to Montenegro in the wake of the Kosovo crisis, and as the coalition Deputy-Governor of two provinces of Southern Iraq following the intervention of 2003. He left the diplomatic service to undertake a two-year walk across Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal.
In 2005, he established the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Kabul, working to restore a section of the old city, establish a clinic, primary school, and Arts Institute, and bring Afghan crafts to international markets. In 2008, he became the Ryan Professor of Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School and Director for the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy. He is a Visiting Fellow at The Jackson Institute at Yale University.
Speaking & Press Requests:
If you are interested in Rory speaking at an event or making a press appearance please email press@givedirectly.org. He’s on Twitter at @RoryStewartUK.
Paul Brest
Paul Brest is Professor Emeritus (active) at Stanford Law School, where he joined the faculty in 1969 and served as Dean from 1987 to 1999. He is also a lecturer at the Graduate School of Business and a faculty co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. He served as president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from 2000 to 2012. A leading scholar and teacher of constitutional law, Paul now focuses his teaching and writing on public policy, judgment and decision making, and philanthropy. He is co-author of Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Professional Judgment (2010) and Money Well Spent: A Strategic Guide to Smart Philanthropy (2008).
Joshua Rugema
Joshua is currently the managing director at H2O Venture Partners, providing leadership for the firm's Africa operations. H2O Venture Partners is an investment firm that is building and investing in profitable, high-growth, high-impact, agricultural ventures in East Africa. Joshua has spent the last decade in private equity and investment management in the US.