Board of directors

Bisrat Aklilu is a senior advisor for sustainable development and fund management for various governments and international organizations. He worked for the United Nations for over 30 years starting as Portfolio Manager for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Deputy Executive Director and Director of Operations of the UN Office of Project Services (UNOPS) and Executive Coordinator of the UN-wide Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF Office) in UNDP. He established and managed the MPTF Office, which when he left the UN in 2013, had a portfolio of over 100 UN Trust Funds with $6 billion funding and was the first UN Office to introduce full public transparency through real-time financial and narrative reporting.

Bisrat has served on the Boards of Oxfam America, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (UNPBF). At present he is on the Boards of Chemonics International (as Vice-Board Chair), Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund (EDTF) and advisor to the Syria Recovery Trust Fund (SRTF). He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Boston University, where he was also an Assistant Professor and a M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Massachusetts.

Before joining International Data Group in 2019, Mohamad was CEO of Carbonite, a publicly traded cloud data protection and security company. Prior to this, he served as Chief Strategy Officer at Hewlett-Packard, and before that as President of Avaya’s global services business. Additionally, Mohamad was Vice President at IBM, where acquired and integrated numerous companies to create IBM’s analytics business. Mohamad holds a bachelor’s degree and a master's degree in electrical engineering, both from Stanford University. He is a director of iRobot, IDG, Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, and the WGBH Educational Foundation. Mohamad was named CEO of the Year by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council in 2018 and a “40 Under 40” member by the Boston Business Journal in 2008.

Margie is an environmental campaigner, strategist, and coalition builder, currently serving as the Campaign Director for the Climate Action Campaign, an unbranded coalition of 14 major national environmental, environmental justice and health organizations focused on winning bold federal action on climate and climate justice. During the 2020 and 2018 elections Margie served as the Program Director for Green Wave, a joint effort by 5 national green groups to mobilize their members to help elect pro-environment members to congress. From 2007 – 2017 Margie was the founding Executive Director of Environment America. Under her leadership the organization grew to include 29 state offices and 1.5 million members, donors, activists and allies. In addition to winning major victories like the Clean Power Plan and the Clean Water Rule at the federal level, during her tenure Environment America helped pass numerous state renewable electricity standards, protected millions of acres of public lands, and won numerous lawsuits against major polluters. While leading Environment America Margie also served as a chair of the Green Group, a coalition of 30+ major national environmental organizations. She helped found the Climate Action Campaign in 2012 and co-chaired the coalition up through 2017. In addition to her issue advocacy and organizing experience Margie has worked on numerous electoral campaigns.

Margie grew up in Long Beach, New York, graduated from Yale College and currently lives in Somerville Massachusetts.

Tony is the International Program Director for Natural Resources and Climate Change for the Ford Foundation. He also serves as the foundation’s representative on the Board of the Climate and Land Use Alliance, ensuring their natural resource governance has a positive impact on public interest.

Tony is also an Australian Laureate Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and Higgins Professor of Environment and Society at Clark University where he also served as Director of the Graduate School of Geography from 2010-17. Prior to that he was a professor at the University of Manchester and held academic positions at Cambridge University and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has also been a social scientist at the World Bank on two separate occasions, and a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute and the International Institute for Environment and Development. He has worked in the Andean countries since the late 1980s on issues of agriculture and rural development, farmer and indigenous organization, and the relationships between extractive industries, livelihoods and socio-environmental conflicts. He has also worked in El Salvador and Indonesia. Tony is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has received distinguished scholarship honors from the Association of American Geographers and has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and Clark University.

Latanya is the CEO and President of the Global Fund for Women. She formerly served as the Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Global, the international arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She also worked for eight years as a human rights officer for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and for ten years with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Latanya served as a delegate to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and continues to fight for the human rights of women. She has received many honors and awards, including two Esteemed Meritorious Honor Awards from the U.S. government and the highest honor in civil service, the Superior Honor Award, from the U.S. State Department. Latanya was one of 30 Foreign Service Officers honored with the Colin Powell Fellowship by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She currently serves as Board of Director at Oxfam America, CHANGE, and Inwood House. Ms. Frett is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and author of four U.N. human rights reports and manuals. She is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and Alum of ICAP. She holds a bachelor of arts in government and politics, a master's in public policy, and a JD from the University of Maryland.

Naima Green-Riley is an instructor and an incoming Assistant Professor jointly appointed to the Department of Politics and the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Her research focuses on U.S. and Chinese public diplomacy, and it uses empirical methods to measure the extent of American and Chinese influence on public opinion in other countries.

Before pursuing her Ph.D. at Harvard University, Naima was a Pickering Fellow and a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State, where she worked in the public diplomacy cone. Naima was the Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Alexandria, Egypt during the Arab Spring (2011-2013). She also served as a Consular Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, China during the Obama administration's "Pivot to Asia" (2014-2015). Naima worked as an intern and an advance associate for the White House in 2010. She contributed to the first ever Forum for Young African Leaders hosted by President Obama, and she worked on subsequent U.S. government youth outreach programming in Africa and the Middle East.

Naima received a Bachelor’s degree (BA) in International Relations with Honors from Stanford University. She was a Belfer Center International and Global Affairs fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she graduated with a Master’s in Public Policy (MPP). She is proficient in Mandarin Chinese, and she also has an intermediate-level knowledge of Arabic.

Joe recently retired after a 35 year career in international insurance. He led Liberty Mutual’s international strategy and expansion from 1995 through 2015, starting and acquiring companies in over 20 countries generating $9 billion in revenues. He has a long experience in the international insurance arena, starting and managing businesses in Latin America, Europe and Asia, as well as the US, with experience in acquisitions, joint ventures, partnerships, and start-ups. He has served as a director on multiple subsidiary and joint venture non-US boards, as chairman and member of several international insurance associations, and as an advisor on financial sector and insurance projects with international supervisory bodies, the World Bank and the WTO. Joe is currently an active advisor and member of the President’s Circle of Acción International, a financial inclusion/microfinance organization. Joe attended the University of Texas at Austin, receiving a BA in Plan II Honors and a MA from the Institute of Latin American Studies. He has lived and spent extensive time in several Latin American countries and Spain. He is fluent in Spanish.

Sherine Jayawickrama is an independent consultant working with international NGOs and foundations to enhance organizational governance, adapt institutional architecture, improve organizational learning, and evaluate organizational evolution processes.

From 2008 to 2013, Sherine managed the Humanitarian & Development NGOs domain of practice at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University, and served as Executive Director of the NGO Leaders Forum, a gathering of the CEOs of America’s major international NGOs. For ten years, she played a coordination role for the NGO Leaders Forum. Between 1999 and 2009, Sherine worked at CARE USA for ten years in roles related to policy analysis and advocacy, regional management (Asia) and the Office of the President. Earlier in her career, Sherine worked on environmental policy issues in Sri Lanka, where she grew up.

Sherine has a B.A. in economics and international relations from Scripps College, and an M.P.A. from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.

Lionel C. Johnson became president of the Pacific Pension & Investment Institute in July 2014. His career spans nearly four decades during which he has been a leader in international business, public policy, and economic development. He has served as senior vice president of the Initiative for Global Development, as vice president of Turkey, Middle East, and North Africa Affairs at the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, and as senior vice president of Public Affairs at Fleishman-Hillard.

Previously, Johnson was vice president and director of International Government Affairs at Citigroup and deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for International Development, Debt and Environment Policy in the Clinton Administration. He was also a senior advisor for Resources, Plans, and Policy to Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and a member of the Department of State Policy Planning Staff. He served as deputy director of the Clinton/Gore transition team at the Department of State.

As a member of the U.S. Foreign Service, Johnson held assignments in the U.S. Embassies in Haiti, the Philippines and Kenya. He also served as special assistant to Secretaries of State George P. Shultz and James A. Baker III. Johnson was a senior program officer at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. He was a graduate instructor of U.S. foreign policy and American politics at the City University of Manila, Philippines, and received his B.A. in political science from Rutgers University in 1982.

Johnson is chairman of Foreign Policy for America, chairman of Sudoc, and a member of the board of trustees of the RAND Corporation. He also serves on the boards of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS), International Research & Exchanges (IREX), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), and the Center for U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC). He has two children, Alicia and Christopher.

Yana Watson Kakar is the CEO of the Growth for Good Acquisition Corporation, a $253M SPAC focused on supporting inclusive and sustainable companies to scale through the public market. Yana is also the Global Managing Partner Emeritus of Dalberg Advisors. In 2020 she concluded two terms as the Global Managing Partner, having led the firm to triple global revenues and to grow to nearly 30 offices worldwide over the course of her tenure. A recognized expert in sustainable investing and ESG integration, Yana has worked for over 15 years with leaders across the public and private sectors to develop inclusive and environmentally sound strategies that stimulate economic growth and drive financial returns.

In addition to Oxfam America, Yana serves on the Board of the African Enterprise Challenge Fund and is a member of the Young Presidents Organization. In 2018, Yana was appointed to serve on the African Presidential Youth Advisory Council, advising heads of industry and state on matters of youth entrepreneurship and employment across Africa. Her perspectives have been published widely, including in Bloomberg, the Financial Times, The Huffington Post, Impact Alpha, Business Insider, DevEx, The Guardian, The Economist and Forbes. Yana holds a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University. She is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, speaks five languages and lives with her husband, two children and much-loved dog in New York.

Sumaira Khalid is a Senior Development Officer on Oxfam America’s Institutional Funding and Partnerships Team, where she builds funding partnerships for a broad range of programs tackling inequality.

Sumaira has worked in development and international affairs for more than 10 years in Asia and United States. Prior to working for Oxfam, Sumaira led a partnerships portfolio at the UN for a $30m program funded by the UK government across Pakistan. Previously, Sumaira also worked for CARE, IRC, and Pakistan Diplomatic Mission to the United States in Washington, DC. Sumaira holds a Bachelor of Laws from University of London and a Master of Laws degree from Northwestern University School of Law. An avid baker and a chronic bibliophile, Sumaira is mother to a feisty six-year old.

Homi Kharas is the Interim Vice President and Director of the Global Economy and Development program. In that capacity, he studies policies and trends influencing developing countries, including aid to poor countries, the emergence of the middle class, and global governance and the G-20. He has advised the UN Secretary General on the post-2015 development agenda, and has consulted for various governments, including Sweden and Malaysia, as well as for international organizations, including the World Bank Group, the United Nations, the International Fund for Agriculture Development, the OECD, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Global Fund Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Qatar National Research Fund, and the Centennial Group.

Prior to joining Brookings, Dr. Kharas spent 26 years at the World Bank, serving for seven years as Chief Economist for the World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific region and Director for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, Finance and Private Sector Development, responsible for the Bank’s advice on structural and economic policies, fiscal issues, debt, trade, governance and financial markets. He holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University and has an M.A. and B.A. from King's College, University of Cambridge.

As President and CEO of Oxfam America, Abby Maxman seeks to create a future that is equal. She mobilizes people and resources worldwide to make positive social change and to provide lifesaving support to people in crisis.

Over 30 years, Abby’s approach has been informed by the everyday economic, climate, and gender injustices faced by the people she works with and for, as well as her experience living and working through social change movements, regional and geopolitical shifts and humanitarian and development challenges. These include: apartheid in southern Africa; the HIV/AIDs and Ebola epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa; chronic food insecurity and famine in Ethiopia; post-genocide relief and recovery in Rwanda; strengthening community organizations during the Rose Revolution in Georgia; and large-scale responses to humanitarian disaster in Haiti.

Abby strives for accountability by examining and changing the power dynamics within the aid sector. Since joining Oxfam America in 2017, she has transformed the Senior Leadership Team and Board of Directors to be more representative of the diversity of people Oxfam works with and has elevated the organizational focus on gender and climate justice and fighting inequality.

Abby is a leader on safeguarding systems and cultures in the aid sector, as well as humanitarian and development policy, practice, and learning. She has been at the forefront of Oxfam’s response to the COVID pandemic; launching and leading the organization's ambitious 2030 strategy; championing accountability, and galvanizing action for vaccine equity.

Recognizing that long-term change to address the root causes of poverty and injustice requires joining with others, Abby plays an important role supporting, coordinating, and sharing efforts and expertise with NGOs and other organizations. This includes serving as Vice Chair of Interaction, Chair of the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response, Representative on the UN Inter Agency Standing Committee, and representing Oxfam on the boards of Frontline AIDS, Global Executive Leadership Initiative, and the Classy Leadership Council.

Abby has served as Deputy Secretary General of CARE International, Vice President of International Programs and Operations and in leadership roles in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Middle East for CARE USA. She has also served with US government agencies, the German development agency, and the UN World Food Programme. Abby holds a BA in History and Political Science, a Masters in International Administration, and several Honorary Doctorate degrees. She is a mother of three and lives in MA with her husband and children.

Oussama Mezoui currently works as as people-oriented nonprofit consultant.

From 2016 to 2021, he served as the Founder & CEO of Penny Appeal USA, a social services, relief, and development organization committed to alleviating poverty in the US and overseas. Since launching in 2016, the organization grew substantially each year, raising over $25m USD from individuals, companies, and foundations.

Prior to establishing Penny Appeal USA, Oussama served in a number of positions for nonprofit organizations in the UK and the US, where he held titles of Campaigns Manager, Chief of staff, and VP Programs.

Oussama currently serves as a Board Director at the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), a DC based nonprofit organization that provides objective research and education about American Muslims to support well-informed dialogue and decision-making. In the past he also served on the boards of Our Three Winners Foundation and InterAction.

Oussama holds a BA in History from Queen Mary, University of London and a JD from the University of Oxford.

Carl has dedicated his professional life to international investment banking, social impact investing, and development finance. Most recently he served as CEO of the Inter-American Investment Corporation, the multilateral private sector investment banking affiliate of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC. Early in his career he was a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan & Co. where he was Head of Investment Banking for Mexico and Senior Risk Officer for Latin America. He also designed an innovative social investment strategy for the firm. Carl later focused on innovations in the fields of social and development finance. He was an investor, strategy consultant, and board member to companies, foundations and academia primarily in Europe, the United States and Latin America. He has served on several international corporate and not-for-profit boards, including Voxiva, Microvest, Ashoka (Spain), Global Citizen Year, and Emzingo. He is a co-founder of the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University and on the Advisory Board of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at Notre Dame. Carl has degrees from the University of Notre Dame and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Between degrees he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Roshan Paul has spent his life questioning the status quo, and built a career around connecting global citizens to solve social problems across boundaries. He currently heads the Leadership Practice at IREX, where he manages a team of nearly 100 people and over $100 million in projects to foster emerging leaders across the world.

Prior to IREX, Roshan co-founded Amani Institute and co-led the organization from an idea to an award-winning social enterprise and the largest career development organization dedicated to social impact in the global south. Under his leadership, Amani Institute helped more than 10,000 people from over 65 countries build innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship skills, among others. Based on this work, he co-authored the Amazon #1 bestseller The New Reason to Work: How to Build a Career that will Change the World.

Raised in Bangalore, India, Roshan has a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor’s in International Political Economy from Davidson College. He has spoken at over 50 universities and other institutions around the world including commencement speeches and TEDx talks. Roshan has written two other books, and his writing has also been published in Forbes, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, MIT’s Innovations Journal, India Today, and the India Development Review.

Jack is a lawyer, and a Senior Fellow at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, working in its Veterans Legal Clinic.

Jack is a retired partner in the Boston office of WilmerHale’s Litigation Department, where he was a member of its Intellectual Property Litigation and Business Trial Practice Groups. He served for many years as Co-chair of WilmerHale’s Pro Bono Committee, which manages the firm’s extensive pro bono legal services, inner city community services programs, and international cases for NGOs and disadvantaged peoples in Africa and Latin America. He had an active pro bono practice, including extensive work in Haiti, the representation of veterans, and counseling nonprofits in many sectors.

Jack is a former President of the Boston Bar Association and trustee of its charitable-granting arm, the Boston Bar Foundation. Jack has also been a board member, trustee and board chair for a variety of other important Boston area nonprofits. He currently is a trustee of the Lynch Foundation, a major charitable grant maker in Boston.

Jack is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar. Jack served as a lieutenant in the US Navy, and deployed to the Mediterranean, and on a frigate to the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Tonkin and Persian Gulf areas.

Kitt is a member of the Oxfam America board of directors and chairman of the board of the Oxfam America Action Fund. A lawyer and former managing director of Goulston & Storrs, he practices general corporate and business law. The bulk of his practice involves mergers, acquisitions, shareholder and partnership agreements, debt and equity financing, and other general corporate matters. He coordinates Goulston & Storrs’ pro bono representation of Oxfam America, counseling the organization on its international relief and development efforts. He was a co founder of Boston Employment Service (“Strive”) and currently serves on the board of directors of Strategies for Children and on the board of overseers of the New England Aquarium. Kitt did his undergraduate studies at Princeton University and received his law degree from Boston College Law School.

Jamey has been Accenture’s Chief Tax Officer since 2001; in addition he has held various finance leadership roles with the company. Accenture provides services in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations, to clients in over 120 countries across more than 40 industries. Before Accenture, Jamey worked in the international tax group for a global accounting firm advising clients in the technology industry.

Jamey is active in professional and tax policy organizations and has taught as a visiting professor in international tax.

Jamey and his wife Laura have three children and live in Marion, Massachusetts

Michael Silberman has been guiding social change organizations to achieve greater impact through the creative use of participatory strategies and technologies for more than a decade. He was the founder and Global Director of the Mobilisation Lab, which equipped a growing global network of advocacy campaigners at organizations like Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and Save the Children with the skills and support they needed to win change in today's digital world.

Silberman is recognized as one of the U.S.’s 50 most influential leaders by The NonProfit Times and one of LinkedIn’s "Top Professionals 35 and Under" transforming the social impact sector. He teaches digital-era advocacy and campaigning to graduate students at George Washington University and serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations.

Silberman got his start on Governor Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign where he mobilized 200,000 grassroots volunteers through “Meetups” and built one of the first successful digital organizing programs in American politics. Prior to launching the MobLab, Silberman was a partner and co-founder at Echo & Co, an award-winning digital strategy firm.

Smita Singh is the Chief Strategy Officer for the Open Society Foundations where she leads the development of their strategic direction across global and regional programs.

Smita Singh was previously the founding director of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Global Development Program. While she was director, the Program carried out extensive international grant-making and started several new initiatives, including the Think Tank Initiative, the Transparency and Accountability Initiative, and the partnership for Quality Education in Developing Countries. She helped create the International Initiative in Impact Evaluation (3ie), a new international agency devoted to improving the measurement of results in development interventions. She also initiated the Foundation's efforts to reform development assistance policy and practices which included seeding the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. Before joining the Foundation, she was a scholar at the Harvard Academy of International and Area Studies. Her research interests focus on the comparative political economy of developing countries, and she has lived and worked in several countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She has also worked for the Commission on National and Community Service (now called Corporation for National Service), where she was responsible for developing higher education initiatives and funding strategies for dispersing grants to community service and service-learning projects at over 200 colleges and universities. Before joining the commission, she worked at ABC News "Nightline" and prior to that, with community-based women's organizations in India. Ms. Singh sits on the governing boards of Oxfam America as Chair, the Natural Resource Governance Institute as Vice Chair, Twaweza, International Budget Partnership as Vice Chair and the Center for Global Development. She is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group and served on the US President's Global Development Council under Barack Obama.

Tara is a high yield bond portfolio manager and analyst, as well as co-research director for fixed income, at Capital Research and Management Company. She is based in New York but also spends significant time in Los Angeles, where Capital Research is headquartered. She is a chartered financial analyst. Tara is also a member of the Fixed Income Board of the Applied Security Analysis Program, at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and works closely with students looking to enter the investment profession.

Dabie is a Senior Managing Director and the National Accounting Advisory Leader of Riveron Consulting. Dabie brings more than two decades of experience in a wide range of specialties, including integrated audits of large multinational companies and deep expertise in US GAAP and IFRS, SEC and IPO filings, accounting advisory, SOX 404 controls and processes, credit risk, mergers and acquisitions, consolidations, and corporate governance. She was previously with CrossCountry Consulting, where she served as its West Region Leader and San Francisco Office Managing Partner. Prior to that, she was with KPMG for 23 years and held a variety of lead roles as partner in KPMG’s audit practice, including as the global lead audit partner for one of the world’s global top 40 banks.

Dabie is a US certified public accountant and a Canadian chartered accountant. She has significant expertise working in different countries, and is fluent in English, Spanish, and Chinese.

After 26 years in the investment management industry, Kim retired in 2005 as senior vice president, partner, and associate director of global industry research at Wellington Management Company, LLP. Since then she has been devoting time to helping nonprofit organizations, with a special interest in reducing global poverty. Originally from the UK, Kim has known about Oxfam for years and joined the Oxfam America Leadership Council in 2006. She was a member of Oxfam America’s campaign executive committee in its last major fundraising campaign and serves as vice-chair of the campaign committee for the current campaign.

Kim is on the boards of the Anna Jaques Hospital, Concord Academy, and MicroVest Holdings. She has traveled throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, providing insights into the potential opportunities and challenges faced by US corporations in an increasingly global environment. Kim graduated from Kingston Polytechnic with a bachelor’s degree, with joint honors from the University of Rennes, and from the University of London with a master’s degree in economics. She and her husband Trevor Miller live in Newbury, Mass., and have three college-aged children, Alex, Rebecca, and Ben.