Our team
Our personnel come from a wide variety of backgrounds, ensuring that we have a good mix of analytical skills and field-based experience.
Vinny Smith
Chief Operating Officer
Vinny leads the internal management of Development Initiatives and is responsible for making sure that all our programmes are coherent, effective, well run and properly supported. In addition, Vinny has overall responsibility for strategic and financial planning, budgeting, information sharing and shaping our organisation as a rewarding and achieving place to work.
Prior to joining Development Initiatives, Vinny led a senior team at Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse (CAADA) and major change management programmes at Cancer Research UK. He has worked in UK not-for profits for 10 years and has a further 5 years' commercial marketing and communications experience.
Vinny has an BA(Hons) in Politics from the University of York, is trained in ‘Leading Strategy and Change’ at Ashridge Management College, was a member of Cancer Research UK’s fast track management development programme and has worked briefly in Australia for the Australian Heart Foundation.
Mariella Di Ciommo
Analyst/Researcher
Mariella holds a master’s degree in Social Anthropology from LSE, where she focused on globalisation, democracy and international development issues, and a master’s degree in Economic, Statistical and Social Sciences from Bocconi University, Milan.
Before joining Development Initiatives, Mariella worked for Caritas and local grassroots organisations in the fields of education, citizens’ engagement and rural development in Bolivia and Brazil. In Italy, she gained professional experience contributing to a prominent exhibition on fair and sustainable development.
Mariella speaks Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
Mandy Burrows
Business Analyst
Mandy joined Development Initiatives in 2011 as a Business Analyst on the aidinfo programme and the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). She is currently part way through studying for a distance learning masters degree in International Humanitarian Psychosocial Consultation, having already completed an undergraduate degree in psychology and a masters in management.
Prior to joining the aidinfo team, Mandy worked for the National Audit Office on their Value for Money programme, looking at the effectiveness, efficiency and economy of projects, and also working on aspects of project management and evaluation. She has a particular interest in working in international development having spent much of her childhood in Africa.
Judith Randel
Executive Director
Judith is a co-founder and Executive Director of Development Initiatives. Together with Tony German, she provides strategic direction for Development Initiatives.
Prior to establishing Development Initiatives in 1992, Judith and Tony job-shared as director of public affairs at ActionAid. They have produced a wealth of publications and papers, notably as founding editors and advisors on Reality of Aid, 1991Ð2004.
Judith is well known in the NGO and donor communities for her work on aid statistics, financing instruments and humanitarian aid trends and is a sought-after speaker on the issue. Judith notably directs the Global Humanitarian Assistance programme and our work with ONE/DATA.
Tony German
Executive Director
Tony is a co-founder and Executive Director of Development Initiatives. Together with Judith Randel, he provides strategic direction for Development Initiatives.
Tony's analysis, research and communication work in the development and aid arena has prompted high-level policy debate and action on critical issues such as the role of public engagement in poverty reduction, the importance of social investment and social security beyond national borders and attention to rights that underline the potential for eradicating poverty by 2025.
Having played an instrumental role in highlighting the concept, symptoms and effects of chronic poverty, Tony is now working to build consensus on the need for an MDG+ strategy to be put in place by 2010 and to agree the affordability and achiehvability of absolute poverty elimination by a specified date.
Alex Beech
Communications Officier
Alex works for the aidinfo programme as Communications Officer, having previously worked for the National Trust as a Web Editor and for RESULTS UK as a researcher on their TB/HIV co-infection campaign. She contributes to the goals of aidinfo by writing and editing content for the website and other publications and leading on a range of communications and multi-media projects.
Alex has a BSc in Anthropology and an MPhil in International Development; as part of her studies she spent three months in the southern Philippines conducting research among indigenous communities.
Asma Zubairi
Analyst/Policy Advisor
Asma is an Economic and Statistical Analyst who is responsible for our analysis of official development assistance and other resource flows. Asma is an economist with a background in development studies. She has a masters specialising in global political economy from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex and has spent 3 years working with a developing country government on aid effectiveness and government budgetary practices, as well as advising on policy in the Education sector.
Bill Anderson
Data Standards and Systems Analyst
Bill is an information systems specialist with a particular interest in country ownership and public sector capacity-building issues in Africa. He is a South African who worked for fifteen years as an intelligence analyst for the African National Congress and subsequently spent fifteen years in the UK software industry specialising in electronic data interchange. In 2005 he combined his two skill-sets to focus on the development of public information systems in Africa.
Carolyn Culey
Senior Policy Advisor
Carolyn joined Development Initiatives in 2008 as Senior Policy Adviser on the AidInfo programme. She leads aidinfo’s advocacy work in promoting the case for aid transparency and is a member of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Secretariat.
Carolyn has 18 years’ policy and campaigning experience in the international development sector. She led Oxfam GB’s parliamentary and government relations work for 11 years and subsequently worked for a wide range of NGOs on a freelance basis, offering strategic advice and undertaking campaign evaluations.
Charles Lwanga Ntale
Regional Director, East & Central Africa
Charles is the Regional Director and Special Adviser for East & Central Africa. His work continues to evolve, and presently it focuses on chronic poverty and vulnerability issues, effectiveness of development assistance, linking evidence to policy, and developing north-south partnerships. He has particular interest in working on African Development, and prior to taking up his new job at DI he worked as Head of Social Protection for Africa for Helpage International (2010-2011); Executive Director (and founder) of Development Research and Training (Uganda), and Coordinator of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre’s activities in Eastern Africa.
He has researched on chronic poverty, aid effectiveness, and social protection, and has also had considerable involvement in institutional capacity building, project design, strategic planning, evaluation, and development of monitoring and evaluation systems. Specific themes of interest include HIV and AIDS, exclusion, disability, decentralization, and chronic poverty.
Corinne Durbin
Office Co-Ordinator
Corinne runs the main Development Initiatives HQ in Wells as well as coordinating the facilities that enable everyone to work from their remote bases.
Corinne joined us from a marketing and advertising agency and brings with her over 20 years’ experience from the banking, construction, media and service industries.
Daniel Coppard
Senior Policy Advisor
As a Senior Policy Advisor, Daniel Coppard works across several projects and programmes. He leads DI’s analytical work on development assistance, and engages on cross-cutting issues of poverty and vulnerability.
Dan is a political economist with a background in rural livelihoods and the environment. He has a PhD in agrarian political ecology from the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia, and has undertaken a wide range of academic research and consultancy in South Asia and Africa in areas such as labour migration, livelihood trajectories, growth linkages, rural economies and climate change. He has over 12 years experience in development policy and advocacy.
Daniele Malerba
Analyst
Daniele is an analyst, supporting the workstream leaders with in-depth research, analysis and data interpretation.
Daniele graduated with a master’s degree in Economics and Social Sciences from Bocconi University, Milan. His master’s thesis focused on development and trade patterns of manufacturing firms in sub-Saharan Africa, through statistical and econometric analysis. During this time he had work experience at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) headquarters in Vienna and UNU-Merit, Maastricht. Prior to working at Development Initiatives, Daniele worked with various economic and social research groups in Milan.
Dan Sparks
Programme/Research Assistant
Dan provides quantitative and analytical research support to the GHA programme. His main area of research has been to identify investments in disaster risk reduction in existing data sets and develop a methodology to track DRR funding. Dan also provides administrative support to the GHA team, managing the GHA helpdesk and is in charge of distributing GHA’s materials.
Dan started working for the GHA team as an intern after completing a Masters in Social Development and Sustainable Livelihoods from the University of Reading in October 2009. Prior to studying for his Masters Dan spent two years working in the donor services and marketing departments of the agriculture development charity Send a Cow. Through his studies and work Dan has conducted qualitative research in Uganda, Lesotho and Montserrat.
Georgina Brereton
Communications Officier
Georgina works for the Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) programme as Communications Officer on a range of projects including the coordination of report production, website development, and outreach activities. She worked previously in the field of UK child poverty, latterly for The Buttle Trust in communications and project management and formerly assisting in Oxfam’s media unit. She has worked on short term development projects in Benin, India and most recently Uganda where she implemented an educational programme for an abandoned babies project in Kampala.
Georgina studied French and Italian at Bristol University, which involved spending several months in la Réunion and Perugia and later spent a couple of months learning Spanish in Seville. She has recently undertaken studies in International Studies with the Open University.
Hannah Sweeney
Programme Officer
Hannah is a programme officer and works predominantly for the Global Humanitarian Assistance programme. When required Hannah also provides support to DI’s humanitarian consultancy work.
At present she is taking a lead on the financing mechanisms workstream of the Global Humanitarian Assistance Programme which includes in-depth research and data analysis on this topic. She also assists the programme leader in the day-to-day management of the programme and reporting to donors on progress.
Hannah joined Development Initiatives in January 2009 after completing a Masters in International Social Development and a five week volunteer project building a school in a village in Kenya. Prior to this she completed a undergraduate studies in Spanish, French and Business Studies which included a year spent working for the British Council in Mexico City as a teaching assistant.
Isabel Bucknall
Programme Officer
Isabel works as a Programme Officer on aidinfo, mainly for the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Secretariat of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). Her other work focuses on stakeholder management, coordination of the aid transparency group and other programme support. She is also looking at how philanthropic foundations can be involved in IATI. She started working at Development Initiatives in September 2009, having spent two months as an intern on the Global Humanitarian Assistance programme, before working as a Programme and Research Assistant cross-programmes.
Isabel graduated from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in July 2009 with first class honours, having studied Theology and Religious Studies, with a focus on Indian religions and Christianity in countries facing political and social conflict. Over the past four years, she has spent nine months in India, teaching English and researching for her academic work.
Jan Kellett
Programme Lead - GHA
Jan is the leader of the work of the GHA programme and is also specifically responsible for the workstream on Global Trends.
Jan joined Development Initiatives after spending more than 10 years working in some of the most complex humanitarian and recovery contexts, mostly for the United Nations. He has worked in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Indian Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Namibia, Jordan, and the Balkans and brings a range of experience in post-conflict and post-disaster settings, from the management of post-conflict recovery programmes at field level, through to senior level UN coordination and leadership duties. His work has included the implementation of community-infrastructure projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, running a host-family project for the refugees from the Macedonian war, together with Thomson Reuters the development of the first independent news agency for Iraq, examining the disaster management structure of Macedonia, undertaking the post-disaster needs assessment in Kashmir, the coordination of UN activities in South Sudan, Bangladesh and Iraq. In the four years leading up to joining Development Initiatives, Jan was senior advisor to various UN resident and humanitarian coordinators.
Jan holds a degree in Media Arts from Royal Holloway and a Masters in Civilisation and Barbarism from Queen Mary and Westfield
Janet Reilly
HR Finance & Projects Manager
Janet’s background is in Human Resources where her career spans over 15 years, 10 of which were spent at a blue chip professional services firm in London.
After taking a short career break to spend time with her children, Janet joined Development Initiatives in January 2007 and has been instrumental in assisting in our growth and success.
Heading up our Central Services function, Janet provides a range of support, including developing HR policy and practice, management and development; performance management; recruitment and retention; employee relations and engagement.
In addition, Janet manages the contracts and relationships of our privately funded projects and has an overview on business and financial management, IT and Facilities.
Janet is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
Kerry Smith
Programme Officer
Kerry leads the non-DAC donor government workstream.
Kerry’s work includes collecting and analysing data on non-DAC donors, writing the non-DAC donor chapter for the GHA report, conducting research, producing country profiles, outreaching to donors and relevant stakeholders as well as attending external meetings.
Kerry first started working with Development Initiatives on an internship in May 2007 while studying for an MSc in International Development at the University of Bath. In 2008, Kerry joined Development Initiatives full time, working across all programmes. Prior to that, Kerry taught English in Japan, volunteered with the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) in London and lived and worked in Nigeria for VSO.
Lisa Walmsley
Communications and Data Advisor
Lisa leads the data, communications and official development assistance (ODA) workstreams on the Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) programme.
Lisa has over 12 years’ experience of data analysis, interpretation, presentation and communication for policymakers and industry experts in communications technology and international development. Four of these years were spent in humanitarian funding and reporting functions within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement – firstly as an executive assistant within the international aid department of the British Red Cross and later as a desk editor within the external resources department of the ICRC, Geneva.
Lisa first started working with Development Initiatives on a consultancy basis in May 2006, joining the organisation on a permanent basis in January 2008. Her latest projects for Development Initiatives include: the production of the GHA Report 2009, development of the Global Humanitarian Assistance brand and logo and website redevelopment.
Lisa is fluent in French and Spanish.
Louise Lane
Finance Officer
Louise works for Development Initiatives as Finance Officer. Whilst assisting in the day to day finances of the company she also manages the budgets of the both the aidinfo and GHA programmes and produces financial information for both Development Initiatives and donors, she also advises on budget planning for projects and finance policy.
Louise has been with Development Initiatives for just over a year coming from a predominantly manufacturing background, her previous roles including Wessex Area Management Accountant for Bardon Aggregates (quarrying industry), Management Accountant for Strongvox Ltd (house builders) and Wyke Farms Ltd (award winning cheesemakers).
Louise is a fully qualified Accounting Technician, and part qualified Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and brings with her over 13 years accountancy experience
Lydia Poole
Policy Advisor
Lydia is a policy advisor for the Global Humanitarian Assistance programme. She manages our work on conflict and the military and co-manages our work on the scale and severity of humanitarian needs.
Lydia has worked in Africa and South Asia with several NGOs and UN OCHA in both operational programming and humanitarian coordination in complex emergency and disaster environments. Lydia has also written policy papers covering a variety of security and humanitarian issues.
Lydia holds a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Cambridge and a Masters in Violence, Conflict and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Matt Bartlett
Programme Administrator
Matt works part-time as Programme Administrator on aidinfo, providing support for many areas of the programme. Principally this involves report writing, budget work, stakeholder profiling and organising meetings and travel for the team.
Matt graduated from the University of Kent with a degree in English Literature and French, which incorporated a year studying at the University of Avignon in France. After completing his degree in 2002, Matt spent two years as a small business owner before moving into the charity and not-for-profit sector. Prior to joining DI in October 2010, Matt worked for The Web of Hope charity in Bath and previously as the Office Manager of a large church in Canterbury.
Rob Tew
Analyst/Policy Advisor
Rob works across a number of projects and programmes within Development Initiatives as an economics and statistics advisor.
As part of the aidinfo programme, Rob has carried out studies on the status of aid information in a number of partner countries and he represents aidinfo on the Technical Advisory Group of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). He is also undertaking analysis of donor budgeting processes as part of the Budget 4 Change programme. Rob also carried out statistical analysis of aid data for The DATA Report 2009.
Prior to working for Development Initiatives, Rob gained over 10 years' experience of implementing information management programmes in the financial services sector.
Rob has a first-class honours degree in Development and Economics from the London School of Economics.
Sarah Chambers
Finance Officer
Sarah is our finance officer and is central to the efficient operation of both our private consultancy practice and the not-for-profit company. Her key role is to keep an official track of company spending and an accurate trail of all the financial movements.
Sarah’s role covers day-to-day bookkeeping, performing monthly payroll and also covering certain HR duties. One of Sarah’s objectives is to make sure the company keeps up to date with all relevant legislation in the financial field. Sarah has passed her Level 3 AAT qualification at Strode College whilst working at Development Initiatives.
Prior to working for Development Initiatives Sarah spent six years in a restaurant partnership, during which time she obtained her qualification as a bookkeeper with the International Association of Bookkeepers.
Simon Parrish
Technology Solutions Advisor
Simon works chiefly on the aidinfo programme, advising on data standards and the application of technology.
He is currently providing support to the Technical Advisory Group of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), leading on the data formats, technical architecture and systems workstream. This will support existing and new information providers in assessing impact and implementing the IATI standard.
Simon joined us from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and brings first-hand experience of delivering improvements to the systems that underpin donor business processes and systems.
Prior to joining DFID, Simon worked at the BBC as a media data consultant, analysing complex data requirements and advising on the use of data standards.
Velina Stoianova
Policy Advisor
Velina joined Development Initiatives at the beginning of 2010 and works as the policy advisor for our work-stream on delivery agencies. She also co-leads the pilot stage of Development Initiatives’ research on the scale of humanitarian needs.
Velina holds a BA in Political Science, with specialisation in International Relations, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Victoria Room
Policy Advisor
Victoria is the Policy Advisor for aidinfo, leading aidinfo’s work on research and partnerships. As part of this, Victoria works with a wide range of organisations to build an evidence base on the need for aid transparency and to join up the various efforts to make resources for poverty reduction more transparent. Victoria also works on exploring the potential of crowdsourcing to create feedback loops in the aid system.
Victoria coordinates the day-to-day management of aidinfo, preparing reports to funders and representing aidinfo at external meetings.
Prior to joining Development Initiatives, Victoria worked for Panos London on the Information Society and Globalisation Programmes. Victoria has a Masters in International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam.
Tim Strawson
Analyst
Tim joined Development Initiatives from the South African National Treasury, where he worked as a senior economist in the Public Finance division under a Fellowship from the Overseas Development Institute. Tim holds an honors degree in Economics from the University of Sussex and a Master’s degree in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford, where his thesis examined monetary policy transmission mechanisms in Botswana. He has experience in Argentina and Zambia, and previously worked for Five Talents, a microfinance charity.
Karen Rono
Analyst
Karen is a Junior Analyst based in our Nairobi Office and is part of a team of professionals who are providing in-depth research, collection, analysis and interpretation of data on resource flows in order to support our work on the East African region’s poverty eradication objectives.
Karen has a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania with a specialization in Public Finance and Health Economics. Her Masters dissertation was on the Econometric analysis of the Determinants of Health care Provider Choices for Malaria and Respiratory disease Patients in Kenya. While at Dar es Salaam, she also served as a tutorial assistant in the Economics Department, and also participated in a Behavioral Economics Research: “Micro Finance Games across the city of Dar es Salaam” to determine the demand for Health Insurance among members of a Micro Finance institution.
Karen speaks English and Swahili.
Kenn Okwaroh
Analyst
Kenn is an Analyst providing research expertise to the Africa office, based in Nairobi. He carries out routine gathering, analysis and interpretation of data on resource flows earmarked for poverty reduction and development and provides technical support for our work on poverty reduction in Africa.
Kenn holds a Master of Science degree in International Development from the University of Birmingham with a focus on development policy and research. His Masters thesis involved an Analysis of the Efficacy of Foreign Direct Investment as a Poverty Reduction Policy Option in the KwaZulu Natal Province of South Africa.
Kenn has a deep interest in governance, institutions and political economy of cities and regions in the developing world and has experience in coordinating development projects attained from engagement with Civil Society in Kenya and training in Project Management from the Kenya Institute of Management.
Emmanuel Rukundo
Analyst
Emmanuel is a development economist with degrees from Makerere University Kampala and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. His postgraduate research was on Decentralisation and health service delivery in Uganda.
Previously, he worked as a Research Officer with FARST Africa, a public health and development consulting firm in Kampala working largely on health and development evaluations. He has a good working knowledge of both qualitative and quantitative research skills and has worked on a wide range of development issues including social protection, health financing and participatory poverty assessments for IDS in the UK, World Vision International and Uganda’s Ministry of Finance.
Emmanuel is based in our office in Kampala, Uganda where he shares office space with our colleagues at DRT (Development Research and Training).
Mariam Ibrahim
Executive Assistant
Mariam is an Executive Assistant providing PA support to the Regional Director based in the Nairobi office. In addition, Mariam assists in the implementation of the Africa programme work as well as covering administration, facilities and financial management of the office.
Prior to joining Development Initiatives, Mariam worked in the banking industry (Barclays Bank of Kenya), where she garnered experience in finance and accounting, corporate communication and administration as well as contributing to the corporate social responsibility arm of the bank. This responsibility included working with the less privileged in society, providing direct income support for self sustenance.
Her previous work also included time with the Kenya Wildlife Service on accounting, data processing and program interventions. She holds a BA (Hons) majoring in Sociology and Business Administration (minor) from Kenyatta University and an MBA in Strategic Management from the Kenya Methodist University.
