IIRR - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Private Equity Specialist and Investor
- Senior Advisor, Amethis
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Avanade, South East Asia
Dane Smith is a consultant on peacebuilding and development, with an emphasis on Africa. In 2014 he spent five months teaching peacebuilding as a visiting professor at the Martin Luther King Evangelical University of Nicaragua in Managua. In 2011 and 2012 he served as Senior Advisor on Darfur in the State Department's Office of the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan. Ambassador Smith made a dozen visits to Darfur, meeting with government officials, rebel leaders, refugees in Chad, internally displaced persons in numerous camps, civil society and human rights activists, as well as UN and African Union peacekeepers and senior representatives. He played a significant role in the negotiation in Qatar of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur signed in 2011 by the Sudanese Government and a major Darfuri armed
Deng Gop Awur, 30 years old, is a learner in Nem-thok Learning Centre. He is one of the many youths in the cattle camps that had never gotten a chance of attending school. Deng says all he knew was to look after cattle and provide security to other members against attack or cattle raiding. When asked if he will continue with the learning Deng shared that he is excited because he thought education would never come to the cattle camps. He now interacts more with fellow youth in the cattle camps.
Job Titles:
- Chief Investment Officer of Long Biased Strategies at Kirkoswald
Dr. David S. Bassiouni is a veteran humanitarian and emergency expert. He served in the United Nations system for over two decades, primarily working with UNICEF, DHA, OCHA and UNDGO. He was the first-ever Humanitarian Coordinator and the only Coordinator to be appointed by the Secretary-General and the Security Council. Dr. Bassiouni's expertise cuts broadly across humanitarian affairs and assistance, complex emergencies, conflict and crisis resolution, safety and security, change management, sustainable development, agricultural and natural resource development and management, and his first career in veterinary medicine.
He has held several senior positions in the UN including Deputy Director of UNICEF's Office of Emergency Programmes, Chief of Inter-Agency and Response Branches in DHA/OCHA and Coordinator for IASC/ECHA, Rappoteuer to the high-level panel on the Humanitarian Response Review and Senior Technical Coordinator for the Joint UN/WB Needs Assessment of Somalia. He has also served as UNICEF's Representatives in seven countries including Somalia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Ethiopia, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Egypt and Bangladesh. Prior to his career in the UN, Dr. Bassiouni served in senior government positions, including Regional Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Sudan.
A graduate of the School of Veterinary Medicine of Khartoum University, Sudan, Dr. Bassiouni holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government as well as a Parvin Fellowship from Princeton University. In addition to his role on the Board at IIRR, he sits on the boards of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation, the Non-Violent Peaceforce, the Bassiouni Group and the Mary N. Bassiouni Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Founder and 1st President, 1960 - 1978
Job Titles:
- Country Manager, South Sudan
Job Titles:
- Acting Director for Asia and Country Director, Philippines
Job Titles:
- Artist, Professor
- Artist, Professor, and Curator / Interim Chair
Job Titles:
- Country Director, Kenya
- Kenya, Country Director
- Manager for the Project ‘Regional Value Chains
Eric Mwaura joined IIRR in 2010 as the manager for the project ‘Regional Value Chains and Market Capacity Development" funded by the Ford Foundation. He was subsequently promoted to provide leadership to the Food Security and Resilient Livelihoods portfolio in Eastern Africa.
He held that position until June 2020 when he got appointed as the Country Director (IIRR Kenya). Eric is inspired by empowering rural communities to graduate from poverty.
Job Titles:
- 6th President, 2009 - 2019
James Diao has had a career spanning over 35 years as an investment banker, specializing in risk management and global financing transactions for both equity and fixed income. Most recently, he was a Managing Director at UBS Securities where he oversaw the approval, execution and diligence of all equity new issue transactions in the Americas, and prior thereto had positions at Bear Stearns, Prudential Securities and Brown Brothers Harriman.
Mr. Diao received his undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics/Economics from Brown University and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Mr. Diao is the grandson of Dr. and Mrs. Y.C. James Yen, the founders of the IIRR.
Job Titles:
- Economist
- International Economist
James F. Kelly is an International Economist and Bank Credit Officer. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in a UNDP-led Rural Development Program in the Rif Mountains of Morocco for three years, an experience that sparked his interest in joining the IIRR Board. In a long career in the financial services industry, he has held various positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Chemical Bank, The Institute of International Finance, Merrill Lynch, Smith New Court and Citigroup.
Mr. Kelly holds a B.A. in Economics and History from Fordham University and has pursued graduate studies in International Relations and Economics at George Washington University and New York University. In addition to Morocco, he has worked in Mexico and Belgium and speaks Arabic, French and Spanish.
Job Titles:
- 3rd President, 1993 - 1998
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- 2nd President, 1978 - 1992
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- 5th President, 2006 - 2008
Job Titles:
- Regional Director
- Regional Director, UNICEF Eastern
- Research Scientist and Former Director of the Institute of Philippine Culture
Mary Racelis is a research scientist and former Director of the Institute of Philippine Culture, as well as a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ateneo de Manila University. She is also a Professorial Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of the Philippines. Her research interests have led to notable publications in urbanization, urban poverty and wellbeing, values, socio-cultural change, civil society, community organizing, gender, children and youth, development and equity. Recent publications include: Making Philippine Cities Child Friendly: Voices of Children in Poor Communities (2005), and Bearers of Benevolence: The Thomasites and Public Education in the Philippines (2001). Active in civil society affairs, she sits on several international and national NGO Boards.
Ms. Racelis has served as Regional Director, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (1983-92); Country Representative of the Ford Foundation, Philippines (1992-97), and Consultant to the Philippine Government (1997-present), United Nations Development Program, UNICEF, UN Centre for Human Settlements, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, AusAID, Nippon Foundation, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Misereor, The Rockefeller Foundation, among others. Dr. Racelis received her AB in sociology and anthropology from Cornell University, New York, her M.A. in sociology from the University of the Philippines, and honorary doctorates from De La Salle University (1985) and Ateneo de Manila University (2003). In 2003-04, she was appointed to the Secretary-General's Panel on United Nations-Civil Society Relations ("The Cardoso Panel").
Job Titles:
- Head Teacher of Maralal Primary School
Musa Abdille is the head teacher of Maralal Primary School and cluster head of Maralal. He has over 30 years of experience as a teacher and school manager. He thought ICT was a very alien concept. It seemed very complex and meant for young people, and not for ‘analogue' people like him. But the Teachers Service Commission gave the directive that the Teacher Performance and Appraisal Development (TPAD) forms must be completed online. Because his only gadget at that time was a basic mobile phone, he sought the help of his digitally literate friends for a fee. Then, in 2015, the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) required schools to register their KCPE students online. Without the requisite ICT skills and equipment, Musa would go to Internet Cafes to register his students online.
In 2017, IIRR's education program trained 41 school teachers on ICT, including Musa. After the training, he was able to use a smartphone to open emails, type and send messages, and communicate via WhatsApp. He also learned how to use the desktop computers IIRR provided.
Job Titles:
- Operations Manager
- Global Operations Manager
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- Country Director, Cambodia
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- Africa Regional Director and Country Director, Uganda
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- Partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
Peter is President at IIRR, a role he has held since 2019. He joined IIRR as part of his life-long and fervent commitment to expand and explore new ways to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere.
Peter is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School and holds Master's degrees from the University of Oxford and Columbia University. He has received numerous recognitions for social innovation. Forbes Magazine cited him as having one of the 10 best sustainability ideas on the planet. Peter was also named among the 22 best emerging social entrepreneurs in the world by Echoing Green and among the ‘25 visionaries who are changing the world' by Utne Reader. He is a Devex ‘40 under 40' international development leader and was acknowledged as leading one of the most innovative social impact companies in the world by Fast Company.
Job Titles:
- 4th President, 1999 - 2005
Job Titles:
- Audit Senior Director, JP Morgan Chase / Secretary
- Global Head of Payments Technology Audit at JPMorgan Chase & Co
- Senior Audit Director & the Global Head of Payments Technology Audit, JPMorgan Secretary
Job Titles:
- Country Program Coordinator, Zimbabwe
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- Managing Director, Adjacent Markets
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- Country Director, Ethiopia