BUILD CHANGE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Strategic Partnerships
Abby Robinson brings a global perspective with a community focus to the social sector. Most recently, she served as the Chief Strategy Officer for Atlas Corps, a leadership development program for global social change leaders. Abby is also an Alumna of the Atlas Corps Fellowship (Bogota, Colombia) and AmeriCorps VISTA (Arecibo, Puerto Rico). Abby graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth and received additional leadership training from The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and the Aspen Institute Fellowship for Emerging Social Purpose Leaders. Her personal motto is "make it big"-inspiring individuals to positively impact their communities. Abby grew up on a fourth generation farm in northern Minnesota, established her career in Washington, DC, and now resides with her husband and two children in Montreal, Canada.
Abby Robinson brings a global perspective with a community focus to the social sector. Her personal motto is "make it big"-inspiring individuals to positively impact their communities.
Job Titles:
- Engineering Staff Member
- Engineering Professional ( Latin America )
Job Titles:
- Engineering Consultant ( Global )
Job Titles:
- Member Emeritus of the Board
- Managing Director at the Emerson Collective
Anne Marie Burgoyne is a Managing Director at the Emerson Collective where she manages the investment process for non-profit and for-profit social entrepreneurs and innovators in a wide array of sectors, including education, immigration, social justice and the environment. She also works with the diverse team at Emerson to assure that partner organizations can access EC's capacity building, amplification and advocacy supports. Her work spans across domestic and international geographies with a focus on strong leaders and strong models that have the capacity to scale and create systems change.
Job Titles:
- Engineering Assistant ( Colombia )
Job Titles:
- Member Emeritus of the Board
Job Titles:
- Director of Operations & Administration
With nearly a decade dedicated to international development, Devin Connell's journey began in structural engineering before swiftly transitioning after impactful work on pedestrian cable bridge projects in Nicaragua..
Job Titles:
- Admin & HR Coordinator Consultant ( Haiti )
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Founder
- Member of the Build Change Board of Directors
- Interim Board Chair
World-class social entrepreneur. Safe housing advocate. Bricklayer. Dr. Elizabeth Hausler is the Founder and CEO of Build Change and a global expert on resilient housing, post-disaster reconstruction, and systems change. Elizabeth's strategic direction and leadership have grown Build Change from a few employees in 2004 to a global team spread across five continents. She has profoundly influenced global development policy by making resilience a major consideration for reconstruction efforts.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Build Change Board of Directors
- Co - Founder and Chief Executive Officer of KickStart - International
Dr. Martin J. Fisher is the co-founder and chief executive officer of KickStart-International, a non-profit social enterprise with a mission to lift millions of people in Africa out of poverty. It operates by developing and mass marketing very low-cost technologies that are bought by poor entrepreneurs to kick-start highly profitable small businesses. Over 170,000 new businesses have been started using KickStart's manually operated irrigation pumps and other technologies. Between them the new farm businesses are already generating over $140 million per year in new profits and wages and growing enough fresh produce to feed 8-10 million people. KickStart was founded in 1991 and employs over 120 staff in Kenya, Tanzania, Mali, Zambia, NYC and San Francisco. Martin and KickStart have won numerous awards and accolades including; the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Skoll Award for Social Enterprise, Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability, AGFUND Prize for Development, Peter F Drucker Award for Non-Profit Innovation, Tech Museum Award for Technologies Benefiting Humanity, and Fast Company's Social Capitalist Award and Martin has been named a "European Hero" by Time Magazine and "Engineer of the Year" by Design News. Martin has a BSc from Cornell University and an MSc and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Kenya.
Job Titles:
- Member Emeritus of the Board
- Consulting Professor in the Geophysics Department at Stanford University
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Build Change Board of Directors
Girlie Lopez's passion is creating access for low-income families to financial services. Over the last 17 years, Girlie has become one of the Philippines' foremost microfinance specialists. At Build Change, Girlie oversees the scaling of housing finance loans through the organization's microfinance partners. Read more about Girlie!
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Build Change Board of Directors
Grace Hanson is the former Chief Claims Officer at Hippo Insurance. Previously, she worked as the Group Claims Director/ Global Head of Claims at Hiscox, Ltd., and the Senior Vice President and Chief Claims Officer for Homesite Insurance which is a member of the American Family Insurance Group. Homesite is a national provider of Homeowner's and Renter's insurance and an innovator in online private label marketing and direct Internet sales. Ms. Hanson first joined Homesite as Claims and Litigation counsel after which she was promoted into the role of managing Homesite's Claims Finance and nationwide Claim Operations.
Prior to joining Homesite in 2009, Ms. Hanson served as the Senior Vice President and Global Chief Claims Officer for Allied World Insurance Company managing reinsurance, professional liability, director's and officer's, excess casualty, healthcare and commercial property exposures and litigation worldwide. Ms. Hanson has also been a Senior Vice President Claims with AIG where she managed AIG's catastrophic claims operation in Bermuda. She has a BA cum laude from Newcomb College of Tulane University, a JD cum laude from Tulane University School of Law, a CPCU, and an MBA from Northeastern University. In 2015, she was named by Insurance Networking News as one of their "10 Women in Insurance Leadership" honorees. The award recognizes "women whose leadership and performance have redefined the insurance business and its application of technology."
Job Titles:
- Türkiye Country Program Manager
Hakan Akgun‘s professional career started as a human resource professional with a US based international humanitarian organization based in the Middle East with establishing multinational offices in the region. Continued in field and project management for multi-sector responses to crises affected areas such as providing nonfood items, economic recovery and hygiene/sanitation projects that were funded by USAID, ECHO, DFID and Swish Aid in different regions around the world. Hakan was part of project management that had over $100 million annual portfolios in different countries.
Hakan Akgun is a committed humanitarian professional with over a decade of national and international experience in emergencies, post disasters, insurgency affected populations. This includes working on establishing humanitarian response operations in Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Nigeria, South Sudan.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Build Change Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Director of Application Development
Joel Herold is the Director of Application Development, providing support to Build Change in technology leadership, management, and advocacy. With over a decade of experience in the technology sector, he most recently held the role of Director of Technology at a full-service marketing agency, leading multidisciplinary teams to develop technology solutions for clients. As a technology generalist, he has managed the development of websites, mobile applications, AR, MR and ML projects, with strong experience on front end development and promoting UI/UX best practices. Joel's passion is creating humane technology that allows people to thrive and solutions that support a fair, just, and inclusive world. He has previous nonprofit experience as a marketer and in his previous profession as an opera singer.
Juan Caballero is a pioneer and advocate of resilient retrofitting for existing housing and a trusted advisor to governments, multilateral institutions, and others on how to strengthen housing quality. He has overseen the strategy, planning, and implementation of Build Change Programs in Latin America, The Caribbean, and South East Asia; and has participated in knowledge development, technical guidelines and manuals, housing subsector studies, and post-disaster reconnaissance teams. He has a Master's in Project Management and is an Architect licensed in Honduras and Colombia.
Juan Caballero has pioneered the use of seismic retrofitting for existing housing in international development. He is a noted disaster-resilient housing advocate and a trusted advisor to governments, multilateral organizations, and other partners on how to improve housing quality throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
Job Titles:
- Colombia Administrative and Human Resources Assistant
Job Titles:
- Finance & Admin Manager - SE Asia Pacific ( HQ Global )
Job Titles:
- Philippines Finance & Admin Officer
Job Titles:
- Engineering Staff Member
- Lead SE Asia - Pacific ( HQ Global )
Lizzie Blaisdell Collins is one of the world's foremost authorities on the creation of building standards in the developing world where they never existed before. As an expert in earthquake-resistant engineering honed over 15 years of experience designing housing for high-seismic regions, Lizzie oversees the quality of Build Change's technical and project solutions around the globe.
Job Titles:
- Caribbean Director and Engineering Program Manager
- Program Manager and a Structural Engineer
Louise Foulkes is the Caribbean Program Manager and a structural engineer, primarily focused on Build Change's reconstruction and resilience projects in the Caribbean. She joined Build Change in 2017 after working in the UK and East Africa.
Job Titles:
- International Relations Specialist
- Mexico Country Program Manager
Lucía is an International Relations specialist by profession and a Housing Expert by passion. Her professional efforts have been directed towards tackling the technical, financial, normative, and governance-related challenges within the housing sector, particularly in the implementation of homeowner-driven approaches. Prior to joining Build Change, Lucía oversaw the execution of over a thousand customized housing projects through technical assistance in Mexico.
Ani has led and supported several large-scale post-disaster recovery programs in Indonesia and the Philippines. She has developed and overseen initiatives related to resilience and disaster prevention for school and housing in Indonesia. Ani is an advocate for disaster-resilient housing and has led the Build Change advisory group on retrofitting options with the World Bank, as well as evaluation of the national housing subsidy program, in partnership with the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing. Read more about Ani!
Job Titles:
- Country Program Director, Colombia
Manuela Pinilla Rodriguez combines her training in urban development and international cooperation with her background in anthropology to take a human approach to solving social and economic challenges. Over the course of the last decade, she has worked on both the national and international levels to improve access to water for hygiene and sanitation, as well as in post-disaster response, land rights and housing access.
Job Titles:
- Communications Officer ( Latin America and Caribbean )
Job Titles:
- Colombia Administration & Finance Manager
Job Titles:
- Program Officer ( Philippines )
Job Titles:
- Colombia Accounting and Administrative Assistant
Job Titles:
- Director of Global Advocacy
Monica Schroeder works to elevate the issue of resilient housing and prevention of housing loss in global policy forums and conferences with a variety of stakeholders. Prior to joining Build Change, Monica managed the implementation of democracy and governance programs in over 15 countries.
Job Titles:
- General Services Assistant
Job Titles:
- Civil Engineer - Structural
Job Titles:
- Engineering Program Associate ( HQ Global )
Job Titles:
- Project Manager - Haiti Response ( Haiti )
Job Titles:
- Senior Mobile Application Engineer / Communications
Job Titles:
- Application Developer ( Global - Nepal )
Job Titles:
- Senior Builder Trainer ( Philippines )
Job Titles:
- Project Manager - Technical Services ( Philippines )
The earthquake in Padang, Indonesia led to the damage or collapse of 144,000 buildings, including 1,100 schools. Now, years later, it is estimated that 136,000 students and teachers remain at risk in these schools. Build Change has begun collaborating with the Regional Disaster Management Agency of West Sumatera (BPBD) and the Padang Department of Education (Dinas Pendidikan) to address the damages in some of the school buildings throughout the district of Padang. In June 2016, we received funding to retrofit the first of these schools, and look forward to expanding this program across Padang and, hopefully, the nation.
Job Titles:
- Software Engineering Manager
Job Titles:
- Designer Architect ( Philippines )
Job Titles:
- Application Developer ( Global - Nepal )
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder and Managing Member of City Center Realty Partners, LLC
Sigurd "Sig" Anderson is a co-founder and managing member of City Center Realty Partners, LLC (CCRP), a San Francisco-based real estate investment and development company. For the past 25 years he has overseen new development and acquisitions of over $1 billion in commercial real estate across the country. As managing member of CCRP, he is responsible for setting strategic goals, directing and overseeing company investments, due diligence, capital markets, asset management and firm operations.
Sig received his B.S. in Business from the Curt Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), where he holds a Certified Retail Property Executive (CRX) designation, as well as a Senior Certified Leasing Specialist (SCLS) designation and was member of that designation's Governing Committee. He is also a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and is on the Board of Trustees of the World Affairs Council.
Job Titles:
- Lead Engineer ( Colombia )
Job Titles:
- Engineering Staff Member
- Manager, Applied Technology and Impact ( HQ Global )
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor, Engineering ( Global )
Job Titles:
- Indonesia Finance & Admin Officer ( Global - Indo )
Job Titles:
- Programs & Fund Development Officer