WORLD BENCHMARKING ALLIANCE - Key Persons
Aarti is leading the research for the Access to Seeds Index. She was also involved in research and analysis for the Seafood Stewardship Index and methodology development for the Gender benchmark. Aarti believes that the private sector has a crucial role to play in advancing the SDGs, and benchmarking is a powerful tool in a way to measure and incentivise business impact towards a sustainable future.
Prior to joining WBA, Aarti has worked with several seed companies based in India and has the experience in providing market intelligence data for companies involved in Foods and Beverages, Seeds, Agricultural Commodities, and Agrochemical sector. She has comprehensive knowledge of Intellectual Property and Plant Variety Protection, Biosafety and Regulatory affairs and Agribusiness Consultancy. She holds a master's degree in Microbiology and has completed diploma courses in Patent Law and Business Management.
Job Titles:
- Institutional Engagement Lead
Ahmed joined WBA as a COP27 Project Lead and is currently an Institutional Engagement Lead. His responsibilities include helping set WBA's institutional narrative on corporate accountability in the context of sustainable development and fostering relevant institutional engagements with different stakeholder groups to close the corporate accountability gap.
As a sustainability and social impact professional, he is experienced in assisting organizations to adopting sustainability practices and reporting on their ESG impact. His areas of expertise revolve around sustainability reporting, sustainable finance, social impact assessment, project management, and research analysis. Ahmed's portfolio extends implementing sustainability projects across various sectors, including finance, food & beverage and energy. Ahmed holds a master's degree in sustainable development from the University of Sussex.
Alex joined the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) in December 2022 as Data and Technology Lead. He is responsible for ensuring that the organisation deploys technology in ways that reinforce our strategic goals and reflect our values. He spends his time managing our relationships with software partners, thinking about how we optimise our data collection and publication, and developing tools and processes which do just that.
In previous lives, Alex has worked across IT, software development and digital communications including positions at Microsoft, and WBA ally Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. He is passionate about the role of business in shaping our world, and the use of data to ensure that influence is used for the benefit of all.
Job Titles:
- Access to Seeds Index Lead
Alice leads the development of the Access to Seeds Index, which advances sustainability in the seeds industry. The Access to Seeds Index measures and compares the efforts of the world's leading seed companies to enhance smallholder farmers' productivity. Alice will ensure the benchmark becomes a key measurement and driver for seed companies to align their business models and operations with the UN SDGs through collaboration and partnerships.
She has a background working in private and international non-profit organizations focused on food security and poverty reduction in Rwanda. Her latest role was at One Acre Fund, a non-profit social enterprise financing rural East African smallholder farmers to access farm inputs, including improved seeds. She focused on building relationships with stakeholders and partners to distribute key agricultural inputs, coordinate farmer impact programs, and track sustainability performance. Alice completed her MBA at the University of Bath in the UK as a Chevening Scholar.
Ana is dedicated to building and strengthening connections between investors and investor-linked organisations to the work of WBA. She believes collective action, fuelled by research insights, is key to closing the corporate accountability gap and recognizes the pivotal role of the investment community in advancing towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Before joining WBA, Ana worked as ESG Commercial Director at Moody´s Analytics where she led the sales strategy for ESG services directed at corporates and governments in EMEA. Her working experience also includes several years at Vigeo Eiris in Latin America where she focused on advancing and developing the sustainable finance debt market in the region.
Ana holds an MSc in Chemical and Sustainable Processes from Politecnico di Torino, a BA in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba and has attained a certificate on Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Stanford University.
Job Titles:
- Government Relations Lead
Ana is responsible for building effective government partnerships and developing and strengthening relationships with government representatives worldwide.
She has worked on projects with the Mexican public administration, international organisations, NGOs, financial institutions, think tanks, and academia. Her areas of expertise are better regulation and oversight, good governance, socially responsible finance, corporate social responsibility, and the UN SDGs. She has undertaken internships at United Nations in New York and Manchester's Whitworth Art Gallery.
Ana is a Doctor in Politics from The University of Manchester in England.
Job Titles:
- Financial System Transformation Lead
Andrea leads the Financial System Benchmark at WBA. She is passionate about the role of the finance sector in building a sustainable and just world, believing that by collaborating across the full finance eco-system, together we can achieve system level positive change.
Before joining WBA in March 2022, Andrea had spent 15 years in the asset management industry working in Asia and Europe across a broad range of public and private market strategies and investor groups, including banks, life assurance companies, institutional investors, wealth advisors and family offices. Prior to that she worked in the life assurance industry in product development and ecommerce.
Andrea actively contributes to industry debate through the think tank SustainFinance.org, likes inspiring and mentoring young women who want a career in finance and is currently studying a Masters in Philanthropy at the University of Kent.
Job Titles:
- Alliance Manager for WBA and Previously Worked at Ranking Digital Rights
Anna Lee is an Alliance Manager for WBA and previously worked at Ranking Digital Rights (RDR), where she managed the relationship with external stakeholders interested in RDR's work. She has also spent some time in Dakar, Senegal during her time as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. Anna Lee holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Francophone Studies from Rhodes College in the U.S. and is currently based in Washington, D.C. She is excited to work with the Alliance in order to continue to develop a stronger, more global movement to hold corporations accountable.
Job Titles:
- Senior Researcher - Human Rights
Annabel joined oversees the research process for our Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, guiding the methodology, assessment and ranking of high-risk companies on human rights. Before joining WBA, Annabel worked at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, where she worked on legal capacity building and human rights promotion. Annabel holds an MA in International Relations with a specialisation in human rights and a BA in International Studies with a specialisation in South and Southeast Asia from Leiden University.
Prior to joining WBA as Technology Lead, Augusto was the Data Engineer at Ranking Digital Rights. He believes that the Internet is a key enabler for a better world. Mathurin was CTO of Lyris IT, a start-up based in Argentina dedicated to digital transformation projects. He also co-founded Virtuagora, a digital platform for civic participation, and Embajadores de Internet, a platform that connects the Internet governance ecosystem to Spanish-speakers.
In 2017, he was selected as the Internet Society's 25 under 25 youth who were using the internet to make an impact in their communities and beyond. In 2019, Augusto started conducting research about the internet's routing security and BGP interconnection in Latin America as an external consultant in LACNIC. He was also a MANRS research fellow in 2020.
Mathurin completed his engineering degree at the Universidad Tecnologica Nacional Santa Fe (Argentina), where he also taught for six years. He completed his Master's degree in Public Policy and Management at the Universidad de Chile.
Besmira is an urban planning researcher, consultant and practitioner. She is passionate about exploring the role of land and property management in distributional and environmental justice in urban areas. She joined WBA in the capacity of Research Lead of the Urban Benchmark, keen to contribute to closing the corporate accountability gap in the urban realm.
Besmira holds a PhD in Built Environment from Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK. In her doctoral studies she researched land policy instruments which can mainstream the implementation of blue and green infrastructure in a socially equitable way in urban areas. Prior to joining WBA, she was a postdoc researcher in Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, where she currently lectures part-time. Besmira has worked for several years as an urban planning practitioner and consultant for local authorities in her native Albania, whilst her work as a researcher spans across several countries including Turkey, Netherlands, UK, Brazil, Sweden and Spain.
Job Titles:
- Communications & Media Lead
Bosco is the Research Lead of the Nature Benchmark. He has a PhD in environmental economics from Osnabrück University and a master's degree in environmental economics and climate change from the London School of Economics. Prior to joining WBA, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3), where he conducted research on the relationship between the environment and human well-being. His focus was on designing environmental policies that are both environmentally effective and socially just. Bosco was also one of the authors of the IPBES Values Assessment, which explored the various ways in which nature is valuable to people and how to incorporate these values into decision-making. Bosco also has experience in environmental and strategy consulting.
Carl-Hein joined WBA in April 2020 as a Finance Assistant. He will be involved in providing support to finance in the daily operations and assist with finance analysis.
Prior to joining WBA, Carl-Hein explored various fields ranging from investment analysis, logistics management and trading. He worked as an investment analyst where his primary focus was on accounting, project management and research support relating to agriculture. He then explored logistics where he was assigned a project to design the new logistics department in the automotive industry. He was the head of this department where his main focus was on planning, organizing, leading and controlling daily operations. Trading was the next big step where Carl-Hein gained experience in various arbitrage opportunities. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in Economics at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.His family comes from Germany and he grew up in South Africa.
Job Titles:
- Food Transformation Research Lead
- Senior Researcher at WBA
Carla is a Senior Researcher at WBA focusing on the Food and Agriculture Transition Benchmark. Her responsibilities cut across research for scoping, methodology development and analysis to stakeholder engagement. Carla is passionate to turn knowledge into action to unlock the huge potential of a healthy, sustainable and inclusive food system. Before joining WBA, Carla worked with FReSH, a joint program between EAT and WBCSD designed to accelerate transformational change in global food systems. Carla has nine years' experience as an economic and policy analyst and sustainability consultant with her latest focus being on advising forward thinking companies to assess and disclose their climate-related risks and opportunities in line with the TCFD recommendations. Carla is convinced that a sustainable strategy and innovation is not only vital to secure the future of any business but that of our lives on this planet.
Job Titles:
- People Operations and Finance Administrator
Most of Channary's career was spent in human resources, including recruitment and selection, compensation, remuneration, and business partnering. She is inspired by the knowledgeable, supportive, and enthusiastic colleagues at WBA and its Teal culture of being transparent, honest, sensible and inclusive. Another part of her excitement and joy at WBA is opportunities given by management to contribute to the success of WBA by providing consultation and support to People Leads and the overall team of WBA on people-related questions, processes, and administration so that they can focus on WBA strategic priorities and transformations, vision and mission. In addition, managing invoices, processing payments, payroll, reports and supporting finance team is another area of interest for Channary.
Charlotte leads global engagement efforts at moments, such as Davos, UNGA, HLPF and COPs, where the worlds most influential stakeholders gather to review and determine where progress needs to be made to deliver on the SDGs. Charlotte is responsible for setting WBA's ambition and building our influence at these, so that closing the corporate accountability gap becomes accepted, understood and advocated for by multiple stakeholders. She works across the transformation teams to ensure we build upon relationships and develop a compelling institutional narrative that positions WBA benchmarks as an accountability mechanism for the private sector.
Charlotte started at the WBA in 2018 as the Executive Assistant, before transitioning into an Engagement Manger role for the Food and Agriculture Transformation from 2019-2022. During this time she helped launch the first Food and Agriculture Benchmark alongside the UN Food Systems Summit, and lead on collective engagement initiatives including the G7 Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative and the regenerative agriculture Collective Impact Coalition. Previously Charlotte completed her Bachelors in Geography at Liverpool University, and Masters in Anthropology at Utrecht University, which she went on to teach at the Design Academy, Eindhoven.
Charmaine joined WBA in September 2021 and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. As the Operations Director she is primarily responsible for the financial and risk management, governance, compliance, HR & IT management, as well as reporting and auditing of the organisation. Her role is to serve as a conscience of the organisation, ensuring resources are used for impact in a sustainable manner and aligned with what our donors and funders expect, as well as what we expect from the companies that we benchmark.
In the past fourteen years, Charmaine has worked in several roles including as Finance Lead within WBA, she was a Senior Audit Clerk while serving her articles for her qualification, a Project Commercial at Siemens South Africa, a Financial Manager at AFGRI and has held several non-executive board positions. She mentors Fellows of the Allen Grey Orbis Foundation, volunteers her time as the Treasurer of Gauteng Sports Aerobic and Fitness Federation (GSAFF), is a Golden Key Honour Society honorary member (2019 University of Pretoria chapter keynote speaker), holds a Bcompt Accounting Sciences Degree from the University of South Africa, as well as a CIMA Diploma in Management Accounting and is a member of the South African Institute of Charted Accountants, as an Associate General Accountant.
Her desire to make an impact through others and passion for self-empowerment & empowering others brought her to WBA, where she's found a good balance between doing what she's good at (Accounting & Finance) and what she's passionate about (empowerment, making a positive impact).
One quirky fact about her: She collects sweaters and hoodies
Quote she lives by: "True desire in the heart, for anything good, is God's proof to you, sent beforehand, to indicate that it is yours already. And anything that you want, that is good, you can have, so claim it! Work hard to get it! And when you get it, reach back, pull someone else up, each one teach one. Don't just aspire to make a living. Aspire to make a difference." - Denzel Washington
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst
- Research Analyst for the Digital Inclusion Benchmark
In November 2022, Chin joined WBA as a Research Analyst for the Digital Inclusion Benchmark (DIB). Following DIB's publication in March 2023, she has also started working with the Food and Agriculture team while concurrently participating in the methodology review process of DIB. She is passionate about issues such as digital inclusion, climate change and sustainability.
Prior to joining WBA, Chin worked at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, where she explored the role of fintechs in enabling green and sustainable finance. She has also interned with the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Singapore, the UNDP-Human Development Report Office, as well as the United Nations Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). Chin holds a Masters of Economics degree from the National University of Singapore.
Job Titles:
- Learning & Development Lead
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- Engagement Manager - Decarbonisation & Just Transition
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- Research Analyst
- WBA in 2023 As a Research Analyst
Danileen joined WBA in 2023 as a Research Analyst within the Food and Agriculture team. She has since transitioned to the Climate and Energy team, focusing on the Heavy Industries Benchmark. Her enthusiasm lies in utilizing data and models to narrate compelling stories and create a positive impact on society.
Danileen previously worked as a consultant at the Asian Development Bank. She served as an economist, lead researcher and sector specialist, providing technical support to governments in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central West Asia. She was deeply involved in economic modeling and forecasting, policy formulation, and statistical capacity building of the various economies. Earlier in her career, she worked for the Philippine government as a Research Associate. She was involved in policy-relevant researches in a variety of areas including Agriculture, Poverty, Development, Education and Public Finance.
Job Titles:
- Head of Public Policy, Asia
Dio leads WBA's public policy strategy development and engagement with governments and regional organisations in Asia. He is passionate about delivering social impact through inclusive and evidence-based policy advocacy to drive a sustainable and resilient future for everyone.
A public policy and development professional, Dio has more than five years of experience leading international development and policy programme management projects in Indonesia, ASEAN, and the wider Asia-Pacific region. He has worked at Pearl Consulting as a senior consultant for WhatsApp policy program in Indonesia, ASEAN Foundation, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Dutch Embassy and a university-based think tank in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Dio holds a Master's degree in Public International Law from Leiden University and a Master's degree in Public Policy from the School of Government and Public Policy-Indonesia. He is a certified Partnership Broker from the Partnership Broker Association (PBA).
Job Titles:
- Data Solutions & Innovation Lead
Eduardo is the Data Solutions & Innovation Lead at WBA, where he is at the forefront of integrating innovative data solutions to streamline and enhance research workflows. His role involves overseeing the technical development and design of software solutions and data management strategies, aiming to leverage the organization's extensive dataverse for impactful research and analysis.
Trained as a biologist, Eduardo specialised in ecological systems at Wageningen University and Research, where he also earned a master's degree in Nature Conservation and Ecological Systems. Additionally, he holds a master's degree in Data Science and Business Analytics. His work focuses on the practical applications of artificial intelligence in sustainability research, contributing significantly to WBA's benchmarking and analysis strategies. Eduardo's background includes extensive research analysis and a solid grasp of current sustainability legislation and frameworks, which he applies to inform and enhance his work.
Before his current role at WBA, Eduardo developed his skills as a data scientist and IT project manager in the agrifood sector, where he led initiatives in machine learning for crop yield prediction and the integration of data-driven platforms to optimize organisational processes.
Emir joined WBA as a research analyst in August 2022. He is currently a member of finance team, specifically working on the first launch of the Financial System Benchmark.
Prior to joining WBA, he became part of Junior Researcher Programme to review the policy documents to investigate which of the social determinants of mental health are being addressed by different European municipalities and how. Also, he worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Amsterdam to systematically review the psychological antecedents of pro-environmental behaviour. During his studies, he noticed that nudging individuals to change their behaviour will not be impactful enough as individual-level factor alone cannot explain the drivers of climate change and unsustainable lifestyles. On the other hand, he believes that private sector is instrumental for the SDGs as they are agile and can engage in systemic, high-impact actions that are beyond individual behavioural change. Therefore, he aspired to join a community to create a more tangible impact.
He graduated with a Double Major degree in Business Administration and Psychology from Koc University. He later obtained his Psychology Research Master's degree at the University of Amsterdam.
Gaone Moetse is an Impact Analyst in the Impact, Learning and Development team at WBA and works on monitoring, evaluation and learning processes in the organization, focusing primarily on the Results Management Framework and Quarterly Impact Journey workstreams.
After completing his studies at the University of Pretoria, Gavin pursued his training contract at a medium-sized accounting firm where he qualified as a professional accountant, specialising in the accounting and tax field. During the last 15+ years working within the finance sphere, Gavin has held many roles in various industries, including accounting manager within financial services, group accountant within real estate, financial controller within manufacturing and retail and finance manager within construction. The search for a balance between purpose and profession brought him to WBA, where he hopes to contribute by applying his skillset in streamlining and improving on the financial function to better support the overall goal of the organisation, in driving change.
Closing the corporate accountability gap is the core of WBA strategy, as a co-founder of WBA and in his role as Executive Director, Gerbrand is responsible for delivering this strategy.
Gerbrand originally founded and led Index Initiative, one of WBA's founding partners, where he led the global consultation on the WBA. Prior to this, Gerbrand worked for the Dutch Government in the areas of inclusive business, sustainable agricultural supply chains and food security.
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst
- WBA As a Research Analyst
Ghalia joined WBA as a Research Analyst in the Financial System Benchmark, where she is focusing on the social indicators.
Prior to joining WBA, she worked in both the humanitarian and corporate sectors. She worked in project development for ACTED in Lebanon, formulating and reporting on development programs focused on social stability, economic resilience and good governance. She then worked as a Sustainability Analyst in the cocoa supply chain for a global commodities' trading company. She researched various topics in nature and biodiversity protection, farmer livelihoods and climate change, supported the formulation of corporate Key Performance Indicators and policies, performed a baseline assessment for origin operations, and worked on the cocoa sustainability report.
She studied for an Master of Liberal Arts in Sustainability at Harvard University and holds an MSc in Environmental Management from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst
- WBA As Research Analyst
Giorgia joined WBA as Research Analyst, currently focusing on the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark and Financial System Benchmark. She strongly believes that the private sector can play a positive role in achieving more sustainable practices and driving real change for people when positively engaged to assess and reduce social and environmental risks in complex supply chains.
Prior to joining WBA, she gained experiences both in the NGO and corporate sector. While working in the NGO sector, she undertook both programme management and advocacy roles in relation to children's rights, with a particular focus on topics related to child labour. She was also involved in the execution and development of projects related to the financial sector's due diligence. She concluded her experience at Save the Children as junior technical expert on Gender, thus conducting cross-country gender analysis and need assessment.
She holds an advanced Master in International Law specializing in Human Rights Law from Tilburg University, and a bachelor in International Studies from Trento University.
Gustaf joined WBA in July 2022 as a Research Analyst, currently focused on the Just Transition topics as part of the Climate and Energy benchmark.
Prior to joining the WBA, Gustaf worked at Equileap as a Research Analyst, conducting research on corporate gender equality and being responsible for data quality and bespoke research on European companies. Gustaf holds a MSc in Innovation and Global Sustainable Development from the Department of Economic History at Lund University and a BA in Development Studies from University College Maastricht.
Job Titles:
- Financial System Engagement Lead
Hannah works for the WBA's social transformation team, dedicating most of her time to the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark research. She is passionate about the core mission of the WBA to achieve sustainable development through private sector transformation, and loves how this common thread ties the whole team together. She is a data analyst at heart, but is also enjoying learning more about engagement with companies and seeing the impact this has.
Before joining the WBA, Hannah spent 3 years working for the INCLUDE Knowledge Platform, an institute funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, conducting and managing research to inform policies on inclusive development in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's degree in Urban Management and Development, and has a deep interest in topics linked to inequality and inclusion.
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst
- WBA As a Research Analyst
Harisankar joined WBA as a Research Analyst and is a member of the Urban Team. He actively contributes to the development of the Urban Benchmark, directing his efforts towards promoting corporate accountability to create sustainable and resilient cities. Prior to joining WBA, he worked as a Data Scientist Consultant at the World Bank, where he focused on creating a vulnerability index for Senegal and Mauritania. Harisankar has gained significant experience in sustainable urban development, disaster risk reduction, and governance through roles at organisations such as Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), United Nations, World Bank, and Delhi Government.
He holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Chicago, an M.Tech degree in Disaster Mitigation and Management from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, and a bachelor's degree in Urban Planning from School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal (India).
Job Titles:
- Research Analyst
- WBA As a Research Analyst
Harry joined WBA as a Research Analyst focusing on the Financial System Benchmark. He is passionate about sustainability in the private sector and believes that a transparent, sustainable approach will create an environment that benefits all.
Prior to joining WBA, Harry worked for the UN Principles for Responsible Investment as an associate of the signatory relations division.
Harry holds a Master's degree in International Law, Politics and Ethics at the University of Birmingham.
Job Titles:
- Seafood Stewardship Index Lead
Helen leads the Seafood Stewardship Index at WBA. She joined WBA in July 2020, and is responsible for ensuring the benchmark methodology reflects stakeholder expectations, preparing benchmark reports of key seafood companies and engagement with stakeholders to further enhance the use of the benchmark. Helen believes that companies have a central role to play in the transition towards a sustainable world and that benchmarks can be a powerful tool to incentivise change while at the same time improve society's understanding of the role of business in achieving sustainability.
Prior to joining the WBA, Helen led Anova Food USA's sustainability programs since 2014, collaborating with fishers, fishing companies and NGOs in the implementation of improvement projects in SE Asia and the South Pacific. Helen holds a BSc in Marine Biology from Swansea University (UK) and a MSc in Aquaculture and Fisheries Management from Wageningen University (NL).
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- Impact and Learning Researcher
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- Communications & Social Media Lead
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- Digital Transformation Lead
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- Nature Transformation Lead
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- Global Public Policy Lead
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- Engagement Lead - Digital Transformation
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- Strategy and Development Lead
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- Research & Digitisation Director
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- People Operations and Finance Administrator
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- Research Analyst - Digital Inclusion
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- Research Analyst - Climate
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- Research Lead - Social Transformation
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- Research Lead Digital Inclusion Benchmark
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- Communications and Digital Media Manager
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- Social Transformation Lead
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- Engagement Lead - Digital Transformation
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- Strategic Technology Project Lead
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- Engagement & Communications Director
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- Research Lead - Financial System Transformation
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- Communications & Content Lead
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- Engagement Manager - Food and Agriculture
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- Engagement Lead Decarbonisation & Energy
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- Senior Researcher - Digital Transformation & SDG2000
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- Gender Spotlight Research Lead
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- Research Analyst - Gender Benchmark
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- Communications & Social Media Lead
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- Research Analyst - Financial System Transformation
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- Urban Transformation Lead
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- Decarbonisation and Energy Transformation Lead