Professional Experience:
Founded FSMA through committee leadership at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; selected to be first Executive Director. Managed remote team of 3FTE and 2 part-time staff and 10 globally based consultants. Directed annual €3M budget. Guided supervisory board and effectively managed global stakeholders. Developed and executed organizational operations, structure and strategic direction. Led HR and IT functions.
Formulated an organization-wide talent cultivation and cultural strategy, that included:
Providing exemplary support for emerging and existing leaders,
Spearheading renewal of organizational mission and values, both internally and externally,
Facilitating continuous dialogues on management methodologies, and skill enhancement,
Developing metrics and standardized processes to gauge leadership effectiveness.
Engineered org-wide operations processes and policies, optimizing efficiency and ensuring compliance.
Created a training arm, FSM Skills, and global event, the World Emptying Challenge, to formalize the role of ‘pit-emptiers’ – a critical job in sanitation services.
Developed FSM7 2023 conference for ~1,000 attendees with the African Water and Sanitation Association. Collaborated with governmental partners and various corporate local partners.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Project Coordinator (Chief of Staff equivalent) July 2017 – June 2019 | Program Assistant April 2013 – July 2017 | Seattle, WA
The second-largest global foundation. Fighting poverty, disease, and inequity, with a $67B endowment.
Acting Chief of Staff to the Deputy Director for the Transformative Technologies Initiative, supported the foundation's effort to provide access to safe sanitation to 4.5 billion people without it. Drove operational efficiency, innovation, and alignment across functions and stakeholders. Trained new staff at all levels with a focus on internal policy and cultural awareness. Contributed to internal policy design committees.
Successfully executed the $7M Reinvent the Toilet Expo (2018), attended by Bill Gates and the President of the World Bank. Managed a 50-person planning team. Coordinated across vendors, the Chinese Government (co-sponsor), and internal departments including security, communications, events, WASH team, and legal. Showcased, for the first time, the most significant advances in sanitation in ~200 years.
Planned and developed FSM5-AfricanSan 5 Conference (2019). Secured African Minister’s Council on Water, part of the African Union, as the co-host. Connected national minister to a sanitation entrepreneur who provided key insights on a practical level, leading to improvements.