Meet ActionAid's Global Leadership Team (GLT)

Tinebeb Berhane - Country Director ActionAid Ethiopia

Tinebeb is a professional woman with demonstrated passion for development and fighting injustice. With 25 years of experience as a development practitioner, she has experience in supporting women, girls, young people and vulnerable groups to fight for their rights and play a leadership role in their own development. She is a civil society leader who has strategically supported civil society in Ethiopia to challenge shrinking civic space. Through her role as Vice President on the Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations Council she has supported more than 4,000 CSOs to play their national and regional level roles. For the past eight years as Program and Country Director for ActionAid Ethiopia, Interim Country Director for ActionAid DR Congo and in various platforms, she has supported ActionAid, always guided by the principle of internationalisation. 

Ana Alcade - ActionAid International Regional Director Europe and Americas, Public Engagement and Support Growth - GS

Ana is a passionate and committed feminist development professional, who strongly believes that we can change our world. For more than 25 years, she has been part of development processes, programmes and campaigns focusing on human rights, women’s rights, progressive public policies and corporate accountability. She has had the privilege to work in countries in Africa, Middle East and Latin America, as well as Europe. Her first civil society leadership role was when she joined Solidaridad Internacional as the Executive Director in 2008. She has been engaged with other CSOs, networks, universities, private and public institutions, and social movements. She was the director of Alianza, when they joined the exciting political project of the ActionAid Federation. In late 2020, she joined ActionAid International on an interim basis as Director of Programmes and Global Engagement. Ana has now joined AAI permanently in her new Regional Director role.

Arthur Larok - Interim Secretary General (GS)

Arthur Larok is Interim Secretary General of ActionAid International. He was previously Federation Development Director for four years, and Country Director in Uganda for six years. He is a member of Carnegie Endowment’s Civic Research Network (CRN). He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Sociology from Makerere University and a Master’s in Governance from University of Sussex in the UK. He has co-edited a Book on Uganda’s Civil Society and authored several papers, including ‘Uganda’s New Civic Activism: Beyond Egos and Logos’, ‘Modified activism after Ethiopia’s New Dawn’.

Sandeep Chachra - Country Director ActionAid India

Sandeep is a social anthropologist by training, a human rights and justice defender and a development practitioner with over three decades of experience in social development. He is the Executive Director of ActionAid Association in India. His expertise includes direct engagement and leadership building among deprived communities, support in setting up their organisations and movements, and campaign building, research and advocacy initiatives at multiple levels.

In the past, he had led ActionAid International's global work on Just and Democratic Governance and Economic Justice. He has worked in several countries with movements, development and multilateral organisations and continues to work internationally with research bodies and civil society networks.

Sandeep is the Managing Editor of Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, a founding member of Global University for Sustainability, Agrarian South Network and part of the World Forum of Alternatives. Sandeep has also twice Co-Chaired the World Urban Campaign of UN-HABITAT. In addition, he actively writes and participates in public debates.

Sujeeta Mathema - Country Director ActionAid Nepal

Sujeeta has more than 22 years of experience working in the development sector and has rich experience working in the field of human rights, especially on women’s rights. She is now working in the capacity of Executive Director of ActionAid Nepal. Sujeeta’s engagement with Kamaiya movement, women’s rights movement, land rights movement, and Dalit movement have given her solid experiences and encouragement to pursue the idea of how social movements can deliver social justice.

She has been involved in many other different networks and alliances such as the Child Network Alliance. She is also a board member of Sishu Baal Bikas Kendra (ECD learning centres).

Razmi Farook - Incoming ActionAid International Regional Director for Asia and Humanitarian - GS

Razmi Farook has served in the humanitarian and development sector for 20 years, ensuring effective leadership at the global, regional and country level in the areas of disaster management, resilience, climate change, organisational development and in co-operation with the United Nations, International Red Cross, Plan UK and Oxfam GB. Her roles have included: Global Head of Disaster Management, Head of Asia Region and Head of Humanitarian Diplomacy Asia Pacific. Razmi has worked extensively on the Indian Ocean tsunami, Syria crisis, and on migrant & refugee and women in leadership issues. She holds an MBA and an MSc in Social Policy.

She will be joining ActionAid International as the new Regional Director for Asia and Humanitarian in November 2022. She has this to say about ActionAid - ‘I have always admired and been inspired by the work and values of AAI and can’t wait to be part of this wonderful organisation, driving catalytic development by working closely with the membership to further fundamental rights, women’s empowerment and a genuine commitment to inclusion.’

Bridget Marango - ActionAid International Director of People, Finance and Operations - GS

Bridget has recently been appointed Director of People, Finance and Operations at the Global Secretariat (GS) of ActionAid international. She joined ActionAid in 2020 as Head of Finance and supported the financial modelling work that informed the GS’s financial framework to 2028, contributing to building a GS that is sustainable into the future. In November 2021, Bridget stepped up to provide support and additional capacity to the international leadership Team for the implementation of the GS change process. As Acting Director of People, Finance and Operations, Bridget continued to contribute towards stabilising operations and onboarding the new GS structure. Bridget has over 20 years of experience in the development sector including in similar international and regional NGOs. She holds a professional qualification from the ICSA in Zimbabwe and is currently completing her CGMA finals.

Marco de Ponte - Country Director ActionAid Italy

Marco De Ponte begun his engagement with social issues as a school representative in the 1980s and from there on becoming an activist for human rights throughout the 1990s in various roles, primarily within and on behalf of Amnesty International. He was their Italian vice-chair for six years, several times on their International Council and a staff member of the secretariat, campaigning primarily on Eastern Africa. He also wrote on the intersection between human rights and humanitarian law, before moving into humanitarian action as a staff member of an organization called InterSoS.

Following several other short-term assignments in universities and the UN system, he joined what was then called Azione Aiuto in 2001 and was one of the proponents and implementers of the first decade of internationalization within ActionAid, starting as a chair of the then ActionAid Alliance. He has overseen regional coordination in Europe, expansion, and “mergers” in new countries at the same time as he started and developed the first national program in an ActionAid European country.

Jorge Romano - Country Director ActionAid Brazil

Jorge Romano was born in Argentina, where he graduated in Anthropology. After the military coup d'état in his native country, he moved to Brazil, where he obtained a master’s degree in Anthropology and a PhD in Social Sciences in Development. Since then, Jorge has added to his teaching career a long trajectory of action research and strategic engagement with NGOs and social movements. He has several publications on issues of struggle for rights, participatory democracy, public policies and fighting poverty.

In recent times he has devoted particular attention to the challenges of shrinking political spaces and narrative disputes in authoritarian populist contexts. Jorge has held roles both within the Global Secretariat, leading on work around governance and has been country director for ActionAid Brazil for several years.

Niranjali Amerasinghe - Country Director ActionAid USA

Niranjali joined ActionAid USA as Executive Director in 2019. She is responsible for overall management and leadership of the U.S. office. Prior to joining ActionAid, Niranjali was a Senior Associate at the World Resources Institute and led the Finance Centre’s policy work on international climate finance and the Green Climate Fund. She also directed the Climate & Energy Program at the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL). Niranjali has worked at the intersection of climate change and human rights, and has extensive experience with international climate negotiations, forest governance, and accountability. She also helped develop legal strategies to shift finance away from fossil fuel investments.

Taahra Ghazi – Co-CEO and Director of Innovation and Impact ActionAid UK

Taahra has extensive experience in international development and anti-racist communications. A former teacher and education advisor, Taahra also has many years' experience working within ActionAid at an international and UK level and has previously worked as a strategic advisor across the development and education sectors.

Shade Odepelu – Co-CEO and Director of People, Transformation and Culture ActionAid UK

Shade spent some of her formative years, including school, in Nigeria. She has lived experience of some of ActionAid’s priorities and the challenges that women and girls face.

Shade has over 25 years’ experience at a strategic level for organisations including Save the Children, Salvation Army, Teach First, and Livability.  She holds a Master’s in human resources management and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Along with her expertise in human resources, she has also overseen volunteering, information technology, office administration, data protection, and front-line service delivery during her career.

Hannah Bond – Co-CEO and Director of Advocacy and Influencing ActionAid UK

Hannah is a passionate expert in women, peace and security and feminist leadership and foreign policy in the UK and globally and has a wealth of knowledge and a strong dedication to advancing the rights of women and girls and their movements worldwide. She has extensive experience in developing partnerships and working with feminist movements.

Hannah has worked within the UK Government and civil society, driving forwards innovative approaches and collaboration for a more peaceful, just world. Hannah's innovative approach to programming and advocacy, personal commitment to activism and feminism, and prior experience of being a director in the sector will be invaluable in steering ActionAid UK towards greater gender justice.

Tim Whyte - Country Director ActionAid Denmark

Tim Whyte is the Country Director of ActionAid Denmark. He has a strong interest in climate justice, popular organizing, youth activism, social movements and rooted people’s power. Before joining ActionAid Denmark, Tim served with Save the Children International in Bangladesh, the International Labour Organization in Nepal, and Forests of the World among other organizations.  His first meeting with ActionAid was over 20 years ago, during the bonded labour liberation movement in Nepal. Tim has a BA in History from Wesleyan University and a journalism degree from the Danish School of Media and Journalism. He lives with his wife and three kids on a houseboat in Copenhagen harbour.