EMPA Class of 2015-2017

Christoper Brown

American

Chief Brand and Communications Officer
Abdul Latif Jameel Group

Christopher resides in Dubai and serves as Chief Brand and Communications Officer for Abdul Latif Jameel Group, a Middle East based multi-sector business focused on international trade and development. Previously, Christopher spent over 20 years in the automotive industry in various commercial and government affairs-related positions, including in Corporate Planning for Nissan in Japan, as Managing Director for Jaguar Land Rover in China, and as head of Asia Pacific for Fisker Automotive. Christopher is interested in development economics, specifically as it relates to urbanisation and its effects on sustainability. Christopher is originally from the U.S., and has an MBA from the University of Maryland.

Susanna Henderson

American

Partnership Officer
Cities Alliance - UNOPS

Susanna (Sid) is a dual national –US/UK – working in Brussels, Belgium as Partnerships Officer for the Cities Alliance, a global partnership focused on poverty reduction and the promotion of the role of cities in sustainable urban development. Cities Alliance trusteeship recently transferred from the World Bank to UNOPS. Sid’s current work is being driven by the SDGs, specifically SDG 5 (gender), SDG 11 (cities) and SDG 17 (partnerships), with a specific focus on partnership strategy development and implementation, advising on governance issues and membership relations. During her time at the World Bank, Sid held various roles within the Cities Alliance team and has experience with small grant processing, information management, office administration and communications. Her work to date has given her the opportunity to travel the world and see government policies in action. She looks forward to applying her LSE knowledge in her future endeavours, perhaps at a more local level. Sid studied Psychology and French and is a champion of equity, not only in development but in everyday life.

Alison Frame

Australian

Deputy Secretary, Policy and Strategy
Department of Planning and Environment

Alison has had fifteen years of public sector experience, 6 years at the Senior Executive level, in both the NSW and Australian Public Service, which have included a breadth of roles in strategy, change management and service delivery across the human services and planning systems. In her current role, Deputy Secretary, Policy and Strategy, Department of Planning and Environment, she is responsible for driving innovative planning reforms and planning system improvements and with ensuring that, from the earliest stages of policy development, the outcomes and benefits for users of the planning system are considered and incorporated into new approaches.

Bronwyn Meyrick

Australian

Early Childhood and School Education Group
Department of Education and Training

Bronwyn is an Australian civil servant based in Melbourne, Australia. In her current role, she manages the office of the deputy secretary responsible for the early childhood and school education policy and program design, in the Department of Education and Training. The office is responsible for the provision of strategic, policy, and administrative advice to the deputy secretary. She has held this and other roles with the State Government of Victoria since 2007, and prior to this held a range of international policy and research roles. A career highlight to date was being seconded to the International Relations Division of the Metropolitan City of Busan in 2014. She holds a doctoral degree and two undergraduate degrees - a Bachelor of Arts (International Studies, Spanish) and a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) - from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne. Her doctoral research examined the conflicting policy debates over housing affordability and environmental sustainability (in particular climate change) as a problem of distributive justice. This research drew on the work of the late John Rawls's Justice as Fairness theory, and Amartya Sen's capabilities approach, and was driven by a longstanding personal interest in the relationship between disadvantage and the built environment.

Adam Roberts

Australian

Senior Associate
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA)

Adam is a Senior Associate focused on infrastructure private equity at Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA), the largest manager of infrastructure assets globally. Adam’s roles have included acquisitions and divestments, refinancings, business planning and asset management, corporate governance, capital raising and fund formation, and stakeholder management. Adam has had a focus on investments in the transportation sector, including acting as the Asset Manager and Board secretary for an Australian capital city airport. Adam is currently based in MIRA’s London office focused on business development and strategy, after transferring from Sydney in 2015. In his spare time, Adam has a passion for tech, media, Australian politics and venture capital. Adam follows cricket, rugby union, cycling and rowing. Adam has previously completed a Law degree and Commerce degree (majoring in Finance) from Bond University. Upon completion of his studies he was awarded the annual Alumni Student Award for excellence in his academic and professional pursuits, outstanding voluntary service, and displaying exemplary leadership of his fellow students.

Julia Valsky

Austrian

Counsellor for Education and Gender Equality
Austrian Mission to the OECD

Prior to her current position, Julia has been working as a spokesperson of the Austrian Minister for Education and Women's Affairs (2013-14) and the Austrian Minister for Women's Affairs and the Civil Service (2011-13). From 2009-11, she served as media advisor to the Vice-President of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, and prior to that she worked at a large Austrian communications consulting firm (2007-09, now Ketchum Austria). Julia started her professional career as press attaché at the Austrian mission to the United Nations in New York (2006-07).

Patrice Couchard

Belgian

Director General Personal and Organisation
Belgian MFA

Patrice has been working since 2003 at the Belgian MFA in various management positions including Budget, Finance, IT and Consular activities. He is now in charge of HR, Infrastructure and Procurement. Together with his colleagues of the management committee, he leads the transformation of the Belgian diplomatic network and foreign service in a challenging time. Prior to his assignment in the civil service, Patrice has worked 14 years as a consultant for Andersen, Deloitte and SAP.

Virgilio Diniz

Brazilian

Lawyer
Diniz Advogados

Virgílio is a Brazilian lawyer with a master in international commercial law, (LLM in international commercial law from the University of California, Davis), who has also became over his professional years the General Director of a mining company in Brazil. He attended and completed an MBA in Management (FIA - Fundação Instituto de Administração, São Paulo) when he decided to increase his knowledge in Economics in general and specifically in economic public policies, which he understands as being crucial for the good management of any private company. This is especially true when dealing with national strategic public policies, as is the case of mining. Virgilio intends to gradually switch from private to the public sector, in order to contribute to the building of efficient public policies in economics and international development for emerging markets (mainly Latin America). He also hopes to facilitate and promote access of the private sector for investments in order to keep a connection to those public policies in emerging markets.

Marcel Fukayama

Brazilian

Social Entrepreneur

Marcel is a social entrepreneur, cancer survivor and cathedral builder. He is currently involved with different initiatives in new economy and tech education. He served as Global CEO of CDI, a social organization pioneer which uses technology to transform lives and develop communities, and has impacted 1.64 million people in 15 countries. Marcel started as entrepreneur when was 17 years old by creating one of the first internet cafés in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Since then, he has joined the global movement of B Corporations and co-founded Sistema B Brasil with the objective to create a community of companies that use business as a force for good. He is also co-founder of Din4mo, which aims to empower entrepreneurs to develop disruptive business models that solve social problems. Marcel holds a major in Business and earned his MBA at ESPM, with extension at University of California, before joining LSE. He was appointed civic entrepreneur by RAPS (Network of Political Action for Sustainability) with the objective to work with the social society and policy makers to inspire innovation and new public policies.

Jack Campbell

British

Disaster Risk Management Specialist
The World Bank

Jack is a Disaster Risk Management Specialist at the World Bank. He works in a team that supports countries to make public policy and spending decisions that can reduce the impact of natural hazards, for example through risk-sensitive urban planning. He currently manages a partnership programme with the Government of Japan, which seeks to apply the lessons Japan has learned in countries facing similar risks. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2010, he worked in various public and non-profit organisations in the UK and overseas. At the Department for International Development he helped implement the UK government’s first aid policy on disaster resilience. At the international NGO ActionAid, he worked on a number of humanitarian operations, including the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and the Kashmir earthquake in 2005. He is interested in the role that public policy and regulatory approaches can play in building social and economic resilience across sectors, for example through public procurement and PPPs in infrastructure projects.

Tim Hand

British

Owner/Director
In Hand Accounting Ltd.

As a management accountant and business owner, Tim works with corporate and public sector clients across a range of sectors in various capacities; most commonly as an accountant, finance or management consultant. Tim is part of the EMPA programme to refocus his career towards public and economic policy consultancy.

Diana MacLean

British

Assistant Director (Policy and Performance)
Radian

Diana is Assistant Director of Housing at Radian, a social landlord with around 21,000 properties across the South East. She is responsible for Policy and Performance including leasehold and commercial, in house legal and business analysis teams. She is also a Director of Affinity (Reading) Ltd. a PFI joint venture company. She moved to the South East from Scotland in 2009. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing, with an MSc in Housing, she has worked in housing for over fifteen years holding various senior posts within stock transfer and national housing associations in housing management, policy, performance and business strategy. She was also Strategic Housing lead for New Forest District Council before joining Radian in 2010. She has served on Government working groups in Scotland and has a particular interest in criminal justice.

Moatasim Nuri

British

Director, Operational Excellence
Qatar Foundation

Moatasim is a Management and Strategy Consultant with more than 16 years of experience in providing professional services to reputable organisations including public policy making organisations, commercial and development banks, multilateral organisations, government agencies, and not-for-profit organisations. Throughout his career, he has worked for a number of well-known consultancy firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and BDO International. His work involves Strategic Planning, Process Improvement, Organisational Realignment, Operations Standardization, Project Management, Corporate Governance, Performance Management, Change Management, and Business Analysis. He has worked in 12 countries across 3 continents; Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Edward Wingfield

British

Vice President
J.P. Morgan

Ed Wingfield works for J.P. Morgan as a member of their wealth management division’s strategic initiatives team, based in London. His current projects include working to strengthen the firm’s culture and management of conduct risk, a review of governance and regulatory compliance for business with Asian clients and improving controls around operational risk. He previously spent 16 years as an infantry officer in the British Army, including operational deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, Northern Ireland and Bosnia and two years at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Originally from Ireland, Ed studied History and Politics at Trinity College, Dublin.

Samir Khan

Canadian

Senior Manager, Research and Policy Communications
The MasterCard Foundation

Samir currently works in the field of Research and Policy Communications for The MasterCard Foundation, one of the world's largest private foundations. He oversees the development and dissemination of knowledge and policy documents related to the Foundation’s work in education, skills training, and financial inclusion. Originally trained as a journalist at Carleton University in Canada, he has led a varied career in the public, private and non-profit sector, and has worked in fields ranging from public opinion research to public consultation and facilitation to freelance journalism. For a brief period, he was also a touring musician. Samir is interested in the frontiers of public policy development, particularly development cooperation, income inequality, economic empowerment, and improving global governance.

Javier Cuellar

Colombian

Assistant Vice President
State Street Bank

Javier is a MBA educated professional with over 9 years of experience in banking and government. He is a CFA charterholder. He currently works as Assistant Vice President at State Street Bank and Trust in London, coordinating the execution of an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) corporate project for all the branches that the Bank has in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). His previous experience includes numerous roles in investment management, credit analysis, treasury and public credit.

Carolina Diaz Barcenas

Colombian

Head of Risk Governance and Portfolio Compliance
Banco de Bogota

Carolina is a bilingual MBA and Finance professional with over 12 years of experience in the private sector and government. Expertise in financial risk management, compliance, and investments.

Komlan Adjavon

French

Coordinator, Risk Analysis Department
ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development

Komlan is a Senior Risk Manager at the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, ECOWAS being the Economic Community of West African States. He oversees the Risk Analysis Department of the Institution. Prior to this role, he had worked as a Senior Manager with PwC France specialising in risk management and regulatory issues. He has also worked for BNPParibas Assurance as Head of Asset and Liability Management for Europe and therefore has extensive experience in financial services gained both in insurance, banking and consulting spanning two continents, Europe and Africa. He is particularly interested in Political Science and Public Policy in developing countries and is willing to strengthen his knowledge in public project assessment and review.

Guillaume Cravero

French

Senior Advisor
BUSINESSEUROPE

Guillaume is a Senior Advisor in the field of the European social dialogue - including social partner involvement in the EU economic governance process, gender equality and diversity. He graduated from Grenoble Ecole de Management with a focus on innovation and ICT in management. Guillaume previously worked in social affairs in Paris as a political advisor, and in trade promotion at the French Trade Commission in France and the United States. In addition to climbing, skiing, hiking and scuba-diving, Guillaume has a keen interest in international relations, for which he holds a certificate of specialisation, as well as urban planning, entrepreneurship and venture.

Audrey Vergnes

French

Project Co-ordinator
OECD

Audrey is a Project Co-ordinator in the Eurasia Competitiveness Programme of the OECD. Prior to this, Audrey worked as a Country Economist in the East Africa Regional Department of the African Development Bank (AfDB) where she was in charge of designing country support strategies, advising government on key economic and social development issues and coordinating the implementation of a pipeline of operations. She also led the evaluation of private sector investment operations, contributed to the design and the implementation of a large portfolio of public operations in the water and sanitation sector as well as elaborated policy documents. Before joining the AfDB, she worked at BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking both in Paris and New York where she covered emerging economies located in Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe and Middle East and North Africa. Audrey holds a Master degree in Applied Economics from the University of Toulouse.

Patrick Wattiau

French

Portfolio Design Analyst
HSBC Global Asset Management

Patrick moved to London in 2011 after graduating from the EDHEC Business School with a Master in Management and a MSc in Financial Markets. He started his career on the graduate programme at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, through which he became a member of the EMEA Chief Investment Office. Working to define the strategic and tactical asset allocation for discretionary and advisory portfolios, Patrick’s work in particular focused on investment strategy, asset class research and financial modelling. Following Julius Baer’s acquisition of the Merrill Lynch's International Wealth Management business, Patrick's role evolved into that of Investment Consultant. He then joined HSBC Private Bank as an Investment Strategist where he lead the remodelling of the strategic asset allocation for both the discretionary and advisory portfolios. He also developed new quantitative analysis for ultra-high net worth clients. In April 2016, Patrick joined the Global Portfolio Analytics and Design Multi-Asset team at HSBC Global Asset Management to develop quantitative strategy and produce quantitative analysis to support the investment management, research, fulfilment, governance and monitoring of Multi-Asset investment teams, globally. Patrick has a strong interest in monetary policy, public policy and international development. In his free time, Patrick is an advanced mountain climber.

Monika Dhami

Indian

Tax Administrator
Government of India

Monika is a Tax Administrator working for the Income Tax Department in the Ministry Of Finance for the Government of India. Over the last decade, she has been responsible not only for collecting taxes and augmenting revenue collection but has also worked in policy areas with respect to borrowing and lending from Multilateral Institutions like World Bank and Asian Development Bank. She grapples with policy issues in a country where immense diversity coupled with glaring disparities poses challenges that have no easy answers. Her interest in public policy arises from the need to understand how public resources can be judiciously settled or distributed among competing claims. She currently stays in London with her toddler twins and her husband who is a diplomat in the Indian High Commission.

Sandeep Raju

Indian

Vice President
Wipro

Sandeep Raju is Vice President at Wipro, one of India's leading technology, consulting and outsourcing companies. He's also an early-stage investor in social impact ventures, a part-time student of public policy and development, and a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs. Sandeep has led P&L units of up to $150M and delivered 6x growth over 6 years as a sales leader, teaming up with clients to streamline business processes and IT systems, scale up shared service operations, and nurture technology-enabled innovation into funded initiatives. He's led multi-cultural teams of ~1500 people, personally helped create at least half as many jobs, incubated two new businesses as intrapreneurial efforts, and also contributed to ~15 investment or acquisition transactions, including Infosys-Lodestone, Wipro-Cellent and OnMobile. Sandeep is an alumnus of one of India's finest business and engineering schools, where he acquired a foundation in finance and economics. He lives in Switzerland, enjoys learning German, and has also worked extensively in India and the US.

James O'Malley

Irish

Director of Resources
European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)

James (Shay) works as Director of Resources with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), based in Finland where he is responsible for ECHA’s finance, HR and corporate services functions. Shay was previously Head of HR with ECHA (2011-2015). Prior to joining ECHA, he worked with the Irish communications regulator, where he was Retail and Consumer Services Director and where he was previously Corporate Services Director and HR Director. Shay also served as an officer in the Irish Defence Forces for over 17 years. Shay has wide experience in the fields of general management and HR management in the public and international sectors. He has substantial experience of leading teams in multinational environments through his senior management roles in Finland, USA, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon and Ireland. Shay’s previous academic qualifications include an MSc (Organisational Behaviour) and a Master of Business Studies Degree. In a voluntary capacity, Shay was Chairperson of ChildFund Ireland - a child-centred development organisation with humanitarian projects in Africa and South-East Asia –2008 to 2012.

Lorena de la Canal Rioseco

Mexican

Independent Researcher

Lorena has dedicated most of her professional life to public service in Mexico, her home. At the time she was studying to become a lawyer at one of Mexico's most prestigious law schools, ITAM, and working at a federal agency in charge of training, researching and developing special projects akin to the criminal justice system. She then spent a couple of years working at the transparency, access to public information and data protection agency. She aspires to contribute in the building of a more efficient justice system in Mexico.

Juan Lombardo

Mexican

Economic Attachè
Mexican Foreign Service

Juan is in charge of bilateral economic affairs in the Mexican Embassy in the UK, and has been a member of the Mexican Foreign Service for 5 years.

Darren Hughes

New Zealander

Deputy Chief Executive
Electoral Reform Society

Darren is Deputy Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society, the United Kingdom's oldest democracy organisation. From 2002-2011 Darren was a New Zealand Member of Parliament, serving in ministerial and shadow cabinet roles in both government and opposition over that time. He relocated to London in 2012 and has worked for ERS since that time.

Scott O'Ryan

New Zealander

Data Relationship Manager
Morningstar

Scott is a New Zealander working in the UK for Morningstar, a leading provider of independent investment research. Increasingly Morningstar is working with asset managers to introduce leading ideas, provide innovative solutions and help manage regulatory changes. As a Data Relationship Manager at Morningstar, Scott’s role involves researching and analysing investment data, mining data, conducting trend analysis, managing data partnerships with asset managers, and to act as an investment data expert. While Scott has broad policy interests surrounding the intersection of financial markets, regulation and the externalities they create, he is particularly focused on pension and retail investment policy.

Ladi Delano

Nigerian

Managing Partner
Grace Lake Partners

Ladi is a Nigerian entrepreneur with over 10 years experience in emerging markets. He is the co-founder of Grace Lake Partners (GLP), a private investment vehicle set-up to invest in the development of the Nigerian economy. Ladi’s passion for entrepreneurship is underpinned by his belief that job creation is the cornerstone to the economic and social development of Africa. Ladi has a passion for forward thinking political ideologies and public speaking. He also has a particular interest in public policy related to the development of Nigeria and Africa at large.

Sebastian Rodriguez Perez

Spanish

Consultant
Accenture

Sebastian is a PMP-certified consultant with more than 5 years of professional experience in the consulting industry. He has worked on technological and organisational transformation projects in some of the world's largest Investment Banks. More recently, he is focusing in IT industrialization and process automation.

Katharina Frey Bossoni

Swiss

Head Personnel Marketing and Concours/ Diplomat
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

Nina has work experience in different fields of the public sector including as Academic Assistant to Professor Daniel Thürer in public international law at University of Zurich from 2005-2007. She also served as a clerk at the District Court of Zurich. Since 2007, she has passed the selective process to become a Swiss Diplomat and has had postings in Paris (Embassy) and Berne (Diplomatic Advisor at Swiss-EU Directorate). Since 2013, she is Head Personnel Marketing and Concours and is responsible for recruitment and training of diplomats, international cooperation and consular staff of the FDFA, HR marketing for the FDFA, contact person for junior diplomats and consular staff.

Urs Grob

Swiss

Chief Communications Officer
Canton of Zurich

Urs is the Communications Officer of the Security Department of Zurich, Switzerland's largest canton. The department comprises of more than 4,800 employees in the cantonal police force, the road traffic office, the migration office, the office for military affairs and civil defence, the cantonal social welfare office, the sports office, the general secretariat and affiliated specialist departments. In his role, Urs is responsible for internal and external communications at departmental level, and for public relations work on behalf of the head of the department; he also supports and coordinates the communications work done by the offices and specialist units. He reports to the secretary general in organisational terms, but works directly with the head of the Department of Security. Previously he worked for various PR and public affairs agencies in Switzerland. He holds an MA in Philosophy, Medieval Latin Language and Literature and Political Science from the University of Zurich.

Lukas Huber

Swiss

Deputy Secretary-General
High Court of the Canton of Zurich

Lukas is Deputy Secretary General of the High Court of the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. He joined the High Court of the Canton of Zurich in 2008. Until 2010 he worked in human resources development and was assigned to prepare the legal staff and the judges of the Canton of Zurich for the commencement of the new federal codes of civil and criminal procedure. In 2011 he took up the post as the Deputy Secretary General. He is a member of the management board and advises the president, the plenary assembly and the administrative commission in all matters and enforces their decisions. He deputises for the president, leads task forces and heads the departments of legal services, information management, logistics, training and development, international mutual assistance in civil matters and court interpreters. Since 2009 he also works as a substitute judge at the District Court of Winterthur, Switzerland, and he regularly publishes on a variety of legal topics. Lukas holds a Master's degree in Law from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and passed the bar in 2006. Before his engagement at the High Court of Zurich he worked as a lecturer in commercial law and as a law clerk.

Oleg Osipenko

Ukrainian

CEO
VTB Capital Ukraine

Oleg is a banker with over 13 years of experience in the fields of mergers and acquisitions, corporate lending and principal investments. He started his career at PwC in Kiev (Ukraine) and subsequently worked for Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley.

Mariana Clemente Fábrega

Venezuelan

Senior Attorney
Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Mariana has worked at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San Jose, Costa Rica, since 2010, where she currently holds a position as Senior Attorney. She graduated as a lawyer from Universidad Católica Andres Bello (UCAB) in Caracas, Venezuela and was awarded an LL.M. from the University of Cambridge in the UK. Before taking a position at the Court, Mariana worked as a Field Office Lawyer for the Jesuit Refugee Service in Venezuela (JRS- Venezuela), as well as other non-governmental human rights organisations in Venezuela. She also has experience teaching various courses and seminars on human rights issues, particularly in relation to the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights System.

Christoper Brown

Susanna Henderson

Alison Frame

Bronwyn Meyrick

Adam Roberts

Julia Valsky

Patrice Couchard

Virgilio Diniz

Marcel Fukayama

Jack Campbell

Tim Hand

Diana MacLean

Moatasim Nuri

Edward Wingfield

Samir Khan

Javier Cuellar

Carolina Diaz Barcenas

Komlan Adjavon

Guillaume Cravero

Audrey Vergnes

Patrick Wattiau

Monika Dhami

Sandeep Raju

James O'Malley

Lorena de la Canal Rioseco

Juan Lombardo

Darren Hughes

Scott O'Ryan

Ladi Delano

Sebastian Rodriguez Perez

Katharina Frey Bossoni

Urs Grob

Lukas Huber

Oleg Osipenko

Mariana Clemente Fábrega

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Alumni Read about the experiences of our EMPA alumni