Martin Ryan
Chairman
Martin is an experienced business development professional who has spent the majority of his career working in the African agricultural and facilities management industries. His early career was spent in Zambia working for the Ministry of Rural Development. He returned to Ireland in 1974, where he was employed in various senior positions in agribusiness until 1985. Martin returned to Africa in 1985, working in Ghana in agribusiness, timber and furniture manufacturing, exploration drilling and hospitality sectors until 1997. He then co-founded ATS Group, providing facilities management and catering to the mining industry. By the time he sold ATS Group in 2017, the business was established in 15 African Countries. Martin continued as Business Development Director working and travelling extensively in Africa from home in Ireland. He retired in 2019 to the part time position of Consultant – Business Development to ATS Group.
David Governey
Trustee
David is an internationally experienced financial and operations professional, and a Chartered Accountant (1974). Between June 1989 and December 2014, David served as Director of Finance /Chief Operating Officer in three CGIAR Institutes: the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) based in Washington DC, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), headquartered in Nigeria. Prior to embarking on his international career in 1989, David worked with Pricewaterhouse in Dublin as a senior manager. He also spent two years in Zambia with Peat Marwick Mitchell. David served as a nonexecutive Director of the Association of International Agricultural Research Centers (AIARC) from 2007 to 2014. David currently serves as an independent consultant and has recently carried out assignments on corporate governance and risk management for international organizations headquartered in Switzerland, Kenya and Philippines.
Catherine Fitzgibbon
Trustee
Catherine is an independent consultant currently based in the UK after over 15 years living and working in the Horn of Africa region. She has worked for a wide range of clients including DFID, World Bank, UN agencies and NGOs. Currently Catherine provides technical assistance to the Ethiopian and Kenyan governments on aspects of their social protection programmes providing cash transfer payments to the extreme poor. Catherine has a wide portfolio of development work with specific specialisms on poverty graduation, disaster resilience and social protection. She is also involved in disaster risk financing initiatives with the World Bank’s Finance and Markets Global Practice unit. Prior to becoming a consultant Catherine was Programme Quality and Design Director for Save the Children UK, Kenya Programme and was also Head of Operations for Save the Children in Ethiopia.
Jo Ryan
“I am leading Partner Africa for an interim period, focusing on the delivery of our innovative consulting and auditing services across the 42 African countries in which we work.”
Jo joined Partner Africa in an interim capacity in May 2019. She has held various senior management roles within multinationals and international non-profit organisations, including Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Merit Medical, GOAL, International Rescue Committee and Traidlinks, a sister organisation to Partner Africa. An accountant by profession, Jo holds a degree in Business Studies and a Master of Arts (Governance and Development) from Sussex University. Jo has lived and worked in Ireland, UK Luxembourg, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Kenya, where she is currently based and an active member of various business networks.
Ismael Alogo
“I am responsible for the financial and general administrative functions of the business.”
Ismael joined Partner Africa in August 2011 at the launch of the business and has been instrumental in the development of the systems and administrative outcomes that have successfully established Partner Africa as a leader in its field. He joined with 14 years of experience in a variety of accounting and managerial roles, including as the Finance and Business Manager at Africa Now – Ethical Business Services, the precursor to Partner Africa.
Prior to this, he worked as a Senior Accountant at Kuehne & Nagel and as Finance and Administration Manager at the Kenya Alliance for Advancement of Children (KAACR). While at KAACR, Ismael spent periods working as a trainer for the firm’s partnership collaborations with ActionAid International across Kenya on financial best practice, governance and accountability. Ismael is an alumnus of Strathmore University, a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) and holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration with a specialisation in entrepreneurship from Moi University, Kenya.
Mark Ireland
“I’m currently Head of Consulting for Partner Africa, responsible for the smooth running of the team to ensure we deliver excellent, tailored services to our clients.”
Mark has worked on the African continent for the last twelve years as Programme Director for Partner Africa and Head of Region for Self Help Africa, Partner Africa’s parent organisation. Over the last five years, Mark has been responsible for leading teams that have secured over USD 50 million in programme funding. In the past, Mark has undertaken research at the University of Bath and, when he was very young, he used to be a fish farmer in Bangladesh, Israel and the UK. Mark has a Master’s in International Development from the University of Bath.
Emarie Van Schalkwyk
“I head the audit team, responsible for ensuring the high quality and consistency of our audit reporting, and leading on customer relations in Southern Africa.”
Emarie joined Partner Africa in 2017. She manages audit client relationships, providing guidance to suppliers on correcting non-compliances, verifying corrective actions and managing data platforms. Emarie has implemented an auditor calibration programme and ensures the quality and consistency of our audit reports. Prior to Partner Africa, she worked for a certification audit company in the agriculture industry for 11 years, where she managed the certification and social compliance audit divisions. Emarie has a National Diploma in Public Relations and has done short courses in Business Administration and Management, Pastel Accounting and Train the Trainer. She is fluent in Afrikaans and English.
Zoë Wakefield
“I lead Partner Africa’s risk management consulting work, with an additional focus on business and product development.”
Zoë joined Partner Africa in 2018. Her research and risk management experience was gained over nearly six years with S-RM Intelligence and Risk Consulting, where she helped to establish the firm’s office in Cape Town and managed a team of analysts producing complex business investigations and strategic intelligence reports for sub-Saharan Africa.
Her extensive knowledge of the region and risks posed to businesses operating in the continent means Zoë is well-placed to offer expert advice on supply chain risk, the human rights of workers and social license to operate. She holds a Master of Arts in Politics and Spanish from the University of Edinburgh and speaks Spanish and Portuguese. She has also completed the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s Prince of Wales’ Business and Sustainability Programme.
John Smale
“I am a project manager, responsible for the logistical planning, implementation and final delivery of consulting projects throughout Africa.”
John joined Partner Africa in 2017, and has since delivered various bespoke consulting projects, helping clients with supply chains across Africa to move beyond compliance and create positive change for their workers. John previously worked in the financial sector for over eight years, principally at Bidvest Bank, where he specialised in foreign exchange and corporate banking. In his time at Bidvest, John was nominated for both Top Employee and Top Sales Consultant and won the 2016-2017 Top Manager Award. He received an Honours degree from the University of Cape Town in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He is compliant with the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act and fluent in English and Afrikaans.
Kathy O'Grady
“In my role as training and quality manager, I work with Partner Africa auditors throughout Africa to achieve best social auditing practice.”
Kathy joined the Partner Africa team in 2018 and is responsible for audit quality reviewing, auditor training and calibration and various other training programmes we offer to upskill clients and suppliers on ethical trade, compliance standards and the labour legislative environment. Kathy has been actively involved in the human rights development sector in rural South Africa for the past 20 years, and in ethical trade in South Africa for the past 10 years. She is a lead social auditor with experience in SIZA, WIETA and SMETA standards auditing, mainly in the fruit and flower industries in Africa. Kathy has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and is fluent in English and Afrikaans.
Bernard O'Connell
“I lead our trade development and capacity building consulting work, heading up Traidlinks’ work delivering export capacity and market linkages programmes.”
Bernard has been with Traidlinks since 2013, where he has been based in Rwanda leading the team’s activities in export development and capacity building of SMEs, principally through the implementation of the Trademark East Africa funded export development programme for Rwanda and Burundi. Bernard has wide experience in international business development and project management in Asia, Northern Europe and Africa.
He has spent 35 years working in private sector multinationals, operating at a senior managerial level and specialising in delivering solutions to the construction services industries in power generation, oil and gas. He has extensive knowledge of market systems, regional cross-border trade development, standards, logistics, female empowerment and engagement in enterprise and the political economy in East Africa and eastern DRC. Bernard holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from University College Dublin.
Mohamed Morad
“I lead our work in the Middle East and North Africa from our Cairo office, coordinating and delivering regional audits and managing client relations.”
Morad joined Partner Africa when it was still Africa Now in 2008 and has since coordinated our regional audit activities, delivering over 800 ethical audits. He is a highly experienced lead auditor and expert in labour litigation in the MENA and CEWA regions, along with numerous compliance and certification standards and ethical trade and human rights issues.
He is also a skilled trainer on audit methodology and ethical trade awareness. Prior to joining Partner Africa, Morad worked for the Suez Canal Textile Group where he developed his expertise in the textiles and garment industry. Morad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Suez Canal University and a Master of Business Administration from Garden York University. He has also completed numerous industry standard training programmes, including SA8000, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, Ethical Trading Initiative and Sedex.
Robert Adero
“I serve as manager of Partner Africa’s Management Information Systems and Salesforce administration, supporting the team with data analytics and managing audit and consulting dashboards for clients.”
Robert joined Partner Africa in 2014, and is responsible for Partner Africa’s ICT infrastructure, information systems and Salesforce administration. He plays a key role in leading the organisation’s technological strategy towards automating its business processes across different departments and streamlining and visualising clients’ data analytics. Prior to joining Partner Africa, Robert worked for Kuehne + Nagel as IT Support.
Robert graduated from Mt. Kenya University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Information Technology and a CISCO certification in PC hardware and software installation, maintenance and troubleshooting. He has extensive background experience in information systems planning, development, support and systems integration, systems evaluations and software and hardware implementations. In his free time, Robert provides mentorship and volunteering services to other non-profit organisations, including the Norwegian Refugee Council and Boma Project, using Salesforce CRM.