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.
Winifred Johansen
Trustee
Winifred is an internationally experienced engineering and international business professional, a Chartered Engineer (MSc. 2001), Business Administrator (MBA 2015) and is currently a Doctorate Researcher in Leadership of Transboundary Crisis. Between December 2000 and July 2007, Winifred served in different engineering, product development and verification capacity in Volvo Cars in Sweden. Between 2007 and 2011, Winifred worked in the Oil and gas subsea sector as a lead engineer on product qualification and verification with Aker Solutions. In August 2011, Winifred embarked on a career in Sales, Contract Management, and Business development globally with Nexans Norway overseeing Local Content Strategy and Capacity building in West Africa until August 2019. Winifred is currently serving as the SVP Commercial for Quantafuel AS in Norway and sits as the Chairman of the Board for Quantafuel Skive ApS Denmark.
Sara Clancy
“I am the Executive Director of Partner Africa and am passionate about our mission to improve the livelihoods of workers and producers, while assisting access to international supply chains and bridging the skills and standards gap between Africa and the international community."
Sara has been Executive Director of Partner Africa since December 2019. Sara is a responsible business specialist who for the last 20 years has managed ethical and fair trade programmes for the Work Bank Group, UNDP, The UN Global Compact, The Body Shop, Levis Strauss, and Save the Children. Sara has worked for over thirty years in West, East and Southern Africa and worked extensively in the agri-business, manufacturing, banking and extractives sectors.
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.
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 our Responsible Business advisory work, helping clients manage ESG risks and implement responsible business practices in their supply chains in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.”
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 ESG risk, identifying, addressing and reporting on human rights impacts 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 and a Master’s Course in Business and Human Rights at the University of Bergen, Norway.
EMILIE PARADISO
“I lead on business development for Partner Africa, responsible for building strategic partnerships and securing funding for our work.”
Emilie joined Partner Africa in 2017. She leads on Partner Africa’s business development activities, with a focus on securing funding from institutional and government organisations and building partnerships with NGOs, consultancies and research institutions. Emilie has 10 years’ experience in fundraising and development, most recently focusing on international development in Africa. In her role at Self Help Africa, Partner Africa’s parent company, she has secured over USD 9 million in funding from donors such as the World Bank, IFC, European Commission and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Emilie is currently studying for a Masters of Science in International Business and Development from the University of London.
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.
John Smale
“I am a project manager, responsible for the logistical planning, implementation and final delivery of advisory projects throughout Africa.”
John joined Partner Africa in 2017, and has since delivered various bespoke advisory 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.
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.