DI welcomes new board members

Four new non-executive directors will join Development Initiatives’ (DI) board in 2019

DI is pleased to announce that Paul Stuart, Timothy Takona, Tina Blazquez-Lopez and Professor Alex Ezeh will join the organisation’s board of non-executive directors in 2019.

The new members will bring varied and considerable experience to DI’s board, which serves to provide advice, support and strategic direction to the organisation.

DI’s Executive Director Harpinder Collacott said: “I am delighted to announce DI’s new board which will take over from our previous one through a planned transition in 2019. Their geographical and sector diversity reflects that of DI’s work and ambitions. I am looking forward to working with them to lead DI into the next chapter of its life.

“I would also like to thank the outgoing DI board members, who have given the organisation a great service for the last 10 years and helped shape DI into the institution that it is today. I have greatly valued and enjoyed their support over my last four years as Executive Director, and will ensure they remain an important part of the DI family.”

DI’s new board members are:

• Paul Stuart, CEO of international development charity Send a Cow which is based in Bath and works with smallholder farmers in some of the poorest parts of rural Africa. Having trained and qualified as a chartered accountant with a Big Four accounting firm, he moved into the business sector – where he held finance, operational and strategic roles for 18 years.
• Timothy Takona, who leads UNICEF’s organisational performance management portfolio and initiatives to increase public transparency and accountability as Chief, Performance Management and Accountability. He is also part of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Governing Board, and prior to joining UNICEF spent seven years in programme management at USAID’s Kenya Office.
• Tina Blazquez-Lopez, a project and corporate finance lawyer with leading global firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP whose practice focuses on complex international energy and infrastructure projects across a range of sectors including power (both traditional and renewable), oil and gas, mining, transport, ports, property and telecoms. Based in Dubai, her focus is on emerging market economies, particularly in Africa and the Middle East; she advises a wide range of clients including governments, banks and other financial institutions, sponsors, and equity investors.
• Alex Ezeh, Dornsife Professor of Global Health at Drexel University. A distinguished fellow of the Center for Global Development, Professor Ezeh led the African Population and Health Research Centre for 17 years, as well as initiating and directing the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa, an initiative to strengthen doctoral training and the retention of academics at African universities.