Dr Titilola Banjoko, Chair 

Dr Titilola Banjoko currently works as an Executive Managing Director in the NHS. She has a clinical background. She successfully pioneered the formation of AfricaRecruit and FindaJobinAfrica.com aimed at harnessing human resources and social capacity in Africa. She serves on the council of the Royal African Society and she is a Trustee of Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET). Currently she serves as the chair of the board for the Foundation for Women’s Health Research and Development (FORWARD). She is a Fellow of the Nigerian Leadership Initiative and the co-convener of the Better Health for Africa Initiative.  

She previously served on the many boards which include: the European Commission–United Nations Joint Migration and Development Initiative, the Department for International Development, the Global Poverty Action Fund Advisory Board and the World Health Organisation’s Health Worker Global Policy Advisory Council. She was also a Senior Research Associate at the UK’s Foreign Policy Centre and board of the Commonwealth Business Women’s Forum. She is regularly invited by the mainstream media to discuss issues on topical news items, speak as a panellist, and chair high level stakeholder events. In 2006, she was named as one of the Prides of a Continent: Africa’s gifts to the world. She has received numerous awards and endorsements over the last 10 years. In 2019, she was recognised by the Nigerian Healthcare Professionals UK as one of the 70 most Outstanding Professionals in the United Kingdom. She is passionate about supporting and giving a voice to the voiceless and serving humanitarian causes.  

Ciarán Donnelly

Ciarán Donnelly is Senior Vice President, International Programmes at the IRC’s headquarters in New York. He previously served as Vice President of Programme Quality, and in leadership positions in Burundi, Uganda, Afghanistan and the D.R. Congo. An Irish citizen, Ciarán holds a B.A. in European Studies from Trinity College Dublin and the University of Pavia, and post-graduate degrees from the College of Europe and the University of Cambridge.

Cressida Pollock

Cressida Pollock is the former Chief Executive at English National Opera, one of the UK’s leading performing Arts organisations. During her tenure at ENO she brought her business and financial expertise together with her turnaround experience from outside the sector to a complex and highly challenged organisation.  Cressida's previous background stems from her wide ranging interests in improving organisations, including her tenure at McKinsey & Co. At the age of 24 she was a founding partner of Somerset Capital Management, an Emerging Markets focused investment fund. That investment company today has grown to manage over $10bn under assets.  

She has twice taken time out of her career to work directly with NGOs and non-profits: first at Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity in London, and then as an advisor at the Zambian Ministry of Health where she developed national healthcare policy for the Minister.  Cressida holds an MBA from MIT Sloan where she graduated at the top of her class. She holds an MA in Law and Classics from the University of Cambridge and is a qualified Barrister and member of Lincoln’s Inn.

Francesco Garzarelli, Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee

Francesco Garzarelli is Head of Macro Research at Eisler Capital. A graduate of the London Business School and Bocconi University, Francesco sits on the Italian Ambassador to the UK Independent Advisory Board, is a member of Chatham House, the Society of Business Economists and the Parish Council of St Mary’s Church in Hampstead. He supports Into University – a UK Charity.

Huey Nhan-O’Reilly

Huey is Head of Digital Delivery at Soapbox Communications, an international design and communications agency agency for leading think tanks, research organisations and NGOs. He has over two decades of experience in digital and communications, and has built and led teams at some of the best commercial agencies in the Asia-Pacific and Europe. He and his teams have won numerous awards for their work and he served as a judge at the BAFTA Interactive Awards. 

Huey has worked with various UN Agencies, including UNESCO, UNAIDS and UNDP on campaigns to support the rights of LGBT+ people, women and other marginalised communities. He’s a passionate advocate for the rights of the displaced, borne from his own experience of fleeing Vietnam in 1976, on a boat with his family. He grew up in the migrant communities of Melbourne, Australia, and witnessed first-hand, their struggles and discrimination, but also the kindness of neighbours and local charities. Huey lives in London with his husband, adopted son and rescue pets

Kathryn Ludlow, Chair of the People and Culture Committee

Kathryn Ludlow is a lawyer and former partner of the international law firm Linklaters where she specialised in dispute resolution and investigations. She was the firm's first global pro bono partner and chaired the Corporate Responsibility Committee. Kathryn is also a non-executive director of the Great Ormond Street Hospital Foundation Trust and a trustee of the Hall for Cornwall.

Kemal Ahmed

Kemal Ahmed has over 24 years of institutional asset management experience. He is currently a Partner with London-based CGM UK Advisors Ltd, a strategic investor in asset management firms.  His professional career includes money management for Investec Asset Management, Old Square Capital Advisors (a firm he founded), the Brown University Endowment and the World Bank Group’s Treasury Department.  Kemal has and continues to serve on the Boards of various asset managers. His not-for-profit involvement has included serving, for many years, on the Boards of the Fund for Global Human Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union. He earned a MA, with distinction, from the Johns Hopkins University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Martin Hyman

Martin Hyman is a Finance Director with more than 25 years’ experience. He now runs a CFO consultancy providing strategic financial advice to a portfolio of organisations. He is a Chartered Accountant, qualifying at KPMG. 

He is a visiting lecturer on MBA programmes at the Universities of both Leeds and Manchester. 

In addition, Martin is a mentor for The Princes’ Trust, supporting young people in setting up their own businesses. He is an accredited speaker for the Northern Holocaust Education Group, where he relates his late mother’s experiences as a Holocaust survivor and refugee.

Najwa Al Abdallah

Najwa Al Abdallah grew up in a small village in Lebanon in poverty and during the civil war which built her resilience and passion to work for charities with focus on eliminating poverty. She spent the last 21 years working for several international NGOs around the world, overseeing finance, HR, IT and compliance and risk management. She is newly appointed as Director of Corporate Services at Money Advice Trust. Najwa blogs on fighting corruption in development and humanitarian aid organisations.

Natalie Au, Chair of the Safeguarding Committee

Natalie Au is Managing Director at Nau Consultancy, a firm specialising in gender equality, social inclusion and safeguarding. Her career has focused on delivering international cooperation work, including development and humanitarian assistance. She has particular expertise in working with adolescent girls and women, child safeguarding and the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment. She has worked with a vast range of clients ranging from international NGOs, foundations, private sector companies, government agencies, bilateral and multilateral development banks. 

Noelia Serrano

Noelia is a partner at Sayer Vincent, auditors and advisors to charities. As well as an audit partner she is also an advisor, trainer and facilitator. She is a chartered accountant and has a Diploma in Charity Accounting awarded by the ICAEW and Cass Business School.

Noelia is a member of Sayer Vincent’s specialist tax and VAT group, and leads its special interest group which coordinates research and activities for international charities.

Before joining IRC, Noelia was Treasurer of Womankind Worldwide, an international women's rights organisation, for seven years, and chaired its Finance and Resources Committee.

Rt Hon Alistair Burt, Chair of the External Relations Committee

Rt Hon Alistair Burt retired from the UK Parliament in 2019. He lives in Bedfordshire, and is married to Eve with two children, one a teacher and the other in the Arts and theatre. He is the UK’s Commissioner on the International Commission for Missing Persons, a treaty based organisation based in The Hague, and the Pro-Chancellor of Lancaster University. He is a Board Member of the Campaign for Global Prosperity, promoting International Development.

He served in Parliament from 1983-97 as MP for his home town of Bury North, and from 2001-2019 for North East Bedfordshire. Appointed a Parliamentary Under Secretary by John Major in 1992 for welfare, family and poverty issues and benefits, he was promoted to Minister of State, Minister for People with Disabilities in 1995. He served on the International Development Select Committee twice in between front bench duties over the years and returned to ministerial office as Parliamentary Under Secretary for North Africa, the Middle East and North America between 2010-13, and again as Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa and Minister of State DFID, 2017-19. DFID responsibilities included WASH, Conflict and Stabilisation, Nutrition, Global Health, HIV/Aids and Reproductive Rights, NTDs, Global Funds and responses to Emergency needs in Yemen, Syria, West Bank and Gaza.

Mr Burt signed the Disability Discrimination Act into law in 1995, and the Arms Trade Treaty on behalf of the UK at the UN in 2013.

Sir Hugh Bayley

Sir Hugh Bayley was Labour MP for York from 1992-2015, Minister for Social Security and President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He introduced legislation to focus UK aid on poverty reduction, outlaw transnational bribery and ban tobacco advertising. He taught politics and social policy at the University of York, ran IBT - a television company capitalised by UK development agencies, and was a trade union negotiator.