Phil has a strong grounding in the financial sector, which has formed the basis of a broad commercial business career. He is currently a professional director, chairman and investor, with interests in a range of industries such as construction, wholesale and distribution, horticulture and import/export. Phil’s passion for business development, combined with extensive senior management experience, allows him to successfully tailor governance, organisational capability, and strategic management solutions for Hagar’s operations. Phil’s passion for supporting charities is demonstrated in his numerous Chairman and Board commitments to Charitable Trusts.

Dr. iur., LL.M.
Until 2020, Dr. Peter Hess was a practising lawyer and partner at Reichlin Hess Ltd. in Zug, Switzerland. Dr Hess completed his postgraduate studies in law at Columbia University, New York. Dr Hess also made a significant contribution to the community through his political involvement, having served in local government, from 1983 to 2003, in the Federal Parliament, becoming Speaker of Parliament from 2000 to 2001.

Professional activities
Attorney-at-law / Notary Public for the Canton of Zug / Switzerland
Partner in the law offices Reichlin Hess AG, Zug / Switzerland (www.reichlinhess.ch)

Public activities
– Member of the legislative of the City of Zug 1979 – 1982
– Member of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives / Nationalrat): 1983 – 2003
– President of the Christian-Democratic-Group of the Federal Assembly 1991-1998
– Member of the finance committee of the Nationalrat 1991 – 2003 (President 1996/1997)
– Speaker of the Nationalrat (2000/2001)

Sarah is the Founder and Managing Director of Barrer & Co, a fundraising consultancy based in Christchurch, New Zealand. With 14 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector, and having consulted to over 130 not-for-profit Boards, Sarah has not just deep knowledge of best-practice fundraising, but the skillset to back it up. Sarah’s consulting experience has had her working with clients from throughout Aotearoa and internationally. Sarah’s expertise takes her from working side-by-side with fundraisers, to engaging with donors, to advising Chief Executives, to coaching Board Members.

What sets Sarah apart is not just the breadth of her experience, or the unique insights she brings to each charity she works with, but the depth of her knowledge about fundraising as a practice – a traditionally under-resourced, undervalued, and misunderstood skillset. She understands the fundraising and donor cycle of not-for-profits, and advocates for considered analysis, deeper donor relationships, and meaningful stewardship. Rather than parachuting in just to solve problems, Sarah has built sustainability into her business model at Barrer & Co; she is committed to sharing her knowledge by mentoring new fundraisers to create peak performance leaders.

Sarah is proud to support Hagar International’s work because she is passionate about eradicating injustice and ensuring all people are free.

Sarah Bearup is a global humanitarian and development leader with deep expertise in protecting the most vulnerable, especially survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and egregious human rights violations. Having lived in Oceania, South East Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Sarah has worked at the intersection of humanitarian and development programming and led emergency responses to natural disasters and crises including the Western Balkans Refugee Response.

Sarah’s executive roles have included: Assistant Director (Humanitarian Policy) for the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade. National Director of World Vision Bosnia-Herzegovina; Country Director of Hagar International/Cambodia; Executive Director of Positive Women; and Landmines & Disability Program Manager. Sarah’s current role as a Diplomat with the Australian Embassy in Amman Jordan includes oversight of Australia’s Syria Humanitarian Program, which responds to the complex displacement issues resulting from a decade-long protracted crisis.

Sarah has deep domain expertise in protection and inclusion, specifically SGBV, child protection and disability inclusion. Sarah studied at Monash, Deakin and Stanford Universities, the latter awarding a Certificate in Not-for-profit Executive Leadership. She has held various board roles including as a Non-Executive Director of Vision Fund International (EKI, Bosnia-Herzegovina), Hagar Australia and Hagar Catering Social Enterprise.

Connie Ridley has a background in banking, finance and securitization and has worked in Australia, the US and several Pacific Island nations. She is passionate about social justice and committed to bringing change to vulnerable people and communities in Australia and overseas.

For the past 30 years Connie has used her experience in finance to serve not for profits organisations in roles such as Board Member of Library for All, recently concluded 15 years as a Board member of Opportunity International and previously served for 22 years as a Board member of Emerge Women’s and Children’s Network including serving as Chair for 8 years. She has been awarded Honourary Life Governor of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

Andrew has extensive experience in the international development sector having lived and worked for over 20 years in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and South America. He has a proven track record of leading organizations to grow and tangibly impact the lives of vulnerable children, youth, men and women. Andrew has worked for non-governmental organizations including World Vision and Build On and for the consulting company Hassall GHD, successfully securing and implementing large scale international development projects for a wide variety of donors. Andrew has 10 years’ experience as a Country Director in Senegal and the Solomon Islands, and he has been a Board Member of the Solomon Islands Development Services Exchange and Board Chair of the microfinance institution Vision Fund. Andrew holds a PhD focused on effective community development approaches in Vietnam and he has also been a master’s degree lecturer at RMIT University, Melbourne, in the courses of project design, monitoring, evaluation and gender, subjects he has a strong passion for.

Geetha has an extensive management experience with a background spanning finance, HR, operations, governance, and IT management. Following a successful career in the Australian Banking and Finance sector, which spanned over 16 years, Geetha transitioned to senior corporate services roles in the not-for-profit sector. She has also served in several board positions and is currently a board member of the Mandala Foundation. Geetha comes to Hagar with an impressive track record of driving sound operational and strategic business outcomes for the organisations she has worked for, including the ANZ Bank International Division, and NGOs working in aged care, children, youth, and family.

Anne is a Chartered Accountant with more than 20 years experience in sectors including aviation, telecommunications, media and not for profit.  She has a diverse range of skills and experience having led finance functions for large established organisations as well as having set up governance, commercial and finance processes from the ground up. Anne’s career in the commercial sector included senior roles with Ernst and Young, Air New Zealand, Telecom New Zealand and Dentsu Aegis. Since transitioning to the not for profit section she has held senior roles with the Community Broadcasting Foundation (financing community media) and ygap (supporting underestimated entrepreneurs). She is currently the Treasurer and a Committee Member of the International Detention Coalition (advocating to eliminate detention of refugees).

Peter has over 20 years of international development experience across Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia working with World Vision, Concern Worldwide, Tearfund, Engineers without Borders and most recently the Brotherhood of St Laurence. As Asia Regional Director of Concern Peter managed country programs, across South and South East Asia, in livelihood security, HIV/AIDS, education, governance and advocacy. At World Vision Australia Peter led technical specialist teams in economic development, WASH, health, food security, gender and child protection, as well as the research and evaluation unit. Recently Peter has focused on the employment and community services sector in Australia, in the context of COVID-19 impact. His journey has also included work as an NGO strategy consultant, leading a technology start-up in developing an innovative solution to better safeguarding compliance and a social enterprise enabling refugees and asylum seekers to pursue professional careers in Australia. Peter has been a Board Member for Habitat for Humanity Australia and a lecturer of International Development Masters programs.

Patrick is committed to social justice and ending human trafficking and has cycled 8,000km across West Africa to fundraise for an organisation working to end child trafficking in Ghana. He crossed the Sahel on the edge of the Sahara desert with three others, unsupported over a three month period!

Most recently, Patrick has been the Philanthropy Manager at doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation Australia and New Zealand, where he established the giving strategy focused on anti-human trafficking, domestic violence and supporting children experiencing poverty. So Patrick comes to us with a strong understanding of foundations and we are also very proud to have doTERRA as a current donor of Hagar Australia.

Patrick also founded a social impact travel company called ‘The Impact Tour’ that is on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is currently also the Senior Men’s Coach at a 109 year old community football club – the South Melbourne Districts.

Ms. Keang Keo has over 35 years of experience working with Government and International organizations, and served as a private consultant. During her 35 years career – which she began as a school teacher for 10 years and 25 years with international development organizations (NCBA CLUSA, Heifer Cambodia, Pact, Oxfam Hong Kong, Human Right Task Force, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Option/ADB, UNDP NSG), she is a skillful manager (23 years at senior management levels) with experience managing multiple programs and donors funding.
Ms. Keo has managed research and program development initiatives in the areas of gender and women’s empowerment, human trafficking as well as labor migration, domestic violence, child labor, HIV/AIDS and human rights, human right and advocacy, community development, food security, agri-business development, agricultural value chains, micro-finance, social enterprise development, child nutrition and development, WASH and health related, good governance and decentralization, anti-corruption, environment/climate change adaptation and energy, civil society strengthening, and researches and assessments. She also has strong experience on grant/financial management, program management including PME, report writing, and resource mobilization.
In addition, she is an expert on capacity building as a development philosophy and approach who has demonstrated the ability to articulate ideas, motivate people and inspire teamwork toward achievement of organizational common goals.

Rohullah Ahmadi has over eight years of experience working with various civil society organizations and different governmental, national, and international not-for-profit organizations in 17 provinces of Afghanistan. He has been on the team at Hagar International Afghanistan since October 2016, first as a training coordinator on the counter-trafficking project and then as Project Manager for the Combating Human Trafficking in Afghanistan, Support to Shelter, and Boy’s Protection Center (FNM) projects. Rohullah Ahmadi worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and conducted a short-term assessment of the counter-trafficking project in Afghanistan. 

He is currently Acting Country Director at Hagar Afghanistan. His primary responsibility is contributing to and developing quality grant applications, supporting and giving guidance to project managers for quality services, and strengthening relationships with relevant stakeholders. Besides this, Rohullah Ahmadi has extensive teaching experience in private and governmental universities. 

Rohullah Ahmadi completed his master’s degree in Economics from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India, in 2016 and studied B. Commerce from Nangarhar University, Afghanistan in 2013.

Thuy has over 23 years of experience working in international development with local government agencies, mass organizations and international not-for-profit organizations. She has managed development programs in many sectors including small business development, early childcare and development, nutrition and health, water and sanitation, livelihood development, disaster risk reduction, community capacity and values building and ending violence against children and human-trafficking,

Thuy most recently worked for World Vision Vietnam for more than 18 years and was a Zonal Programs Manager responsible for programs in North-West Vietnam, with more than 50 staff. She also worked for the Yen Bai Women’s Union- a key Hagar Vietnam partner. She is skilled in program management, team and people management, government and partner relations, and resource mobilisation to support the most vulnerable, especially women and children in disadvantaged areas.

Thuy holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from Southern Luzon State University in the Philippines. In addition she holds Bachelor degrees in Foreign Languages and Sociology. She is also completing her Master Degree in Psychology and has a keen interest in physiological approaches to development including trauma informed care. 

Nerrelle is an accomplished Program Manager with over 10 years’ experience, within the humanitarian sector, in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. She has managed various donor funded programs from Disaster Risk Reduction to Social Accountability which helped her learn how to effectively manage complex, high pressure and time-bound projects.

Having successfully managed a number of large scale donor funded programs for Save the Children and Oxfam, she is well versed in donor program management. In her previous role as the Regional Influencing Advisor for Oxfam in the Pacific she had significant experience effectively building local NGO capacity in Solomon Islands. This serves her well in supporting and strengthening our local NGO partner in Solomon Islands- HOPE Trust.

Nerrelle has a reputation for being an influential leader whose advice, contributions and judgements are very much valued. Nerrelle believes in a world that is just and inclusive, so all people can participate in democratic governance systems that enable service providers to be held accountable to provide a safe environment for women­- especially young girls. She has a personal desire to empower women and youth in the Pacific, so they can take ownership and leadership of key issues and to provide lasting peace, justice and prosperity in the region.

Michael joined Hagar Singapore as Executive Director in 2013, after spending more than 14 years serving in the international humanitarian sector. No stranger to global poverty issues and social injustice in the developing world, Michael brings extensive programme and executive experience having provided direct oversight to numerous global development projects in about 25 countries worldwide.

Don has invested 23 years in humanitarian work and is deeply driven by the fact that he can help change the future for exploited and marginalised survivors of severe abuse. After a teaching career, Don became Territory Manager for the South Island for nearly 12 years with World Vision New Zealand. After this, Don took up a three-year appointment as Director of Children in Crisis with World Vision International Mongolia. Don established Hagar New Zealand in 2008 and has been Executive Director since then.

Shelagh has been recruited to launch Hagar International in the UK. 

With over 35 years in fundraising, marketing and comms, she has a deep knowledge of all fundraising streams, and the UK giving arena.  She has held senior roles in the commercial and not for profit sector, raising funds for charities working in health, the elderly, disability, children, heritage and conservation.  She has personally secured multimillion pound partnerships and built high performing teams, to deliver new fundraising streams which deliver the highest returns, with strong focus on partnerships and high quality supporter stewardship.

Shelagh has volunteered for numerous charities, giving guidance and strategic direction to new and struggling organisations.  She also helps raise funds for disadvantaged children to access the arts in her local community.   In her last role she launched a new UK charity, which now generates just under US$2 million a year.

Having been made aware of the incredible work Hagar International does, in transforming the lives of survivors of trafficking, slavery and abuse, working with the Hagar UK trustees, Shelagh will establish a team in the UK, informing grant makers, corporates and individuals of the life changing impact their support will have in in helping some of the most disadvantaged in society.