Our people

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.

With 18 years living and working in Asia, Carol has fulfilled the roles of country director of international NGOs and independent regional consultant. Previously, Carol was Country Director of Save the Children Australia in Cambodia for almost 6 years before she established ChildFund Cambodia in 2007 on behalf of ChildFund Australia. Under her direction, ChildFund and Save the Children were awarded 6 medals by the Government of Cambodia in recognition of contributions in the development sector. After finishing her role with ChildFund, Carol provided consulting services for a diverse range of clients such as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia), UNICEF, OXFAM, The Asia Foundation, Save the Children International, and Child Helpline Cambodia. Carol relocated from Phnom Penh to Hanoi in 2017 to take up the role of Executive Director of Hagar in Vietnam.

Christiana is a development practitioner with more than 20 years cumulative work experience across multiple practice areas (youth empowerment and economic education, health systems strengthening/governance, capacity building, conflict/gendered sensitive approaches to peace and reconciliation).

She previously served as the Programme Development Manager for Hagar Afghanistan; prior to joining Hagar; Christiana had served as Northern Regional Coordinator for Junior Achievement Nigeria, Technical Specialist with Abt Associates Inc. for a DFID funded health systems strengthening and governance project where she provided support to government in hard to reach and resources scarce settings to improve maternal health services. She managed efforts to ensure effective planning, and budgeting for malaria control and coordination across various sectors of government  in 10 states of Nigeria as a Capacity Building Manager with Malaria Consortium on the Support to National Malaria Programme in Nigeria (SuNMaP)

Christiana has extensive experience in project management consulting and working with institutional donors and private foundations. She is trained in Trauma Healing, Group Therapy and Story Based approaches to healing victims of abuse and trauma. 

She holds a Masters in International Management from the University of Liverpool with a focus on Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management and is enrolled in doctoral research in Peace Building.

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.

Mike Nowlin

Mike brings 20 years’ social work experience in child and family protection, and mental health service provision to his role as Hagar USA’s Executive Director. He previously worked for three years in the Hagar Cambodia program office, where he most recently served as the Executive Director. He and his family repatriated to the USA in mid-2017 to lead the Hagar USA office. Prior to moving to Cambodia in 2013, Mike served as an Associate Director of Performance Improvement in Ohio’s largest public child protection system from 2008-2013. He is very passionate about Hagar’s core work of ensuring human rights abuse survivors have access to high quality trauma recovery services.

Elizabeth has extensive fundraising and client servicing experience in the international arena with a broad background that ranges from branding, public relations and event management to marketing and finance. Having worked with both the public and private sector, she has an outstanding track record in working with various stakeholders to realize their business objectives. This ranges from the likes of UBS Investment Bank and Imagination where she was involved with numerous high profile IPO deals and M&A roadshows to Haymarket Media, the Mayor of Boston’s Office and the Matilda Sedan Chair Charities Fund where she focused primarily on fundraising and event management. Born in Hong Kong and educated in the United States, Elizabeth holds an MBA and is fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. 

Merewyn is an accomplished fundraising, marketing and communications professional with 19 years’ experience working across the not-for-profit and corporate sectors, including 10 years in management roles. She has extensive experience in the non-for-profit sector in Australia, particularly a track record of delivering great fundraising results for the RSPCA, Hanover and World Vision. She has also held senior executive roles in various organizations which is backed up with academic qualifications in business, advertising, marketing, and strategic planning. Merewyn most importantly has a real passion for international development and the work of Hagar and our objective to free and heal communities of the trauma associated with trafficking, slavery and abuse.