You can contact us either by email
or send us a voicemail to 0041.22.534.96.84 in
Geneva. We will get back to you quickly to discuss your needs and
questions and how we may help.
Marco Kirschbaum
Executive Director
Marco has worked on human rights and humanitarian issues since 1986. As
a student, he worked with Amnesty International, mainly for the
protection of refugees and detainees. After an MA in Chinese studies in
Berlin in 1991, Marco started working for the ICRC (International Committee of the
Red Cross), first in Sri Lanka, then in the Philippines, Djibouti and
Israel as a delegate, head of mission and coordinator. At the ICRC's HQ
in Geneva, he served as head of sector for Protection for the Middle
East from 1998-2003, and for Asia from 2003-2007. Since 2008, he is
working full-time for the NGO Management Association.
To improve the results and impact of civil society organisations, it is
necessary to enhance knowledge on management and leadership, to share
practical skills and tools and to develop new strategies. To this
purpose, he and Daniel D'Esposito set up the website NGO Manager in 2001. NGO Manager
provides NGOs with a selection of the best management tools and key
articles for NGOs which are available on the internet free of charge.
To further enhance management capacity-building opportunities for NGOs,
Marco, Roberto and Rita established the NGO Management School (NMS) in
2006. The purpose of the School is provide high-quality management
training for a fair price to participants from NGOs in the North and in
the South close to where they live and work.
Both NGO Manager and the NGO Management School were set up as volunteer
endeavours. They are services by the NGO Management Association, an
nonprofit association founded in 2001 in Switzerland. Marco is its
executive director. He is based in the Geneva area in Switzerland.
Roberto Palo
Training Co-Director
Roberto has more than 20 years of experience as a communication
professional and senior trainer for NGOs, cooperatives, communities,
for local government units, donor agencies and small businesses.
He has carried out assignments in the Philippines, Afghanistan,
Australia, Malaysia and Fiji for the ICRC, GTZ, Bread for the World,
the Australian Red Cross, the Japan Social Development Fund, The World
Bank and the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. After
starting his career as a coordinator for theatre and radio productions,
Roberto was the ICRC's communications and field officer in Mindanao,
the Philippines, for several years. He developed and conducted numerous
Red Cross and humanitarian law-related training courses in the
Philippines and in other countries.
Roberto is based in Davao City, the Philippines and is the co-founder
and an associate of InterDev
Consulting.
His areas of expertise are:
Training design and curriculum development of
management courses for NGOs, financial management, marketing, business
plans and negotiation
Conducting of training courses, training of
trainers, senior trainer for CEFE Network Foundation
Conducting of programme and project monitoring,
evaluation and assessments for development and humanitarian work
Development and installation of system manuals for
NGOs and self-help organizations
Consultancy on financial management, social
marketing, organizational assessment and capacity building.
Sandrine Delattre
Training Co-Director
Sandrine has 16 years of experience in international humanitarian organizations, including 11 years in the field, mostly in program management positions. She is a certified trainer specialized in Project Cycle Management, relief distribution and Training of Trainers
In the field, Sandrine has worked for Handicap International (HI) from 1993 to 1995, as administrator in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somaliland and Kenya, for Médecins du Monde (MDM) from 1996 to 1998, as head of mission in Burundi and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the field from 1998 to 2004, as administrator in Kosovo and Albania, delegate in Albania and Timor and Economic Security Coordinator in Democratic Republic of Congo and North-Caucasus.
Based at the ICRC's Geneva HQ since 2004, Sandrine has worked for its Economic Security Unit as head of sector for the Great Lake Region and the Horn of Africa, then as deputy head of Training and as head of its training unit from 2006 to 2009.
Sandrine has a B.A. in Economic Sciences, a diploma in marketing and management, a Master in Humanitarian and Development Aid and a Master in Adult Learning.
Her publications include contributions to the "Guidelines for assessment in emergencies" written for the ICRC and the International Federation for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, as well as two handbooks written for the ICRC, "Programme/Project Management: the Result-Based Approach" and "Measuring Results".
Sandrine is now an independent consultant based in Geneva.
Pierre Dyens
Treasurer
Pierre Dyens is human resources manager at the
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.
Before that he was the administrator of the Graduate Institute of
Development Studies and programme manager for the Master of Advanced
Studies programme at the same Institute.
Pierre worked several years with MSF Switzerland as
mission administrator in Nicaragua and the
Philippines, then as human resources manager at its Swiss
headquarters.
After studying social and political sciences, he
studied for an Executive Diploma at the Swiss Graduate
School of Public Administration (IDHEAP).
Pierre is the NMS treasurer.
Virginia Valdueza
International Course Coordinator
Virginia is a MBA graduate with 10 years experience in development, international economics and quality services assessment covering different roles in international institutions, strategic consultancies, the public sector and multinationals.
She started her career in Mexico as economist. She developed a strong interest in the social and solidarity economy and participated for many years in campaigns of fundraising for indigenous projects. Then Virginia moved to the World Bank in Washington, D.C., to work on the World Development Report on Poverty, published in 2000/01.
After finishing her Master in Business Administration in Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, she continued with strategic consultancy in Arthur D. Little, followed by four years in evaluation of quality education in ANECA, Spain's State Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation. Virginia then moved to Switzerland to work in Electronic Arts and Lexmark as finance specialist. She is now the NGO Management School's International Course Coordinator.
Virginia has a particular interest in sports and sevelopment. She has a master's degree in Sports Management and is the Swiss representantive for Sport and Development, an international Spanish NGO. She is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Peter Küttel
Project Coordinator Communication and Partnerships
Peter has worked for 11 years for Procter & Gamble in Geneva. Originally a key account and customer marketing manager, he was from 2006 to 2008 in charge for strategic alliances in Central/Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, India and Malaysia, establishing external partnership programmes (co-marketing/co-innovation) in these markets in collaboration with the local P&G teams.
Peter has always had a strong interest in social responsibility and humanitarian aid. He has organized and participated in numerous boy/girl scout camps and has been engaged in various local non-profit activities. In 2005, in collaboration with Sewa Beats, he has organized a fundraising event in Geneva with 300 participants to raise money for a Terre des Hommes project in Burkina Faso.
Peter left Procter & Gamble in autumn 2008 to travel the world and to start working for NGOs. He has worked for the Women's World Summit Foundation, a Swiss non-profit foundation, serving the implementation of women and children's rights and the United Nations development and peace agenda, where he was the coordinator for the White Ribbon - Campaign Switzerland, the prevention programme against violence on women.
Peter is Project Coordinator Communication & Partnerships, responsible for general communication (marketing and presentations for Geneva-based training courses), and working on partnership development with Swiss and international organizations. He is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Maria Normita Palo
Specialist on Financial Management, Micro-Finance Projects, Marketing, Trainign of Trainers
Rita has fifteen years of experience as a senior executive in NGOs, as
a trainer and consultant for NGOs, for cooperatives, communities, local
government units, donor agencies and for small businesses.
She has carried out assignments in the Philippines, Chittagong and
Rangamati in Bangladesh and in Suva, Fiji for national NGOs, as well as
for Misereor, Bread for the World, GTZ, USAID, the World Bank and the
Asian Development Bank.
Rita is a former executive director of the Settlement and Livelihoods
Foundation in the Philippines and was a university instructor of
accounting in Davao City, the Philippines. She is the author of several
financial and operations manuals for NGOs.
Based in Davao City, the Philippines, Rita is the co-founder and an
associate of InterDev
Consulting.
Her areas of expertise are:
Development of management courses, providing
training courses on financial management, micro-finance projects,
marketing and human resource management
Specialist in training and coaching of trainers,
international trainer for GTZ-CEFE Network Foundation
Consultancy on financial management, micro-finance
and local governance
Development, installation and operationalization of
system manuals for NGOs.
Tham Thi Hong Phuong
NMS Vietnam Representative
Phuong has 13 years of experience working for international
organisations in Vietnam. She is a specialist in communications and
capacity building. Phuong worked as national coordinator, project
manager and project officer for WWF, IUCN and UNICEF. She now is the
national programme coordinator for a multi-donor capacity building
programme in the environmental sector. Previously, Phuong worked for a
Swiss-Vietnamese programme, also in the environment sector; was the
national communication and training coordinator for a joint programme
by IUCN-UNDP-Mekong River Commission (MRC) and worked as communications
officer for UNICEF and WWF.
In 2007, she graduated with a M.A. from the International Master of
Advance Study Program (IMAS) on international development, a joint
program of the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED) of the
University of Geneva and the Asian Institute of Technology Center in
Viet Nam (AITCV). She also has university degrees in informatics and
mathematics.
Phuong's areas of expertise are:
Developing communications strategies;
Developing training courses on communication
skills, development of information - education - communication
materials and the effectiveness of using communication materials.
Phuong is the Vietnam representative of NMS.
Joy Delgra
Senior Trainer and Consultant
Joy has 15 years of experience in development work. For eight years,
she was the Mindanao head of the Social Development Management
Institute, the training arm of the Philippine Business for Social
Progress (PBSP), one of the largest non-profit organizations in the
Philippines. Moving on, she chaired the Psychology Program and was a
professor at the Davao Doctors College. Recently, she was in charge of
the Education Development Center/USAID's community support programme in
the Philippines.
Her area of expertise lies in:
Capacity building of community stakeholders,
specifically on curriculum development,
Course design development and pilot testing,
Manual development,
Training management and facilitation,
Organizational capacity assessment,
Tool development,
Training systems assessment and installation,
Development and management of institution building
programmes
Counseling in the workplace.
Joy has developed several manuals on team building, strategic planning,
organizational capacity assessment, community organizing and marine
protected area management planning. She has designed tools used in
research, end of program assessment, training faculty assessment and
for recruitment and selection.
Ilona Pongracz
Fundraising Specialist
Ilona Pongracz is a specialist in fundraising for non-profit organizations in the social, humanitarian, environmental, cultural and medical research fields.
She first gained experience in the sponsoring section of a multinational company, and then as a fundraiser with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Over a period of nine years, she set up the ICRC's direct marketing sector, launched fundraising campaigns, established partnerships and created an online fundraising website.
In 2002 she founded Ethika (www.ethika.ch), and has since been commissioned by several local, national and international non-profit institutions to help obtain the necessary funds for their activities.
She is co-director of a course at the Swiss Advertizing and Marketing Institute SAWI on "Cultural and social management", and teaches courses on fundraising, in particular at the University of Geneva.
Ilona Pongracz is a committee member of the association Swissfundraising and organises since 2008 the annual fundraising seminar for organizations based in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
Ilona is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Timothy Foster
Emergency Operations Specialist
Tim Foster has extensive field experience working in emergency programmes for the UN, Oxfam, MSF and CARE in the Balkans, Africa and Asia, and has also undertaken more strategic headquarters' assignments in Europe.
More recent assignments include co-facilitating training workshops for the Health, WASH and Emergency Shelter Clusters; a review of IFRC's Emergency Shelter Cluster Coordinator deployment in Tajikistan; and leading the WASH Cluster's emergency materials stockpiling project.
Tim's key competencies are in needs assessment, programme design, management and evaluation, organisational development, training and facilitation. He has a keen interest in exploiting the internet in his work, and is currently working on a redesigned web site and resource database for the All In Diary project.
Tim's mother tongue is English and he is fluent in French. He is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Anthony Beattie
Governance, Strategy and Leadership
Anthony joined the UK Department for International Development (DFID) as member of the Government Economic Service in 1969 and retired as a Director in August 2004. His career has ranged across development economics, policy work, management, multilateral diplomacy and teaching at post-graduate level. He helped promote the application of New Public Management concepts to the UK public sector in the 1990s, both as Chief Executive of an Executive Agency and subsequently as a member of the Efficiency and Effectiveness Unit in the Cabinet Office. He spent the last seven years of his Civil Service career as the UK Permanent Representative (Ambassador) to the UN agencies in Rome. During his time in Rome he dealt with a wide range of development and humanitarian policy issues, but focused particularly on institutional strengthening in the UN agencies. Among other roles in the governing bodies he was President of the Executive Board of the World Food Programme (WFP); Chair of the Audit Committee of the Executive Board of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); Vice-Chair of the Finance Committee of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); and Chair of the Governance Group established by WFP's Executive Board.
He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Geneva, where he teaches courses on Corporate Governance and Strategy on the International Organisations MBA programme (IOMBA); a Visiting Fellow at Ashridge Business School; a Visiting Fellow and Visiting Tutor at Henley Business School; and a Henley-trained coach. He coaches on leadership programmes for senior executives and MBA students and consults on corporate governance and strategy.
Jonathan Wood
Organizational Development, Capacity Building and Governance
Jonathan is a management and organizational development consultant focusing on management capacity development, strategy, policy and governance issues, programme development, and institution building. Jonathan has worked in more than 15 countries on innovative capacity building initiatives, resource mobilization challenges as well as governance and network development. Prior to consulting, he worked for ten years in external relations, organizational development and capacity building with a number of non-governmental organizations including Ashoka: Innovators for the Public and the International Commission of Jurists. He is an assistant professor at the University of Geneva, where he teaches on a Governance course on the International Organisations MBA programme.
Jonathan is currently completing a Master's degree in Development Management and working towards an International Organisations MBA. He holds a post-graduate Management Development Certificate and a Bachelor's degree in Development and
Anthropology.
Philippe Ruscassier
Human resources, Career Transition, Project Management, Work Organisation
Philippe has 22 years of experience working in development and humanitarian organisations. Since 1987, he has worked as head of project with multicultural teams for international organisations. Since 1996, he also became a specialist in human resource management, first in recruitment and career development.
From 1998-2003, Philippe was the director of human resources at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Switzerland, an international organisation based in Geneva, with a staff of 1500 persons in four continents. He was also a member of the board of directors.
From 2003-2004, Philippe was the training director of a professional training organisation. In 2005, he again joined MSF Switzerland as its head of training. He developed an ambitious strategy and programme for the training of its staff of 3000 persons, especially in the fields of management, finances, human resources, logistics and health. He is now also in charge of career transition for the staff of MSF Switzerland. Based on his experience in the field and at HQ, he puts the individual at the center of attention.
His areas of expertise include work organisation, project management and human resource management, especially professional mobility. He regularly coaches individual managers as well as teams.
Philippe has two Masters degrees, on international project management from Sorbonne University in Paris, and on management of human resources from Geneva University.
Since 2009, Philippe is also a senior consultant at the Geneva-based organisation imconsult focusing on career transition.
Laurent has 16 years of experience working for international organisations in the emergency and aid sectors. He was from 1993 to 1999 with MSF-France and Oxfam-UK as programme manager and coordinator and has since worked, among others, in South Sudan, Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Ethiopia, South Africa, Albania, Kosovo, Ingushetia and Nepal.
Since 2000, Laurent has worked as a trainer, coach and consultant for Bioforce, MSF-Switzerland, MDM, Solidarité, the French Red Cross, and has been teaching at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. His most recent assignment was with the WHO in Nepal.
He has developed and conducted training courses for a wide range of NGOs and training institutes, and is a specialist in the project management cycle, exit strategies, human resources, evaluations, WATSAN and logistics.
Laurent has a diploma in Community and Public Health of the Medical University of Nancy and an Executive MBA, with special focus on human resource management, from the Montpellier Business School.
Laurent lives in Sete, on the Mediterranean coast, in France.
John Cammack
Financial Management Specialist
John was head of international finance at Oxfam GB and senior lecturer in accounting and financial management at Oxford Brookes University.
John is a qualified accountant, manager and teacher and specialises in the international non-profit sector. His participatory training includes: financial management for non-specialists, training trainers (and specialist courses for training financial trainers), building NGO financial capacity, and developing communication between programme and finance staff. His consultancy work includes programme and financial management reviews for southern organisations, and assessing systems to meet the needs of international donors. John has worked with a range of relief and development agencies, including the Aga Khan Foundation, Amnesty International, Bond, European Commission, Homeless International, Intrac, Oxfam, WaterAid and VSO.
Daniel has ten years experience in protection working with the ICRC. After field missions in Iraq,
Israel and occupied territories, Bosnia, he worked for at ICRC
headquarters' Protection Division in Geneva as researcher, field
support officer and head of its Protection training unit. He obtained a
Masters
in NGO Management at the London School of Economics in 1999/2000.
Since January 2006, he has been working as training
officer at a great little human rights NGO called HURIDOCS, based in Versoix, which helps other human rights
organisations improve their capacity to monitor respect for human
rights and document violations. In 2006, Daniel founded the website Human Rights Tools to
provide human rights activitists with easy access to the best reference
material for their work.
Daniel is based in Coppet in the Geneva area, Switzerland.
Past interns:
Thi-Huyen Nguyen, Vietnam
Daniel Laux, Switzerland
Simone Lutz, Switzerland
Valentine Sarnau, Switzerland
Fabrice Clavien, Switzerland
Julie Palo, Philippines
Zakaria Sorgho, Burkina Faso
Anca Cristina Sterie, Romania
Stephanie Divjak, Switzerland
