Director of evidence - Centre for Homelessness Impact - London, UK
(2025-10)
- Strategic Leadership: Drive the methodological vision for CHI's evaluation and research portfolio, collaborating directly with UK central government departments, local authorities, and academic partners.
- Evaluation Oversight: Head the design and quality assurance of rigorous impact studies, using randomized controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-experimental setups, and theory-based mixed methods.
- National Portfolios: Direct the methodology for national 'Test & Learn' studies, managing complex data streams across homelessness prevention, employment initiatives, housing stability, and health.
- Systems Evaluation: Spearhead system-wide evaluation frameworks that blend administrative data, local surveys, and qualitative evidence to see how local homelessness systems change.
- Expert Advisory: Counsel government bodies and evaluation teams on critical design choices, including causal inference, outcome metrics, and data transferability.
- Evidence Translation: Author and oversee the production of practical playbooks, guidance frameworks, and decision-making tools tailored for commissioners and policymakers.
- Economic Practice: Champion economic evaluations (including cost-effectiveness and value-for-money metrics) alongside primary impact research; currently leading organizational initiatives on data, evidence portals, and integrated AI.
Senior MEAL Consultant - Global Greengrants Fund - London, UK
(2024-12 - 2025-07)
- Portfolio Strategy: Delivered high-level senior MEAL consultancy to Global Greengrants Fund UK, focusing on modernising their approach to international results measurement and evidence use.
- Systems Architecture: Collaborated with program teams to refine theories of change, frameworks, and tracking indicators, while auditing current M&E systems to ensure higher consistency and data usefulness.
- Operational Learning: Partnered with senior staff to foster a stronger culture of learning from grant-making and successfully introduced proportionate, streamlined evaluation models built specifically for complex, locally led global portfolios.
Career break
(2024-01 - 2024-11)
Maintained active engagement with research, evaluation, and international development interests during a planned career sabbatical following 20 years of continuous sector work.
Global Director of Evidence, Measurement and Evaluation - Children's Investment Fund Foundation - London, UK
(2018-10 - 2023-12)
- Organizational Strategy: Directed the overarching evaluation frameworks, evidence appraisal processes, and investment due diligence for a $1B global portfolio operating across 20 countries.
- Investment Governance: Served as Deputy Chair of CIFF's Pipeline Committee, leading critical appraisals of program designs, evidence-based theories of change, cost-efficiency metrics, and partner capacities before recommending investments for Board approval.
- Portfolio Monitoring: Designed and managed robust M&E frameworks, dashboards, and SMART KPIs to track multi-million-pound investments; engineered aggregate tracking metrics like the 'impact factor' and delivered quarterly performance-rated portfolio reports to the Board.
- Rigorous Impact Evaluation: Defined core research questions and study designs to commission independent evaluators via targeted RFPs; directed internal and external dissemination of results to shift global funding practices and public policy.
- Data Innovation: Headed the integration of advanced data analytics, predictive modelling, and AI solutions across large-scale datasets; piloted biometric verification systems to ensure verified service coverage in the field.
- Global Engagement: Represented CIFF on elite technical committees (including the WHO and various academic institutions) and partnered directly with African governments and international philanthropies to advocate for evidence-driven policy changes.
- Coalition Leadership: Chaired the M&E steering committees for four distinct, high-impact investments totalling approximately $400M, coordinating directly with peer foundations including BMGF, Virgin, and ELMA.
- Capacity Building: Led a targeted initiative to train Global South cohorts in program design, corporate governance, and M&E; designed and delivered annual CIFF-wide staff training on value-for-money frameworks and cost-effectiveness.
- Global Team Management: Directly line-managed and mentored a cross-border team of M&E professionals distributed across offices in London, Delhi, Nairobi, and Addis Ababa.
Research Fellow - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine - London, UK
(2015-05 - 2018-09)
- Evaluation Delivery: Executed quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods evaluations within global public health and international development, supported by extensive fieldwork in Ethiopia.
- SURE Project Evaluation: Evaluated the impact, system implementation, and regional context of the Sustainable Undernutrition Reduction in Ethiopia (SURE) project, a major integrated health and agriculture program.
- Methodological Development: Formulated evaluation frameworks, research protocols, and theories of change, driving statistical analysis for a range of peer-reviewed and technical publications.
- Partnerships & Academia: Partnered with host-government institutions and local field teams, alongside lecturing MSc students on study design and practical research methods.
Deputy Project Manager - National Health Service - London, UK
(2007-04 - 2015-05)
- Service Commissioning: Managed the commissioning of complex, long-term health and social care packages for individuals leaving hospital environments.
- Multidisciplinary Leadership: Led a team of five operational staff and worked collaboratively within integrated NHS and local government networks.
- Evidence-Based Policy: Applied evidence-based decision-making models to optimize funding and service delivery across public sector health systems.
Programme Director – HIV & Sexual and reproductive health - Addis Ababa Youth Association (UNICEF secondment) - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
(2002-09 - 2005-12)
- Programme Leadership: Directed youth-focused HIV prevention, testing, and treatment initiatives alongside broader sexual and reproductive health programmes.
- Strategic Partnerships: Managed high-level coordination between UNICEF, regional government agencies, and local civil society organisations to ensure effective delivery.
- National Governance: Served on a national technical steering committee established by the Ethiopian government to guide country-wide strategy and resource allocation.
- M&E Implementation: Led field monitoring systems and implementation frameworks to ensure data and evidence directly guided local programme adaptations.
