Every member of our world-class, professional team is hand-picked for their expertise and passion in their field

Thibaut Mills MBA

Director, Europe

Thibaut has been a member of the senior management team with Oxford HR since 2013. He brings 20 years’ experience of working in both the private and international non-governmental sector. He has worked in a wide range of organisations ranging from dot.com start-ups to FTSE100 companies and multinationals.

Thibaut worked for several years with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Myanmar and Haiti, where he had overarching HR responsibility for over 1500 staff during the post-earthquake response of 2010.

A native French speaker with professional experience in a variety of roles including Search & Selection, International HR, Operations and management in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India, he has led on over 30 Board, Executive and Director level appointments in over 20 countries.

Holder of an MBA with focus on International HR Management and Innovation. He is passionate about the INGO sector and a member of the Board of Directors for Refugee Resource.

Toby Weaver

Director, Africa

Toby joined Oxford HR in 2014 having spent 20 years working in international development with DFID providing top level HR and management support to programme delivery, including: recruitment; OD and remuneration. He established and led operations in DFID’s offices in Addis Ababa, the Central Africa office in Harare, UK’s Field office in Lesotho and the South Africa regional office in Pretoria.

With DFID he cooperated closely The World Bank, FCO, MoD, Irish Aid, USAID, UNDP and UNICEF. He has worked extensively with IFAD, IWMI/CGIAR Group, CARE USA and BRAC managing successful executive search campaigns. He has in-country experience in Bangladesh, India, Thailand, and South Korea.  He worked on major assignments in his career with Oxford HR and DFID in Sri Lanka, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana,  Zambia  and Afghanistan. Toby has an honours degree in law and is MCIPD accredited.

Helena Dalton

Regional Director, East Africa

Helen has over 25 years’ experience in international development.  Prior to joining Oxford HR Helen was the EA Regional Director for the BOMA project and her previous roles have included senior management positions in Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, AED (FHI360), the Commonwealth Foundation and the International Rescue Commission.  Her work has taken her across the globe including Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Thailand, the Republic of Georgia and the UK and she has worked in sectors as diverse as women’s economic empowerment and livelihoods, governance and civil society strengthening, HIV/AIDS and health systems strengthening and refugee health.  

In addition to an extensive international development network, Helen brings a wealth of experience in executive recruitment and organizational development having directly recruited senior staff, built cohesive teams, supported change management and set up NGO boards.  She is keenly aware of client needs and is committed to ensuring seamless delivery of accomplished and diverse candidates for Oxford HRs clients.  Helen is a citizen of Kenya and has a MPhil degree from the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex.

Erik van Weert

Deputy Director, Europe

Erik is based in the Netherlands and has over 25 years of experience in international development and joined Oxford HR in 2020. He has a strong track record in organizational development, resource mobilisation (> 100 M) and building successful teams and partnerships.

He has an extensive track record in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa with SNV Dutch Development Organisation and Enabel (Belgium Development Agency) in Sudan, Bolivia and Ecuador. He worked with ERAC impact consultancies, Rutgers and RNW Media in the Netherlands as a lead consultant and business development director.

Erik has an MBA focused on organisational strategy and innovation and a Master International Development Studies and Social Geography. He is passionate about organisational transformations, the fourth industrial revolution and supporting organisations to grow their impact.

Elena Ardelean

Associate Director, Europe and MENA

Elena brings 12+years of leadership experience in international development, strategic organizational change and disruptive technologies (Artificial Intelligence) working for both the public and private sectors. Romanian by birth, Austrian by family decision and French by own choice, Elena is a multicultural professional currently based in Austria and Kuwait. She is the CEO & Founder of a tech non-profit AI4DevelopmentAgency (AIDA). Previous to that Elena worked as a Governance Specialist for the World Bank across Europe, Central Asia and MENA regions, advising Institutions on a wide range of reforms and activities, including HR policy, strategic management, anti-corruption and tax reforms.

Elena is driven by a sense of purpose and a desire to contribute, add value and shape cultures. As Associate Director for OxfordHR, she is committed to increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in leadership in Europe. Elena holds an Executive MBA and is certified in Machine Learning from Stanford University. She obtained her Master’s degree in International Affairs from Sciences Po Paris and has studied Philology and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria.

Karen Twining

Associate Director, Africa

Karen is an Africa-specialist with over 30 years’ experience in International Development. She has worked with Oxford HR since 2008 and has particular expertise in private sector/economic development, agriculture/agribusiness, conflict/peace-building and senior leadership positions. She has supported the Gatsby Foundation to fill over 50 posts.

Born in the Sudan, Karen has lived and worked in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, and Sudan. Her previous roles include 10 years with Oxfam GB, including starting the first Oxfam office in Darfur; Head of the Rwanda Secretariat at International Alert after the Genocide; Africa Regional Coordinator at ActionAid, covering 18 countries; and the first CEO of IDE UK, working with market development programmes in Africa and Asia. An Oxford graduate, Karen is Vice-Chair of SOS Sahel International UK, and is committed to increasing diversity in leadership in Africa.

Josje Reinartz

Associate Director, Australasia

Josje joined Oxford HR in 2019 and is based in Melbourne and Amsterdam. Her focus is to develop and lead Oxford HR’s work in Australasia. She is passionate about helping not-for-profit and for-purpose organisations in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and Pacific Islands through finding strong leaders and advising on institutional development.

She brings 25 years of leadership experience in the fields of health, environment and international cooperation. Josje was for seven years COO for Wetlands International. She holds a Masters in Public Health and led the Sibusiso treatment centre for mentally disabled children in Tanzania. Before that she worked 15 years for Médecines sans Frontières. As an Operations Director she was part of the strategic management team in the Amsterdam HQ and responsible for the programmes in Central Asia and West Africa. Josje lived and worked in field projects in Azerbaijan, Liberia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Democratic Republic of Congo and headed the missions in Uganda, Sudan and Angola.

Rachel Barlow LL.M. PhD

Associate Director, Europe, Public Affairs

Dr Rachel Barlow joined Oxford HR in May 2020, She is a headhunter for the EU not for profit sector, recruiting for civil society organisations, business associations and alliances.  A Professor of lobbying at Vesalius College, Brussels, Rachel is also a Board member of the leading Thinktank, the European Policy Centre.

A self-confessed governance geek, Rachel relishes re-structuring complex organisations so that they can better serve their members and fulfil their respective missions.  More recently, she has worked closely with NGOs to assess their “fitness” to take on the challenges of the new EU legislature and advises on best practice for team structure and cohesion for public affairs success.

As a former Vice President of Kellen Europe (an association management company), Rachel has led, created, managed, advised and represented European and International multi-level organisations throughout her 25-year career.

Rachel is British (soon to also be Belgian), Brussels based, and speaks fluent French and Italian.

Suzie Li

Account Director, Key Clients

Suzie joined Oxford HR in 2018. She has over 20 years Human Resources Management experience working experience in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Tunisia, working for FMCG, Banking, International Financial Organisations and most recently the African Development Bank.

Suzie brings expertise in Talent Acquisition, HR transformation and corporate delivery of HR projects. Suzie holds a Master’s in Human Resources Management and is currently pursuing an Integrative Counselling degree. Passionate about the economic and developmental growth of Africa, she is committed to sourcing and grooming high performing talented African nationals on the continent and diaspora. 

Sarah Engerer

Principal Consultant, Europe

Sarah has 12 years of experience in executive search within the public sector.  Starting at GatenbySanderson, as a researcher; building market research, benchmarking and research intelligence into headhunting campaigns, she progressed to senior consultant positions for Peridot Partners and Hays Executive.

Sarah has led campaigns across the public sector, with a track record of successful appointments of Chief Executives, Directors and Non Executives/ Trustees within Central Government Departments, UK & International Charities, NDPBs and Local Authorities.  She has placed senior level fundraising and development professionals within Higher Education; working with Imperial College London, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge amongst others. She has also specialised in recruiting to Children’s Services leadership posts within Trusts and Local Authorities, and volume recruitment campaigns including: 240 Panel Members to the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Mayor’s Office for Policing & Crime, The Pensions Regulator and the Ministry of Justice.  Sarah also conducts benchmarking reviews for a wide range of public sector organisations.

Yolanda Weldring

Principal Consultant, Europe

Yolanda is based in the Netherlands and has over 30 years of experience in Human Resources Management, 18 years of which in International Development. She was International Director with Oxfam Novib and Regional Director East and Southern Africa with Save the Children UK, as well as member of senior groups of Oxfam International and Save the Children International. In the years before joining Oxford HR, Yolanda has done interim-director and management roles in Africa and Asia and in all those jobs she was responsible for recruitment of senior roles. Yolanda has also experience at Trustee-level and as Advisor to Boards. Yolanda’s professional training as Clinical Psychologist supports her judgement on personal qualifications of candidates. Yolanda has work experience in the Netherlands, UK, East Africa, Southern Africa and South and Southeast Asia. 

Yolanda is committed to finding capable and high-performing candidates for jobs in organisations and networks in international development, as this contributes to the strong delivery of programs and quality policy development by the organisations, which helps to reduce disparity in the world. Yolanda is able to bring her own and Oxford HR’s wide networks to you as a client.

Ana Fernandes

Associate Principal Consultant, Europe

Ana has a master’s Degree in human resources management and Development, focusing in International Development, from the University of Manchester. Prior to joining Oxford HR, Ana spent more than 15 years in South East Asia, working with international organisations, government institutions, consultancy firms and INGOs.

She has experience and expertise in governance, justice, public financial management, revenue and taxation, statistics, trade, education, health, gender equality, domestic violence, water and sanitation sectors. She brings in-country extensive experience of working closely with UN WOMEN, UNFPA, UNDP, ADB, WB, EU and major donors in international development. 

Martine Billanou

Associate Principal Consultant, Europe

Martine has over 30 years of experience in International development.   Before joining Oxford HR, she was the senior advisor to Alliance2015, a partnership of seven European NGOs. 

Previously, Martine has worked with SNV and Save the Children UK as country director in Cameroon and DRC, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Eritrea. She developed strategies and structures that supported innovative and successful development and humanitarian response programs. This involved the set-up, selection and development of successful teams and included addressing key issues of ethics, accountability and safeguarding.   

Martine’s expertise in the set-up and support of Consortia or other forms of inter-agency cooperation is supported by her strong understanding of organizational cultures and dynamics.  She worked with a wide range of INGOs in Alliance2015, in various Commonwealth inter-agency initiatives both in Cameroon and in Tanzania or, earlier in her career, as general secretary of the Eritrea Inter-Agency Consortium.   

An economist, graduated from Grenoble University, Martine started to work on performance analysis in the private sector. 

Zoe Greenwood

Consultant, Europe

Before joining Oxford HR as a Consultant in 2018, Zoe spent 15 years working in the charity/NGO sector with a focus on Learning and Development, HR and Leadership for Sustainability. Working predominantly for Earthwatch, the international environmental NGO, Zoe has worked in UK, India, China, Latin America and South East Asia where she has collaborated with local organisations, community groups, global NGOs and multinational companies to deliver first-class learning programmes and conservation projects. 

Zoe is passionate about discovering and developing leaders who are dedicated to creating a sustainable, equitable and poverty-free world. She recently completed a postgraduate degree with the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability at the University of Cumbria, she is a trained coach and facilitator and has significant experience of bringing groups together in nature to consider the skills and competencies needed to tackle climate change and address the Sustainable Development Goals.

Gazal Srivastava

Associate Consultant, Asia

Gazal has 18+ years of experience in Human Resource management with specialisation in Compensation & Benefits across Intergovernmental Organizations, Not for Profits, Microfinance, Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing industry and across various geographies and varied cultural contexts (Asia, USA, UK and Africa).

She has designed and managed HR systems for organisations at various stages of business lifecycle, program managed projects that spread across geographies and coached and mentored HR teams to adapt to new ways of working. In her specialist area, most recently she led global compensation function for GGGI based in South Korea, and worked at Save the Children International HQ to implement a new C&B framework for their 55 countries operation. She has designed and lead several benchmarking studies/ compensation projects for Fortune 500 clients during her tenure with Aon Hewitt. Her professional HR experience with organisations like Hewlett Packard, Unitus Investments and Fujitsu has given her a good grounding of HR systems in the private sector. Gazal has an Honours degree in Statistics and has an MBA in Human Resources.

Noha Shawky

Associate Consultant, MENA

Noha has 25 years of professional experience in profit and non-profit international organizations. She held senior leadership positions on global and regional level, and has a passion for youth development and empowerment, active citizenship, and advocacy for multilateral and integrated approaches to provide solutions for the implementation of sustainable development goals through formal and non-formal education. She aspires to achieve Peace and Prosperity on a Healthy planet.

An Egyptian national, Noha has lived and worked in 5 different countries and travelled in many more.

Lenze Pekelsma

Executive Assistant, Europe

Lenze is based in the Netherlands and studied Organisation and Labour Psychology. He has a background in Human Resources Management and Career Development having worked with refugees in the Netherlands and with disadvantaged youth in Africa. He supports the Oxford HR office in Amsterdam with Business Development Management and various tasks.

David Cook

Director, Organisational Effectiveness

David heads up our Organisational Effectiveness practice. He has been working with Oxford HR since 2019 and brings 30 years of experience working both as a change leader within and a consultant to global organisations across the for purpose, public and private sectors.

He brings expertise in the delivery of impactful solutions such as in-depth leadership profiling that improves hiring quality, first 90 days coaching that builds a stronger platform of success for new appointees, and many other services that support leadership, team and organisational effectiveness.  David is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Executive Coach and is an accredited user of an extensive range of psychometric instruments and other diagnostic tools.

Christel Fourie

Associate, Organisational Effectiveness

Christel is an Organisational Psychologist and Consultant with over 20 years’ experience in assessing and developing talent for a multinational client base. An Oxford HR Associate since 2019, Christel holds a D.Phil (Industrial Psychology) degree on how effective senior leadership shapes organisational culture. Before moving to the United Kingdom, she lived in Japan for over five years. She started her career at Nissan South Africa in Learning & Development, followed by senior consulting roles at SHL South Africa and in independent practice. Christel is a registered psychologist and accredited on a range of assessments.

Razane Cherk

Associate Senior Researcher, MENA

Razane joined Oxford HR in 2018 after completing an assignment with UNDP Istanbul International Centre for Private Sector in Development in Istanbul, Turkey. She holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University’s campus in Doha, Qatar.

She has lived in four different countries, three of which are in the MENA region (Morocco, Turkey and Qatar), and has travelled extensively. She is also a native English and Arabic speaker. During her time studying in Qatar, most of her research focused on Middle Eastern political affairs, culminating in her thesis on the Western Sahara Conflict upon graduation.

George Alexandridis

Senior Researcher, Oxford

George joined Oxford HR in early 2017 as part of the research team, after previously working within the hospitality sector in Greece. He holds a BA in Economics and has over 10 years of experience in customer service and business management.

George has demonstrated experience in successful executive search assignments with international organisations and international financial institutions within the UK, Nigeria, Southern & Eastern Africa, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. He has volunteered for an advocacy campaign in South East Asia and has genuine interest in social justice and reducing inequality in the region.

Emer Byrne

Researcher, Amsterdam

Emer joined Oxford HR in 2018, having completed an MA in European Interdisciplinary Studies at the College of Europe in Warsaw. She has a BA in French from the University of Southampton and is now based in Amsterdam.

Erica Turley

Researcher, Amsterdam

Erica joined Oxford HR in 2019. She holds an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law, a certification in International Criminal Law and a B.A. in International Relations and Modern Languages. Erica is driven by a commitment to human rights, and has worked extensively with refugees and victims of conflict from all over the world. Erica has lived and worked in Europe, North America, South America and the Middle East, and is passionate about foreign languages.

Lisanne Schut

Researcher and Project Manager, Oxford

Since joining Oxford HR in 2018 Lisanne has worked on senior-level roles within, but not limited to, justice and security, conflict resolution, conservation, housing development and agribusiness across 4 continents. A Dutch/Swedish national she has visited 36 countries, and speaks English, Spanish, Swedish, Dutch and is currently learning French.

Previously Lisanne worked within the Security Sector in Stockholm, as Team Leader in a monitoring Centre. She has an MSc in Disaster Management and Sustainable Development.

Claudia Cordova

Project Administrator, Amsterdam

Claudia joined Oxford HR in 2018. She holds a BA in Philosophy and completed a thesis in Critical Theory focused on the characteristics of the advanced industrial societies and its main consequences for human development. She worked for more than five years at her university in Peru in different positions and has experience as a teacher in multiple philosophy subjects.

Claudia has volunteered with the Peruvian Ombudsman in the anti-corruption office. Her main areas of interest are Politics in Latin America, Education and Human development. She hopes to complete a master’s degree in the future.

Collins Muhadia

Project Administrator, Amsterdam

Collins is a Project Administrator, based in Amsterdam. His background is in soil, water and environmental engineering. He holds an MSc in Environmental Science, with specialization in Environmental Science and Technology from IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. Collins’ MSc thesis evaluated human health risks due to water contamination by livestock in semi-arid systems in Kenya. He is passionate about globally-important water and environmental issues that influence humans, directly or indirectly, such as waste management, climate change and water supply. Collins prefers adopting an interdisciplinary approach to solving environmental and societal problems and is ardent to develop his professional expertise in a broad range of disciplines.

Gloria Kamau

Project Administrator, Nairobi

Gloria joined Oxford HR in 2019 after completing a Master in Community – Based Counselling Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Her dissertation focussed on daughters and the paternal function in the absence of the father. It culminated in the publication of an article in South African journal in 2018. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts and Honours in Psychology from the University of Johannesburg. She recently qualified with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) in the Counselling Psychology category.

She has worked for three years in both tertiary institutions in administrative and professional roles. She has experience in psychotherapy, psychological assessments, career counselling and guidance.

Although a Kenyan citizen, she has lived in several African countries; Nigeria, Malawi and South Africa. She has also travelled widely within the Africa and Asia regions. Her main interests are gender, mental health, youth and community development.

Hannah Nesmith-Beck

Project Administrator, Amsterdam

Hannah joined Oxford HR in 2019 after completing a Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management, with a focus on leadership. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Victoria, in Canada.  She has extensive experience as a researcher and in the customer service industry. She has travelled widely, and her main areas of interest are gender equity and human rights.