Advancing Diversity in Leadership

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Carolien van Bremen

Associate Principal Consultant, Europe

Carolien brings 20+ years of management experience in HR and is especially skillful in change management, growth and downsizing scenarios, culture programmes, HRD and talent management, performance management and organisational development. Individual paths such as coaching and potential- and talent definition and management complete her broad profile.

She has worked in Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Balkans and lived in Europe, (The Netherlands and United Kingdom), Africa (Kenya and South Sudan) and Latin America (Ecuador). For SNV, she was the Regional HR Manager for East and Southern Africa for 450 fte in ten countries, then joined SNV Latin America to support SNV’s then new business model and finally became Chief HR Officer for SNV worldwide. She has worked for Save the Children International as their HR Director in South Sudan and most recently was Adam Smith Internationals’ HR Director. As a consultant she has fulfilled assignments with KIT, KNCV, Mama Cash, CTA, SCI, and various profit companies.

Working together with Oxford HR she can use her HR knowledge in profit and not for profit sector for Oxford HR’s clients. She runs her own company and works on HR consultancies and combines this with her mediation and executive coach practice.

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.

Linda Walsh

Researcher, Nairobi

Linda completed her Masters in International Development (Poverty, Inequality and Development) in 2017. The same year she moved to Kenya and volunteered with Development Initiatives (DI). DI interpret data on international aid in East Africa, and there she supported the team for three months which later allowed her to travel in Kenya. She then worked as a Business Support Coordinator for a security company in Nairobi assisting in security development in East Africa.

Linda has lived within two cultures (her Dad British and Mum Kenyan) which has given her a wider knowledge of East Africa whilst travelling with her parents as a child. She is passionate about gender equality in Africa especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, stemming from her education and volunteering in different roles in England and Kenya.

Helena Newton

Researcher, Oxford

Helena joined Oxford HR in 2018. She holds an MA in International Development and has undertaken research in Nepal and a research placement in Sierra Leone, where she collaborated with the University of Makeni (UNIMAK). She has also volunteered both in the UK for non-profit organisations such as Oxfam and in Uganda for East African Playgrounds. Her main areas of interest include: availability and accessibility of health facilities alongside health promotion and disaster and emergency management.

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.