Alumni Biographies

John Abrahamson

John is Head of SEB Enskilda Corporate Finance, active primarily in Nordic Mergers & Acquisitions and Equity Capital Markets transactions. He has been in Investment Banking for 20 years, based in Stockholm and London. He has also held other positions in Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) including CEO of Enskilda Securities AB as well as positions in Fixed Income Trading, Export & Project Financing and as Regional Head of SEB in Southern Sweden. John serves on the Boards of Lund University and Malm? FF (football club), among others.

Paulo Bilyk

Paulo has hosted many Quest visits in Brazil and has joined us as a participant on our China Quest (he will join us in Russia in June 2010). He is Chief Investment Officer and co-Founder of Rio Bravo Investments based in Sao Paulo. Founded in January 2000 as a venture capital fund manager, Rio Bravo has developed into a diversified alternative investment manager with over R$2 billion in assets under management as well as a leading investment banking advisory firm with a strong presence in Brazil and Argentina. Previously, Paulo was a partner and executive director of Banco Pactual, where he was head of corporate finance.

Zhang Fan

Zhang Fan is the Programme Coordinator at Leaders' Quest Foundation's Centre for Leadership in China. She joined the programme as a fellow in 2008 and worked for 17 months with remote communities in Hebei Province. Zhang Fan established and led the 'Colourful Cloth Project', a micro-enterprise bringing benefits to local women. Zhang Fan holds a degree in Architecture from Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Justin Forsyth

Justin is Director of Strategic Communications for the UK Prime Minister, after having served as Special Advisor on international development under Tony Blair. He is an expert on issues of poverty and development having been actively involved in campaigning on poverty and injustice for 20 years. Justin was formerly Campaign and Policy Director for Oxfam, one of the largest development organisations in the world, and worked for Oxfam for 13 years in a variety of roles.

Ruslan Garipov

Ruslan has hosted Quest visits in Russia and has joined us as a participant on our Brazil Quest. He is Chair of the Department of State and Law Disciplines at Tatar State Humanitarian and Pedagogical University in Kazan, Russia. His areas of interests are Human Rights, Self-Determination Rights, Democracy Development and Indigenous Peoples Rights Protection. Ruslan also lectures on International Law and Human Rights at various universities in Kazan. Prior to this Ruslan spent six months in the United States where he worked at the United Nations in New York and visited American Indian reservations in the south-west.

Peter Housden

Peter is the Permanent Secretary for the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG), which is the UK Government department responsible for housing, planning, local government, fire and civil resilience, regeneration and community cohesion in England.

Peter has spent all of his working life in the public sector, initially as a school teacher and then in a range of jobs in local and national government. Most recently he was Director-General for Schools for the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), responsible for standards and performance in England’s 27,000 schools.

Sanghamitra Iyengar

Sanghamitra has hosted many Quest visits over the years in India and has joined us as a participant on a Quest in South Africa. She is the Founder and Director of Samraksha, a registered charity and AIDS-specific NGO based in Bangalore, India. A psychiatric social worker by training, Sanghamitra has focused on development for nearly 30 years, working in the disability and mental health sectors in Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. She also headed Disability Services at the National Council of Social Services in Singapore for over two years. Sanghamitra is involved with India’s National AIDS Council, Basic Needs India and Action for Disability and Development (ADD) India. She is a Bill Gates Foundation partner and has worked closely with the organisation since its inception in 2000, when Bill and Melinda Gates first visited India.

Gopal Jain

Gopal has hosted many Quest visits in Mumbai and has joined us as a participant on one of our Quests to China and on one of our Inner Quests held in the UK. He is Managing Partner, Gaja Capital Partners, based in Mumbai. GCP is one of the first international private equity firms to focus on private equity opportunities in the Indian domestic market. Prior to co-founding GCP, Gopal was MD, India, of View Group, a private equity firm focused on the US-India corridor. He is one of the few investors in the Indian private equity sector that has a successful full-cycle investing track record in venture capital and private equity investments. His subject expertise includes Business Process Outsourcing and Financial services, and his interests include developing entrepreneurship in India.

William Jackson

William is Managing Partner of Bridgepoint, an international private equity group focused on acquiring leading middle-market businesses, and is chairman of Bridgepoint's Investment Committee. He joined Bridgepoint in 1986 and led the firm's business in the UK until becoming managing partner in 2001. He has worked extensively on private equity market transactions in Europe and has a personal focus on the healthcare sector. He serves on a number of boards including Pret A Manger, the premium ready-to-eat food and beverages retailer. He is also Chairman of the board of Dorna Sports SL, the international sports management and marketing company and holder of all commercial and TV rights of the MotoGP World Championship, headquartered in Madrid.

Mark Jones

Mark is the Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Since assuming this position in May 2001, the Museum has seen the launch of the British Galleries, the return of free entry, a substantial rise in visitor numbers and a renewed confidence in the Museum' ability to balance historical obligations with its contemporary remit. Prior to this, Mark was Director of the National Museums of Scotland (1992-2001) and oversaw the opening of the award-winning new Museum of Scotland in 1998, the creation of the National War Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh Castle) and the Museum of Scottish Country Life at Kittochside in East Kilbride. Mark is also an author and Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh.

Edwin Keh

Based in Hong Kong, Edwin is SVP COO, Global Procurement at Wal-Mart, a role he assumed in 2008. He has almost 20 years’ experience in the garment industry with specialist knowledge of product development, purchasing and supply chain management. Previously, he worked as Asian GM for several US and International brands, including Abercrombie and Fitch, Country Road Australia, Donna Karan (DKNY) and Payless Shoes. In 2006 he set up his own consulting business, Gaudete International, advising both business and charitable organisations.

Sarah Ketterer

Sarah is CEO of Causeway Capital Management LLC, a Los Angeles-based investment management firm with over $12 billion of assets under management. Over the past 20 years, she has held a variety of positions in finance, including MD and co-head of international equities for the Hotchkis and Wiley division of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, an associate with Bankers Trust Company's Merchant Banking Group and its affiliate, BT Securities Company, and as a Financial Analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds in the Corporate Finance Department.

Itu Kgaboesele

ITU has hosted several Quest visits in South Africa and has participated in our Open Quests to both China and India. He is CEO and Co-Founder of Sphere Holdings (Pty) Ltd, an investment company focused on financial and industrial services in South Africa. He is also Director of Ethos Private Equity Ltd and a member of the Advisory Board of the Student Sponsorship Programme (a charitable organisation which enables students from the townships surrounding Johannesburg to attend some of the city’s finest high schools). Itu was previously an investment banker in London and Jo’burg and is now based in South Africa.

Ratna Mane

Based in Mumbai, India, Ratna recently completed a Leaders' Quest Foundation fellowship working to improve police handling of cases of violence against women and children. She now runs a women's solidarity and advice collective for victims of violence with our grassroots partner CORO in Mumbai, raising awareness of women's rights and the police system within her community. Since completing her school education with support from CORO, Ratna has enrolled on a degree course and hopes her fellowship experience will strengthen her eligibility to apply for a position as Police Sub-Inspector.

Lucious Mushwana

Based in Johannesburg, Lucious recently completed a fellowship with Leaders' Quest Foundation to expand his work with Khulisa, a grassroots NGO dedicated to building safe, sustainable communities and rehabilitating ex-offenders in South Africa. Lucious organises training and activities for young people at risk of crime, drugs and abuse, as well as offering advice and support to local families. Lucious is studying for a BComm in Psychology, and last year won a work experience placement in a city-wide 'Gateways' project, which has led to his current job at Johannesburg City Market.

Desmond Shum

Desmond has hosted Quest visits in China and has participated in our AviraQuest in India. He is Vice Chairman & CEO of Airport City Development Corporation in Beijing, China. He is also a member of the 11th session of Beijing’s Political Consultative Conference and an Honorary Trustee of Tsinghua University. He serves as a member of the Standing Committee of the Institute of Finance & Banking, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and is the founder of Kaifeng Foundation China and Desmond & Whitney Shum Fellowship at Harvard University.

Jim Hagemann Snabe

Jim is Co-CEO of SAP, the world’s leading provider of business software, and also leads the Business Solutions & Technology organisation, responsible for product development of large enterprise solutions, SME solutions and the technology platform. Jim joined SAP in 1990 and has been a member of the Executive Board of SAP AG since July 2008. In 2006, he was appointed by the SAP Board to serve as a Corporate Officer of the SAP Group. 1999 to 2003, Jim was managing director of SAP Sweden and SAP Nordic. Based in Copenhagen, Jim is also chairman of the board of the Danish company Linkage A/S and member of the board of the Danish companies DIEU A/S and Thrane & Thrane A/S.

John Studzinski, CBE

John is Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Corporate Advisory Services with the Blackstone Group, an American Private Equity firm, which he joined in 2006. Previously, he was CEO Investment, Corporate Banking and Marketing, HSBC, and Deputy Chairman, Morgan Stanley International. He has over 20 years of Securities Industry experience that includes management, origination and execution of Mergers & Acquisitions, Equity and Fixed Income Financing and a broad range of Restructuring Projects as well as consumer financial services. John is also involved in a wide range of charities and initiatives in the Arts and for the homeless, and is a Trustee of Human Rights Watch.

Mark Taylor

Mark is Chair of the Religion Department and Co-Director of the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life at Columbia University in New York. A leading figure in debates about postmodernism, Mark has written on topics ranging from philosophy, religion, literature, art and architecture to education, media, science, technology and economics. For the past decade, Mark has also been one of the leaders in developing innovative uses of technology for writing, research and teaching. In 1997 he and Herbert Allen co-founded the Global Education Network (GEN), a web-based company designed to deliver the highest quality college-level courses in the humanities, liberal arts, social sciences and sciences.

Christophe Tellier

Christophe Tellier leads the European activities of Russell Reynolds Associates in Paris, specialising in assignments for industrial manufacturing and distribution. Prior to this, Christophe worked at Toys 'R' Us in France as Director, Human Resources, and Operations Manager for France, Belgium and Luxembourg. He also held international HR and sales functions with Rank Xerox and Tenneco J.I. Case unit, a manufacturer of farm and construction equipment. Christophe has a degree in HR Management from the Ecole des Psychologues Praticiens in Paris.

Peter Ujomu

Peter has hosted Quest visits in Nigeria and is Executive Director of Health Matters Inc. (HMI) based in Lagos. An NGO founded in 1996, HMI operates an integrated community development programme with a special focus on HIV/AIDS and reproductive health education for young men and women, as well as on economic empowerment, including vocational training and micro-credit programmes.

Geoff Unwin

Geoff has had a distinguished career in the consultancy and IT services industry. He is Chairman of Halma plc, Liberata plc, Taptu Limited and Palamon portfolio company, OmniBus Systems Ltd, and was formerly Chairman of the Board of United Business Media plc. Until January 2002 he was CEO of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, where he led the successful acquisition of Ernst & Young consulting activities and today remains a non-voting member of their Board.

Biranchi Upadhyaya

Biranchi is Oxfam GB's Regional Director for South Asia, responsible for Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Biranchi is a development specialist, having worked in the development sector for over 15 years. He has worked with Oxfam GB for over nine years, first as head of the Cambodian Country Programme for five years and then as the India Country Representative. He started his career with local NGOs and then worked as a development consultant with different international agencies before joining Oxfam GB.

Peter Vanacker

Based in Germany but of Belgian origin, Peter is Head of the Polyurethanes Business Unit of Bayer MaterialScience AG, one of the world’s largest producers of polymers and high-performance plastics. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of BMS and responsible for the Latin America Region. He holds a degree in polymers engineering from the University of Gent and a master’s in business administration from the European Institute of Higher Education (EHSAL) in Brussels.

David Weekley

David Weekley is Chairman of David Weekley Homes, an award-winning homebuilding company in the USA. He is an active community leader, chairing several civic organisations, including former Chairman and current Executive Committee Member of the Sam Houston Area Council of Boy Scouts, former President of the Houston Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organisation, former Chairman and member of the Steering Committee of Metro Houston Young Life, and former Chair of the Greater Houston Community Foundation. David is based in Houston, Texas.

Peter Wheeler

Peter is Head of Wholesale Banking, West for Standard Chartered and has over 30 years of banking and financial services experience. He began his career with Hill Samuel & Co. Limited in London in loan syndications, commercial lending and corporate finance. He joined Goldman Sachs in New York in 1985 and built a 16 year track record of outstanding achievement in capital markets and investment banking in New York, Hong Kong and London. Peter established and built Goldman’s investment banking presence in Asia outside of Japan starting in 1991, and became a partner of the firm in 1994. Since leaving Goldman in 2001, Peter has been involved in many private equity and portfolio investment roles. Peter is also actively involved in several innovative non-profit businesses including New Philanthropy Capital, Charity Technology Trust, Kids Company and Social Impact.