Reos Partners, North America

Adam Kahane has always wanted to work on important and difficult challenges. When he was younger, he thought of these challenges as problems that could be solved by experts, and he wanted to be one. He studied physics at McGill University in Montreal and energy and resource economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and held a series of public policy research positions in North America, Europe, and Japan. Then he worked as a corporate planner at Pacific Gas and Electric Company in San Francisco and as the head of global social, political, economic, environmental, and technological scenarios at Royal Dutch Shell in London.  Adam’s thinking about how to approach difficult challenges changed dramatically in 1991, when he helped a team of South African leaders think through how to effect the transition from apartheid to democracy. He learned that such complex matters are not simply problems to be solved by experts but problematic situations to be worked through by stakeholders. He also learned that diverse teams—made up not just of colleagues and friends but also of opponents and enemies—can do this work collaboratively.

This experience transformed Adam’s understanding of his vocation. He left Shell, moved to Cape Town, and threw himself into supporting collaborative efforts to address complex challenges. He cofounded Reos Partners, a social enterprise that guides such efforts around the world.

Over the last twenty-five years, Adam has worked in this way in more than fifty countries, with executives and politicians, generals and guerrillas, civil servants and trade unionists, community activists and clergy. Along the way he learned that collaboration is not as straightforward as he thought it was, and that this is true not only for extraordinary multistakeholder collaborations but also for ordinary ones at work and at home. Adam is a director of Reos Partners, where his consulting, facilitating, and teaching all focus on helping people work together to address their most important and difficult challenges. He and his wife, Dorothy, have four children and nine grandchildren and live in Cape Town and Montreal.

Transform: Centre for Conflict Engagement and Political Development,

Ahmed Badawi has worked as a group facilitator/trainer and participatory action researcher since 1994. He has a considerable repertoire of methods and delivery styles, and has designed and led single workshops and longer interventions with groups as varied as rural extension workers from a cluster of villages in Upper Egypt, Macedonian parliamentarians hosted by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office at Wilton Park, Palestinian politicians engaging in internal strategic dialogue, and Tunisian members of the Constituent Assembly trying to overcome their differences over the draft of the Tunisian new constitution. Badawi combines his experience as a practitioner with policy analysis and academic research. He previously worked at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), the Institute of Development and Peace, University of Duisburg-Essen (INEF), the Oxford Research Group and the International Crisis Group. He received his MSc in Development Studies from SOAS, University of London, and his PhD in political Science from Humboldt University, Berlin. He is now the Co-Executive Director of Transform: Centre for Conflict Engagement and Political Development, and a Senior Researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics at the Free University, Berlin.

The Working Journey, Australia, New Zealand, Global

Hi my name is Andrew Olivier, from Australia. I am interested in the SDGs and our work over the past three decades has been on getting corporate to think longer term. I am the Managing Partner of a consultancy which uses time as a central part of structure, individual well-being and leadership. I am working on a programme linked to the SDGs. I am also member of the Global Ecovillage Network and author of three books. I am honoured to be here and am looking for new contacts and networks.

Reos Partners, Europe

Batian Nieuwerth is driven by a commitment to the growth and development of communities and organizations—and of the individuals who are part of them. He is especially interested in strategic and tactical issues that call for a multilateral approach. With a strong background in business and system dynamics, Batian excels at conceptualizing, organising, and connecting thought and action.

Batian is a co-founder and board member of Pluk, a platform for launching Social Labs in The Netherlands. Previously, he started a successful business in system dynamics and worked in asset management and as a real estate manager. Batian has also been responsible for large urban sustainability and social innovation projects.

Diabetes UK, UK

Hi, I'm Ben. I'm Head of Shared Practice and Improvement at Diabetes UK. I lead a team who's goal is to transform the quality, safety and access to diabetes care and support in the UK.
I have previously held a number of positions in the charity and public sectors, including healthcare development and transformation roles at the British Red Cross and in the National Health Service in the UK. In 2015, I was awarded an Improvement Leaders Fellowship from the National Institute for Health Research.

Reos Partners, North America

Brenna Atnikov has extensive experience with multi-stakeholder initiatives aimed at transforming systems in the areas of urban sustainability, community economic development, early literacy, and participatory community development. She roots her process designs in the group’s purpose and customizes them to help the group achieve its goals.

Brenna is skilled in doing strategic mapping, creating collaborative governance structures, and helping groups anchor their work in values, vision, and purpose. As a facilitator, she models the advantages of bringing one’s whole self to the work, knowing that we cannot change systems without changing ourselves. Over the years, Brenna has developed a passion for the reflective and evaluative practices that enable groups to think about their work, learn from it, and integrate that learning.

Matchpoint, Netherlands

In my professional career I was always involved in complex social issues. Looking for opportunities to create a better society. I started as a young professional with the Utrecht police force involved in a great variety of issues such as hooliganism, abuse, violence, drugs related crime, addiction and social work. I left the police after 15 years, by then I was responsible for the alternative sanctions for juvenile criminals. I was curious to discover the world outside the police, working in an environment in which entrepreneurship was more important. I became a marketing communication manager in a starting internet company. After 2 years I realized that the balance between entrepreneurship and working in a meaningful environment was important for me and I returned to the world of safety and prevention as a manager juvenile rehabilitation in Amersfoort. After two years I have got the opportunity to return to the police in an innovation team working on new solutions for safety issues.

In 2004 I started at Matchpoint Amersfoort; an NGO working in the City of Amersfoort on Corporate Social Responsibility. The last 10 years from 2008 till now we work on social and business issues at the same time; combining the heart and the head. Changelab Amersfoort is one of our projects: a leadership program we started after a summer course at the Sloan School of Management M.I.T. Boston and a learning journey about social entrepreneurship in Llanga Capetown South Africa organized by REOS.

Reos Partners, Latin America

Christel Scholten designs and facilitates multi-stakeholder processes in stuck social systems.  Recent projects include systems change work in the garment industry and a scenarios process on the future of public education in Brazil.  She teaches courses on social labs, transformative scenario planning and systems thinking.  Christel previously held positions in several organizations in which she integrated sustainable development into strategy, governance, policies, processes, and educational programmes. In this role, she also designed and delivered educational programmes on sustainability.

As a change agent for sustainability, Christel is passionate about the power of nature to teach and liberate people, individually and collectively. She has completed Sacred Passage and Guide Training programmes with John Milton and enjoys guiding individuals and groups in nature.

Reos Partners, Europe

Christopher Baan is driven by creating the conditions for groups to collaborate on societal challenges and achieve sustainable breakthrough results, whether by creating the right space, by facilitating dialogue or by supporting people in building mutual rapport. 

Prior to joining Reos Partners, Christopher worked in a broad stakeholder collaboration to accelerate the energy transition in the Netherlands, and was a Leadership Associate and Programme Manager at Mobius Executive Leadership, where he helped deliver transformative leadership development in the business environment in Europe and the US.

His work is inspired by a vision of systems leadership, a kind of leadership that is based on awareness of the interconnectedness of inner and outer worlds, business and society, humans and nature. Paying attention to patterns, interconnections, and group dynamics, Christopher believes that humans and social systems can grow by integrating seemingly opposing forces.

Reos Partners, Australia

Claire works with organisations to design and deliver multi-stakeholder reform projects to produce innovative, impactful change at systemic level and contribute to improved outcomes.

Over the last 15 years she has been responsible for large scale reform initiatives that address complex issues such as improving long term Aboriginal health outcomes, mental health reforms, and assessing and building organisational capacity across NSW Health.

Claire was most recently employed as a senior executive with NSW Health, providing high level strategic and policy advice to the senior leadership of the health system; and is now a consultant working independently and with Reos Partners.She also helps leaders to build awareness and effectiveness, and designs and facilitates leadership programs focusing on mindfulness and emotional intelligence.

CIRAD / ETHZ, Swizterland

I am a tropical ecologist working for CIRAD, the French International Centre of Reseach and Agronomy for Development, in the Research Unit “Forest and Societies”. Since 2012, I took the lead of the Forest Management and Development Team, in the Department of Earth System Sciences of ETH Zürich, in Switzerland. 

My research aims at understanding tropical landscapes under change. I develop approaches to embrace (i) ecosystem and their processes, (ii) stakeholders and their strategies and (iii) the norms and institutions the latter establish to regulate access to the former. I analyse the drivers and strategies involved in the decision making processes of the stakeholders, with tools such as companion modelling. My goal is to balance conservation and development through better public policies bridging disciplines and taking into account local knowledge, constraints and opportunities.

I have 12 years experience working in South and South East Asia, and I am currently leading research projects in the Congo Basin and Colombia. 

Global Leadership Academy - Deutsche Gesellschaft Fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Gmbh, Global

At GIZ’s Global Leadership Academy, Claudia is responsible for the conceptualization, management and facilitation of international dialogue, innovation and leadership programmes focusing on complex social challenges.  A psychologist by education, Claudia brings to her work the expertise from both of her Master’s degrees in Neuroscience and Organisational Psychology from Freie Universität Berlin and Université de Fribourg (Switzerland). She has published on the impact evaluation of human capacity development interventions and is a trainer for Nonviolent Communication. Additionally, she is pursuing training in Process Work and Deep Democracy.

Reos Partners, Southern Africa

Colleen Magner works primarily in the areas of food security, land reform, healthcare, education, mining safety, insurance, and support for orphans and vulnerable children. She is also a writer and is co-author of Mapping Dialogue: Essential Tools for Social Change, which outlines a variety of transformative dialogue tools and change processes.

As a part-time faculty member in the Social Entrepreneurship Programme at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg, Colleen teaches courses in systems thinking for organizations, Transformative Scenarios, participative practices for social change, and dialogue for solving tough problems. She has supervized a number of teaching case studies and edited the book Dust to Diamonds: Stories of South African Social Entrepreneurs.

CORDIO East Africa, East Africa/Western Indian Ocean

David Obura is a Director of CORDIO East Africa, a knowledge organization supporting sustainable management and conservation of coral reef and marine systems in Eastern Africa/the Western Indian Ocean. CORDIO takes research to management and policy, builds capacity, and works with stakeholders, managers and policy makers. My primary research is on coral reef resilience, in particular to climate change, and the biogeography of Indian Ocean corals, and have worked extensively in coral reef monitoring. This work provides a platform for contributing to regional scale marine management: in the Northern Mozambique Channel to design and promote an Integrated Ocean Management approach that delivers on Blue Economy development principles, and for the Western Indian Ocean through building resources and capacity for integrated/marine spatial planning. Coral reefs are iconic and among the best-studied marine ecosystems globally, yet local to global pressures are decimating them rapidly. I am working on ways to bring this knowledge into practical frameworks to respond to local needs and national and intergovernmental goals, as expressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Rockefeller Brothers Fund, United States

Deborah Burke is a program associate for the Rockefeller Brother Fund’s Sustainable Development program. Before joining the RBF, Ms. Burke worked as a research assistant at New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. From 2008 to 2011 she served as the senior policy advisor to Oregon State Representative Jules Bailey (D-Portland). In 2012, Ms. Burke had the opportunity to work in the United Kingdom’s House of Commons as a parliamentary researcher for the West Lancashire Member of Parliament Rosie Cooper. Ms. Burke holds a B.A. in political science from Portland State University’s School of Urban Affairs, as well as her M.P.A. in nonprofit and public management and policy from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.

Maria Cecília Souto Vidigal Foundation, Brazil,

Eduardo Marino is the Applied Knowledge Director of the Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal Foundation (FMCSV). Integrating the team of FMCSV since 2011, he structured the area of evaluation and research on ECD, as well as the innovation portfolio. He is currently leading the initiative to mobilize public leaders to prioritize early childhood into public policies and evaluation.  Before working for FMCSV, he worked for 15 years as evaluator and teacher of programs evaluation. Mr. Marino acquired his master's degrees in Business Administration from University of São Paulo and holds a bachelor's in Animal Science from São Paulo State University. He holds an extension training in program evaluation from Western Michigan University and experience as evaluator of social programs in the areas of sustainability, education, and early child development. 

Reos Partners, North America

A facilitator and strategist, Elizabeth Pinnington has 15 years of experience working on complex multi-actor initiatives. Prior to joining Reos Partners, she researched and taught participatory democracy at three Canadian universities. Elizabeth also helped open one of the first co-working, living lab spaces in Canada (10carden.ca). Her work is featured in journals and books published in the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and Brazil.

Concurrent with her research, Elizabeth ran her own consultancy, where she built tri-sector capacity—business, government, and civil society—to work to effect systems change. She has worked in 15 countries and four languages—English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese—supporting actors from multiple institutions to collaborate on change initiatives.

Diabetes UK, England

Emily graduated from the University of Bristol with an honours degree in Physiological Science. Since then, Emily has held a number of positions in the charity sector, delivering public health campaigns across the UK and supporting leadership development training for health professionals. In 2015, Emily joined Diabetes UK as a Clinical Champions Project Manager, where she supported over 40 diabetes professionals to deliver improvement projects in their locality. Emily now leads the charities Improving Inpatient Care programme, supporting hospitals to improve care for people with diabetes. 

Porticus, Latin America

I have twenty years professional experience in international development, strategic philanthropy, and partnership-building for sustainable development and social impact in Latin America, USA, and Europe. My current professional focus is on effective philanthropy at Porticus, a global international private foundation (www.porticus.com). As Executive Director for Latin America, I am leading the transformation from traditional charitable-giving to strategic philanthropy, and serve as a member of the Porticus Global Leadership Team.  My career interests have been shaped by addressing the question of how to live within Earth's limits, and what social, economic, and ecological arrangements must come into place in order to achieve this with dignity and prosperity. I have developed deep and applied understanding of challenges and opportunities for sustainability in Latin America, and the developing world, as well as first-hand working relationships with Latin American, European, and North American organizations and social entrepreneurs. I currently live in São Paulo, Brazil.

Reos Partners, Latin America

Fernando Rossetti has more than two decades of experience working with leading foundations, NGOs, and associations in Brazil and around the world. He started his career as a journalist with Folha de S.Paulo in Brazil, where he covered education and civil society organizations, and served as a correspondent in South Africa soon after Mandela became president.

Fernando was executive director of GIFE (the Brazilian association of philanthropic organizations), Greenpeace Brazil, and Cidade Escola Aprendiz. He also served as chair of the board of WINGS (Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support).

Fernando lives in a village in Southern Bahia, where he works with community development and Atlantic Forest restoration. Most of his consulting activity takes place in São Paulo and Rio.

Reos Partners, Australia

Geoff Brown describes himself as a conversation architect and specializes in the art of process design. Based on his belief that meaningful dialogue and collaboration are at the core of transformational change, he supports groups in exploring their most complex questions and challenges.

For 14 years, Geoff has run his own consultancy, working with a diverse range of clients across the government and nonprofit sectors in fields including chronic disease prevention, climate change adaptation, natural resource management, biodiversity, waterway health, and integrated water management. Geoff also creates learning spaces for communities of practice and networks of stakeholders working together on complex, systemic challenges.

BGC Engineering, Canada/US/South America

I am, first and foremost, a west coast Canadian who finds restoration in outdoor play. 

I discovered THNK during the 2015 Globe Summit in Vancouver. The THNK team expertly facilitated an exercise in thought disruption, and I realized this approach was a missing piece to the strategic planning I was developing. I started my career as an environmental engineer with a focus on hydrogeology. When I started at BGC Engineering Inc., I worked on groundwater assessment, remediation work, and mine closure projects for clients in Canada and Chile. While working in Chile, I took a more senior project and people management role that catalyzed a shift away from technical engineering work and toward leadership, people development, and strategy. Over the past three years, I led a values discovery and visioning exercise and spearheaded strategic planning efforts in line with the newly developed values and vision. 

I am passionate about inclusive human systems that hold space for every voice to be heard. By valuing each individual contribution, new solutions emerge that may not have otherwise been visible. This approach is greatly needed in the resource extraction industries. My dream is to see the knowledge held in brilliant technical minds and amplified through world-class facilitation, presentation, communication, and creative thinking methods; in this way, we can create the opportunity to make huge leaps forward with some of the world's biggest earth science challenges.

Reos Partners, Europe

As a development and sustainability consultant I design and facilitate processes that help people, organisations and groups evolve and meet their challenges. My curiosity and broad work experience allows me to understand and integrate different perspectives, purposes and practices.
I have worked in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The programs I have developed, managed and monitored addressed challenging situations in sustainable livelihoods, gender equality, HIV prevention, mental health and psycho-social support.
I hold a Master in International Development, I studied system approaches to managing change, Transactional Analysis, Outcome Mapping and I am a certified Neuro Linguistics Practitioner. I love running, singing, writing and just being in nature.

Instituto C&A, Brazil

Giuliana Ortega holds a degree in business administration from the University of São Paulo (FEA / USP), a postgraduate degree in global governance management from the Inwent / German Development Institute (Germany) and a master's degree in sustainability and social responsibility from Ashridge Business School (England) . Giuliana has been working with social responsibility and sustainability since 2002 and she has worked for Natura and the Ethos Institute. At C&A since 2010, Giuliana led the supplier and sustainability auditing areas until 2015, when she became the Executive Director of the Instituto C&A, the Brazilian office of C&A Foundation.

UN Women, Global

Hiba Qasas is the Chief of the Crisis Prevention and Response Office of UN Women in Geneva. Prior to that Ms Qasas served as the UN Women Country Representative in Iraq, and as the Head of the Middle East and North Africa Section in UN Women’s Headquarters in New York. Prior to joining UN Women, Ms Qasas worked at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at the country and HQ level,  managing a broad range of programmes in the areas of poverty reduction, crisis prevention and recovery, and providing programme guidance to country offices in the Middle East and North Africa, and the Horn of Africa Region. Before joining the UN, Ms Qasas worked in her own country Palestine for local NGOs with a focus on micro finance and rural development.  Ms Qasas has 17 years of experience in international development, crisis prevention, and humanitarian assistance. Ms Qasas has been working passionately to advance women’s rights and gender equality across various regions worldwide.

Reos Partners, North America

Ian Prinsloo is a facilitator whose work develops the relational quality of groups as a platform for developing innovative solutions to challenges. For the past six years, he has been on the Leadership Development faculty at the Banff Centre in Canada (now the Peter Lougheed Leadership Institute), designing programmes and facilitating custom work for a wide variety of clients. There, he helps build the capacity of leaders to initiate collaborative processes that reframe change as an act of creation. 

Ian also ran his own consultancy, working with a wide range of clients across the corporate and nonprofit sectors. He is a regular lecturer with the Kaospilots in Denmark, where he instructs in the Creative Process and the Art and Craft of being a Kaospilot.

Reos Partners, Europe

Isabel Bottoms designs and leads the implementation of processes for collaborating, learning, and sharing knowledge at multiple scales. With one foot in the future, she operates with a deep awareness of systems and ecology, looking for leverage points to catalyze the transformations needed to sustain life on earth and in our communities. Most recently, she led the creation of a participatory vision for a national energy system, facilitated a dialogue between forestry stakeholders to build an ambitious forestry policy, worked to prototype software with several municipalities, and supported international advocacy networks to improve their communication.

Isabel develops her practice through attention, reading, listening, and outdoor contemplation. She also conducts action research on how an individual’s transformative learning experience can effect system transformation.

Reos Partners, North America

In her academic and research work in organizational behavior, Jacqueline McLemore has focused on the role of narratives in managing and leading change efforts. For more than 22 years, she had her own consulting firm, where she supported multi-year engagements with entities including city, county, and state governments; a global faith-based organization; manufacturing firms; and a range of non-profit organizations. In her coaching practice, she has worked with professional service firms.

Jacquie’s recent work in collaborating with various stakeholders to understand and shape efforts on green infrastructure is an example of the type of engagement she enjoys. It required leadership coaching, meeting design and facilitation, and meaning-making.

Reos Partners, North America

Jennifer Falb is an experienced executive with a broad business background. Over the past 20 years, she has been a catalyst for positive and sustainable change in several organizations. As the head of operations for companies in both the manufacturing and service industries, she drove business growth through strategic planning, creativity, and teamwork.

Jennifer is known for her ability to work through challenges and collaborate with team members at all levels to move the organization forward. She is guided by the realization that business success is not just about profit; owners, executives, staff, and clients all benefit from an organization that does well by doing good for others.

Reos Partners, North America

Jessica Fan is an innovation specialist, experience designer, and entrepreneur. She is a co-founder of Journey, an innovation consultancy based in Toronto. Her personal mission is to solve systemic challenges through organizational culture change, lean start-up methodologies, and human-centered design.

In recent years, Jessica has worked within organizations including Google and Adaptive Path. Passionate about education and bringing down cultural barriers, she founded Penyo Pal and SnapLingo, two language technology companies with a total of more than 1 million users in Canada, US, and China. Through her work in industries ranging from financial services to sustainable agriculture to consumer technology, Jessica has developed expertise in customer experience design, data-driven innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Reos Partners, North America

Joe McCarron focuses on bringing together groups of committed people and supporting them in their work together to co-design and co-deliver innovative solutions to systemic problems. Educated in the earth sciences, he spent seven years with Shell International, developing new business opportunities and strategic options. Joe also spent five years as a research scientist with the British government, travelling and working in the Antarctic Peninsula. He subsequently published several papers in international journals based on this research.

Joe has worked in both polar regions, cycled solo across the Sahara, and travelled extensively in the Himalaya. He credits these experiences with instilling an understanding that, no matter the enterprise, clear communication and authentic leadership are critical to success.

Vincent van Gogh for mental health care

Jolande Tijhuis has been chairman of the Board of Governors of Vincent Van Gogh's GGz institution in Limburg since 2011. She studied Biology and Business Administration, worked as a consultant for Twynstra and Gudde in the profit and non-profit sectors, and has had various career opportunities in the private sector, but has instead opted for a socially focused role. She is now focussing her broad experience and background to the current transformation in mental health care. 

Reos Partners Europe

Josephine Pallandt works on large-scale multi-stakeholder projects, particularly in the areas of global public health and sustainable development. Her expertise is in leading multi-partner change processes in international institutions. Previously, she started a successful development practice at PriceWaterhouseCoopers Geneva, created a multi-partner environmental fund for the World Bank, developed the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Action2020 agenda, and co-led the Business Alliance for Sustainable Development at Rio+20.

Josephine has enriched her 20-year journey in development with experiences of studying, living, and working in communities in different parts of the world. She has also studied and collaborated with thinkers, activists, and leaders on strategy and change, and engages in ongoing personal development and reflection.

De la Calle Madrazo Mancera, Switerland and global

Julio graduated from the School of Political Sciences of UNAM, with a master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University. He collaborated as a political analyst in the administrations of President Salinas de Gortari and President Ernesto Zedillo. He worked with the Secretary General of the OAS, César Gaviria. Julio is a consultant in public policies and communication since 1998. 

He is currently a partner of CMM, a consultancy in economic studies and public affairs founded in 2004. He was president of the Tamayo Museum Board, where he coordinated the expansion of the Museum. He is currently a fellow of the Aspen Institute Mexico.

International Institute for Sustainable Development

Kali found her passion for the energy industry when she began working in the industry as an analyst at the age of 19 while studying for her Bachelor of Commerce in Energy Management at the University of Calgary. While simultaneously working and studying, Kali chaired the planning of the inaugural International Student Energy Summit that brought 350 students from 30 countries to Calgary to learn from leading energy experts. Kali then founded the not-for-profit, Student Energy, that works to create a global movement of students committed to transitioning the world to a sustainable energy future. Kali has also worked in industry at the Integrated CO2 Network (ICO2N) on Carbon Capture and Storage Initiatives and is an independent consultant who works with many of Calgary’s major energy companies on improving triple bottom line performance and innovation.  Kali is now project officer at the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Reos Partners, Southern Africa

Karen Goldberg’s career path has been a journey to discover where her three passions meet: her desire for large and systemic impact; her wish to help people to flourish; and her love of nature. At Reos Partners, she focuses on writing, documentation, action research, and process design and project coordination, particularly in the areas of food, healthcare, and climate change and water.

Previously, Karen worked as an independent consultant in the field of socio-ecological sustainability across the academic, government, business, and NGO sectors. Her dissertation for her Master’s degree explored how change agents can face the implications of big, potentially catastrophic issues such as climate change in a way that does not overwhelm or diminish their ability to take appropriate action.

McConnell Foundation, Canada

In my role at the McConnell Foundation, I support the President with key strategic files and relationships. A key part of my work focuses on exploring how we can help accelerate progress on the SDGs through new forms of cross-sector partnerships. Coming from the federal government's Social Innovation Division, I also support the Foundation in co-creating policies and programs related to social innovation and social finance in Canada. I recently co-authored a book on UN reform and global governance, A United Nations Renaissance, and run a social enterprise operating in Canada and Uganda. I completed an MA in Global Studies through the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Reos Partners, Australia

Leigh Gassner is passionate about bringing together multiple, diverse stakeholders for meaningful dialogue and problem solving. Aiding this work is his deep knowledge and practice of systems thinking. Leigh’s extensive senior executive experience has included leading and managing two of the largest police regions in Victoria, Australia. He spearheaded a systemic response to the issues of violence against women and children, resulting in significant reform in the delivery of integrated government and non-government services.

Leigh consults on social system and policy reform and is a regular speaker at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government’s Towards Strategic Leadership programme. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration of Australia.

Reos Partners, Southern Africa

Lerato Mpofu, a Mandela Rhodes Scholar and Brightest Young Minds alumna, is in the final stage of her master’s studies at the Biotechnology Innovation Centre at Rhodes University in South Africa. Her research focuses on microbial fuel cells and their applications in renewable energy, bioremediation of wastewater, and the integration of these technologies into communities.

As the Social Entrepreneurship chair of the Rhodes Entrepreneurs Society, she judged entrepreneurship competitions and was involved with the design of events, included the Bill Clinton Hult Prize event at Rhodes University. Lerato has worked with Scifest Africa to popularize science to the broader South African society and as an organizer of the #Chapter212 campaign (2016) that was set up to highlight rape culture at Rhodes.

Mellinksocialeveiligheid, Netherlands

Lex Mellink has extensive experience and a very extensive network in the organization of security. For almost 30 years he worked at the Utrecht police and at the police academy in all facets of the police profession. 10 years as district manager both in the city and in the region mainly focused on improving local security. Various portfolios such as integral security policy, the development of city surveillance, youth and morals policy, football hooliganism, integrity and diversity policy, influenced his view on safety. From September 1999, Mellink, as director of the Dutch Police Academy (NPA), was responsible for the development of the Bachelor's and Master's degree in Political Science and worked intensively with Universities and Colleges. From 2004 to 2008, he led Maatwerk, the market organization for the police academy. Internationally, Mellink was involved as an advisor in security issues in the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, Suriname and South Africa. He started his own company Mellinksocialeveiligheid (Mellink Social Security) in 2009, which contributes to solving social security issues by providing project leaders (on a secondment basis), giving advice and by setting up a learning environment safety in collaboration with bachelor and master students.

Reos Partners, Geneva

Lisa is a student following an interdisciplinary Master degree in European Studies at the University of Geneva, and previously graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian Language and Literature and Chinese Studies at the University of Zurich. Currently she works as an intern at Reos Partners office in Geneva. 

A motivated, committed, open-minded and proactive person, professional experience in an international social enterprise such as Reos Partners is enriching her know-how and opening new horizons for her in terms of knowledge and interests on the topic of sustainable development.

Tennis and sports in general are her passion.

Reos Partners, Brazil

For more than two decades, Lucilene has worked as a consultant on environmental and social projects, as well as on the support of transformative multi-stakeholder initiatives. She has worked on environmental education and local development with various public and for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Her recent projects at Reos Partners include implementing systems change in the garment industry, in Amazonian forest issues and democracy in Latin America.

Lucilene was also a co-founder of the nonprofit organization 'GAIA Social', where she developed numerous environmental-education methodologies, and implemented social responsibility and social investment policies and programs in partnership with the private sector. She has also provided training for community, political, and business leaders engaged in sustainable local development around Brazil.

Reos Partners, Southern Africa

Mahmood Sonday combines experience in business improvement, consulting, and project management with research and practice in collaborative problem-solving processes. He has delivered significant results on various complex projects, including bespoke software development, energy, healthcare, and business reengineering.

Mahmood is co-founder of a professional services company that provides project advisory and execution support to clients in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. He played a lead role in developing the economic development framework for the Gauteng Provincial Government in South Africa. Mahmood continues to provide advisory and support services to the City of Johannesburg’s Department of Economic Development.

Mahmood is a guest lecturer on “Platforms for Social Change” for the MBA Programme at the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science.

Reos Partners, North America

Manuela Restrepo designs and facilitates processes to address complex challenges at local and national levels. She has been able to bring her global awareness to Reos Partners by working on projects relating to peace and security, corporate development, national futures and health equity in Canada, Colombia, Mexico and the United States. Manuela works fluently in English, French and Spanish.

Manuela has a special ability to connect with people, actively supporting relationship building to create space for transformative change. She evolves her practice using insights from her professional studies in peace and conflict resolution, as well as the awareness developed through years of practicing yoga and meditation, contributing to the energy and the flow of the groups that she works with. Manuela is a citizen of Colombia and of Canada and has lived for significant periods of time in both countries. She draws on her unique confluence of lived experience and training to support diverse actors to discover solutions to their most challenging issues.

Oxfam IBIS, global

I'm  a Senior Peace Building Advisor heading an initiative at Oxfam IBIS- Conducive Space for Peace in which we partner with Reos. I have focused on peacebuilding for the last 18 years working for different international NGOs and as a consultant, specializing in mediation and dialogue support in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previously mediation advisor for Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) my work focused on enhancing African capacities in mediation.  This included country level technical support in locations such as Mali, Guinea Bissau, Burundi, Madagascar and Central African Republic, developing training courses, as well as mediation support work with regional and continental organizations including the African Union, Economic Commission for West African States (ECOWAS)) and UN Mediation Support Unit (MSU).  I am currently pursuing my doctorate at the University of York. I hold an MSc in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.

Reos Partners, Europe

Mariette Stolk applies her experience in facilitation and process design to guide teams in creating and implementing sustainable solutions to intractable social problems. Her deeply felt purpose is to contribute to the development of an honest and sustainable food system. In addition, Mariette is experienced in leading groups in addressing issues such as the energy transition, social housing, and organizational and leadership development.

Mariette trains professional facilitators in working with and embodying Theory U and Social Labs. She has worked as an independent trainer, coach, and facilitator, with expertise on leadership, organizational development, Theory U, and multi-stakeholder dialogue. Mariette’s spiritual journey as a teacher in training in the Ridhwan School informs her work.

Engineering Change Lab, Canada

Mark Abbott, P.Eng., MBA, spent 15 years in heavy industrial consulting engineering based in Vancouver, Canada, before leaving to join the executive team of Engineers Without Borders Canada six years ago.  Three years ago, Mark stepped down from the executive team to help launch and become the inaugural executive director of the Engineering Change Lab.  He currently lives in Toronto with his partner Colette and their children Felix (4y) and Stella (1y).    

Reos Partners, Europe

Martine Verweij designs and facilitates large scale systemic interventions, primarily in the domain of the energy transition. She is a program leader for the Dutch Topsector Energy on the subject of socially responsible innovation, and has been leading the North Sea Energy Lab for 1,5 years. The North Sea Energy Lab is a social lab with the ambition to ensure the energy transition at the North Sea also contributes to a protein transition and an reinforcement of the North Sea ecosystem. Martine is also a trained facilitator of systemic constellations and uses this – more intuitive – way of working in larger programs to investigate societal issues and underlying system dynamics. She’s an alchemist who loves to create the right conditions for transformation to occur. A tall Dutch woman, who, in her free time, disappears into the forests with her horse Ecco, or goes running on the beach with her dog Driekus. She’s in love with Vos, who has two children, and is in the process of co-building her own sustainable floating home in Rotterdam.

HiiL, Netherlands

I am research director at HiiL, The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law. This is an NGO working on innovation for user friendly justice. We do epidemics of legal problems, work with leaders to change the legal infrastructure, support justice innovators and co-design better justice journeys. My career went from partner in a major law firm, towards leading research programs on justice needs at Tilburg University as a professor to now leading an innovation institute for the legal sector. 

Reos Partners, North America

Mike Kang brings a mix of technical, social, and organizational expertise to help bridge the gaps between different approaches to effecting change. With his passion for unlocking the potential of human systems to truly reinvent themselves, he creates strong “containers” for transformative discussions in which people feel safe but also challenged to learn and empowered to create.

Through strategic design, storytelling, coaching, and facilitation, Mike builds teams that have the systemic leverage to achieve transformative outcomes. As co-director of Engineers Without Borders Malawi, he led the development of a collaborative network of funders, government departments, and community leaders focused on innovative approaches for sustainable water and sanitation services. From 2013 to 2017, he ran Evolve on Purpose, where he helped design systemic innovations such as Die Brückenbauer, a multi-stakeholder network aimed at addressing the rise of fear-based populism in Germany.

Reos Partners, Europe

Marianne Mille Bojer contributed to founding the Reos Partners offices in both Johannesburg and São Paulo, and is now based in Geneva. She is co-author of Mapping Dialogue: Essential Tools for Social Change, which outlines a variety of transformative dialogue tools and change processes. Rocio Chaveste, co-founder of the Kanankil Institute in Mexico, said about this book: “[It] is a must for those of us who are deeply involved in the process of co-constructing a better future for all.”

Mille has worked on large-scale multi-stakeholder projects addressing challenges including HIV/AIDS, Children, Education, Democracy, Civil Society, Oceans Management, Health, and Sustainable Development.  She has worked at community, national, regional and global levels.  Previously, at Pioneers of Change, she developed expertise in facilitating learning communities, hosting dialogue, and building networks and organizations.

Reos Partners, North America

With more than 20 years of experience in community development, environmental policy, and strategic planning, Monica Pohlmann helps people from diverse groups work together to address challenging issues. In particular, she seeks to build the collective capacity to gain insights into complex challenges and co-create and co-implement new solutions.

Previously, Monica ran her own sustainability and social innovation consultancy, where she specialized in facilitation and dialogue processes, strategic planning, and collaborative social innovation. She worked in local government as a long-range urban planner and senior policy advisor. Monica also served as leader of collaboration and strategy with Imagine Calgary, a 100-year sustainability vision for the city that drew on the input of 18,000 people.

UN Geneva, Switzerland

Nadia is the Director of the SDG Lab serving as the leader of the team.  She has a long career in international development with several years of field experience in bilateral cooperation and extensive experience in multilateral affairs within and outside of the UN system.  Nadia started her career with Médecins Sans Frontières and the Swiss Red Cross before joining the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation where she served for several years in Eastern Africa working primarily in the field of public health. Ms. Isler then joined the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs where she served as a Swiss diplomat for over 10 years, first as Deputy Head of Development Affairs at the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN in New York, before leading on development affairs and the SDGs at the Swiss Mission to the UN in Geneva. Nadia holds a BA Arts & Masters in Contemporary History, University of Geneva and Post Graduate Certificates from the Harvard School of Public Health & Harvard Kennedy School.

Porticus, global

Nadine Richani is the deputy director for the private foundation Porticus, responsible for the regions of CEE, MENA and Turkey. In addition, Nadine heads the foundation’s global initiatives on peace building. Porticus, through its offices around the globe, provides support geared towards lasting and systemic change in the areas of education, society, faith, care, and sustainability. Before joining Porticus Nadine had been active as a strategy advisor mainly in the social field with special focus on NGOs and humanitarian organizations. In her 20 years of experience, she has worked in the private and the social sectors in several countries in the Middle East and Africa. She has built a vast experience in managing as well as designing, monitoring and evaluation of social projects.

Reos Partners, North America

Nicole is a facilitator, coach, and connector who supports groups seeking to lead powerful change in their communities. By facilitating generative conversations among people with diverse viewpoints, she helps them collectively develop sustainable solutions to complex social challenges. Nicole is particularly committed to ensuring the inclusion of people who bring wisdom from lived experience. 

Nicole began her career as an aide to the Governor of Victoria, Australia, travelling the state and seeing firsthand the power of community-led change. After working for Columba 1400, a Scottish youth leadership organization, in 2002, Nicole founded Activate Australia, where she became the CEO. In addition to her work with Reos Partners, Nicole runs The Whole Elephant, a social change agency.

University of Freiburg, Brazil, global

Peter Poschen is senior policy specialist in the policy integration department of the ILO. He has a long-standing interest, and some 25 years of professional experience, with the social dimensions of sustainable development.

Originally trained as a forester, he studied land-use systems in Costa Rica and Ethiopia for his Master's and Ph.D. degrees. These experiences convinced him that people are both the problem and the solution for sustainable development. His current work focuses on the links between decent work and sustainable development, particularly the social and labour impacts of climate change.

Reos Partners, South Africa

Portia Mtembu fulfills a wide range of administrative responsibilities, including organizing internal associate meetings and events; communicating with associates, clients, and the general public by email and telephone; and supporting HR operations. She also maintains and updates internal information, including databases, project files, and associate activities. In addition, Portia manages the filing system, provides administrative support to the Reos Partners Trust and to the accountant, and maintains various membership systems.

Reos Partners, Europe

Ravenna Nuaimy-Barker has extensive experience working with groups to develop and implement solutions to social and environmental challenges. 

Ravenna brings a rigorous curiosity about how to transform systems in order to create a better future for people and planet. She supports groups to create questions and processes that identify opportunities for impact and that lead to continuous learning and improvement. In addition to her focus on strategy, evaluation and learning, Ravenna also brings her background in process facilitation, research and project management to support transformation processes. 

Prior to joining Reos Ravenna supported transformative multi-stakeholder initiatives to transform food systems in Canada and to transform financial and economic systems.

Reos Partners, Australia

Russell Fisher is a strategist, facilitator, educator, and activist. He is known for his ability to think strategically, listen deeply, and create a space that encourages imagination, new mindsets, and diverse thinking. Russell’s unique strength is his combined qualifications and experience in science, education, and organizational and community development.

Russell has worked with hundreds of organizations in Australia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and the Middle East to help them navigate complexity, solve problems, and build capacity to lead change. A number of his strategic projects have helped clients win national awards in training and development, sustainability, and community action on climate change.

United Nation Development Programme

I'm managing the Social Good Summit in Geneva. Two years ago, UNDP Geneva office launched this event while at the same time jointly created with Impact Hub the program Accelerate2030 that feeds into the event by identifying and selecting top notch entrepreneurs working on solutions for the SDGs in developing countries. The idea is to bring together the ecosystem (entrepreneurs, investors and the development community) to scale up solutions for the SDGs in developing countries. We recognize that Venture Philanthropy plays a key role in scaling solutions for the SDGs and we make sure in this sense that a large number of Foundations come to our event. My background is in Marketing, Communications and Media outreach (I'm also managing UNDP Media relations in Europe).

Oxfam South Africa

I am Sipho, which in my language means gift. I love reading. I write poetry (for myself). I am a panafricanist feminist with an internationalist outlook. I have worked in several institutions, small and large, national and international, in social movements, classical NGOs and development organisations. I am driven by a passion for and belief in the transformative power that lies in every human being, which is what drove me to education, to development and to social justice work. I have to laugh at least 5 times a day, and try to have a sense of humour because the work we do requires this as a survival strategy. I do not do well with conformists, with people who take themselves too seriously and who believe in hierarchies but I am also a very serious person. I believe that interpersonal relationships are critical in a world where the notion of solidarity between people, and where people dynamics and relationships  are the single largest determinant of the fate of our world, I have become fierce about interpersonal relations.  

Reos Partners, Australia

Working with corporate, government, and community service clients, Steve Atkinson co-designs and co-creates interventions that tackle complex problems. For more than 20 years, as a management consultant, he has led key assignments of strategic impact for numerous multinational corporations and government institutions in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and USA.

A registered psychologist, Steve has worked in a variety of industries and sectors, including oil and gas, resources, telecommunications, healthcare, banking and financial services, trading, manufacturing, and education. He is a nonexecutive board member of the Australian Community Support Organization, a leading provider of support services for people in or at risk of entering the criminal justice system in Victoria, Australia.

SDG Transformations Forum, global

For over 30 years Steve has focused on multi-stakeholder large systems change to address critical issues. His does this as a researcher, consultant, educator, and through personal leadership with a range of clients and partners globally. He has a PhD in sociology and an MBA. He is currently developing the SDG Transformation Forum. He is author of many publications, including the books Societal Learning and Change: Innovation with Multi-Stakeholder Strategies (2005); Global Action Networks: Creating Our Future Together (2011) and Change for the Audacious: a doers’ guide to large systems change for a flourishing future (2016). Steve is a Canadian-American living in Boston.

Javeriana University, Colombia

I am a university professor in political science and I have been working for eight years in the Institute of Intercultural Studies of the Universidad Javeriana, facilitating intercultural dialogue processes among rural, peasant, indigenous and afro-descendant communities, private companies and state institutions in Colombia. At this moment, I coordinate the research program in social movements and peacebuilding of the Institute and I direct several projects oriented to support the peace process in Colombia. I have a master's degree in discourse analysis and ideologies and now I am writing my doctoral thesis in development studies. I am very cheerful and direct, I like to work as a team, I love dogs, movies, salsa dancing and sharing quality time with my family and friends.

Reos Partners, Global

Tiê Franco Brotto articulates Reos Partners’ global communications strategy. In addition, he has international experience in conflict transformation. Tiê has contributed to a variety of Reos Partners’ projects, in particular the Scenarios for the Future of Democracy in Latin America.

Tiê is also involved with a local NGO in Sri Lanka that is seeking nationwide reconciliation. For this project, he conducts conversations with woman, youth, and religious leaders. In Brazil, he is part of the core team organizing the yearly International Festival of Cooperation. Tiê is currently pursuing a MSc in Crisis and Security Management at the University of Leiden. His meditation is swimming.

WWF Switzerland, global

Here to contribute to creating positive change in marine conservation that will benefit coastal communities in least developed places. Particularly interested in scaling up and replicating approaches that support community development and sustainability at the local to the regional level. Working with incredibly inspiring WWF teams, partners and friends around the world to achieve a joint vision. Keen sailor, adventurer, thinker, seeker, team builder.

Reos Partners, Europe

Yiannis Chrysostomidis is a Reos Partners associate based in London, United Kingdom. Both as an in-house staff member and as a consultant, he has helped organizations navigate complex problems and arrive at sustainable solutions. Yiannis brings experience in the field of social and environmental change and has worked with sectors including international trade and development, mining, oil and gas, agribusiness, and healthcare.

Yiannis likes to pay attention to factors that are “below the threshold”—and thus not usually addressed in change initiatives. He is interested in systemic and individual transformation and the interplay between the two.