Who Are We?

Michael Jarvis joined TAI after almost two decades working on different aspects of the global good governance and development agenda. He has led the development of TAI’s new strategy and approach, and directs engagement across the new priorities for the donor members.

Prior to joining TAI in 2016, Michael was the Global Lead for Extractives Governance within the World Bank Group’s Governance Global Practice. He led the institution’s programming to reinforce knowledge, learning and innovative approaches to strengthening good governance in the critical oil, gas and mining sectors. Overall, Michael worked over ten years with the World Bank in a variety of roles relating to anti corruption, private sector partnerships for development, and multi-stakeholder governance. This included a focus on contracting issues through which he helped shepherd development of a new global initiative on Open Contracting to promote better outcomes from the estimated $9.5 trillion in public-private contracts globally.

Michael previously worked on industry codes of conduct and as a consultant on corporate responsibility and transparency issues, including a focus on the agribusiness, chemical and defense industries. Michael has advanced degrees from the University of Cambridge and Johns Hopkins University. He is a frequent author and blogger and misses his time as a radio DJ.

Eszter brings to TAI extensive international experience working in the philanthropy and civil society sectors designing, implementing, and assessing complex portfolios of work. More recently she worked to advance transparency and civic participation at the nexus of development, economic activity, environment, climate justice, and human rights, with a special focus on marginalized communities.  

Eszter has worked for over two decades with the Open Society Foundations in different roles, managing global grant making and advocacy work in the field of civic participation, supporting organizations and networks globally, regionally, and locally, advancing the rights of the most vulnerable communities such as indigenous and afro communities, women, and informal workers.   

Eszter has also a background in education, tourism, and a brief but happy journey in wine business. She is passionate about working in collaboration with visionary people to achieve social change for a World that focuses on the wellbeing of all humans, as well as of the Earth. She also loves literature, arts, and walking in nature. 

With over six years of experience in international organizations, NGOs, and think tanks, Jeanette brings deep experience in international development and knowledge of Latin America to TAI. She holds a B.A. in International Relations from American University and is currently pursuing an M.A. in International Commerce and Policy at George Mason University. Jeanette is particularly interested in how transparency and anti-corruption efforts can help solve international trade and environmental challenges in Latin America and Africa

Yery M García is an Atlas Corps Fellow from Cuba. She has worked as a researcher and practitioner in communication, development, and social change for more than five years.

Yery holds an M.A. in Media Practice for Development and Social Change from the University of Sussex in the U.K. and a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Havana. She has worked as a communications consultant in several international cooperation agencies such as UNICEF, WFP, and Oxfam.

Since 2014, she has been working as a journalist in Cuban and international media outlets covering issues related to transparency, participation, and accountability. She is also a non-formal educator and has been a member of several citizen capacity-building projects using new information and communication technologies.

Mehdi is an Atlas Corps Fellow from Tunisia with more than ten years of experience as a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning professional. He has spent about five years working on Monitoring and Evaluation in both development/humanitarian and impact investing sectors at Oxfam and Yunus Social Business.

Passionate about multidisciplinary knowledge and learning, Mehdi has always been an autodidact. He holds a Master’s degree in Accounting Sciences from IHEC Carthage. He has also earned multiple certificates relating to his domain of expertise.

Mehdi has spent the last three years working with marginalized communities to tackle economic and gender inequalities. His contribution covers many aspects, including assessments; impact measurement; evidence-based learning; strategy design and interventions framing; designing monitoring and evaluation processes and developing tools (IT); capacity building; and empowering people and organizations.

Dana Hovig is the Program Director of Global Development and Population at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Dana is an experienced leader of both philanthropic and global nonprofit organizations. He joined the Hewlett Foundation in 2019 to lead the team responsible for grantmaking to improve lives and livelihoods in low- and middle-income countries, and to promote the health and economic well-being of women in the United States and around the world.

Previously, Dana worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for six years, where he co-created and led the Integrated Delivery team. That team focuses on building health systems; launching, delivering, and scaling up new products, services, and interventions; and finding synergies to improve outcomes across the foundation’s health programs.

Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, Dana spent seven years as CEO of Marie Stopes International (MSI), based in London, U.K. Dana led the work of more than 8,500 MSI international staff with offices and operations in 40 countries. MSI delivers life-saving and life-changing reproductive health, HIV/AIDS prevention, family and maternal health, and primary health care services via MSI clinics, franchised clinics, and community health workers. Dana joined MSI after more than a decade in leadership positions with Population Services International. He has spent nearly 10 years living and working in Pakistan and Francophone West Africa, including with the Peace Corps in Togo.

Dana holds a master’s of science degree in international political economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a bachelor’s of arts degree in economics from the University of Notre Dame.

Dana joined the TAI Steering Committee in 2019.

Ousseynou leads and supports an extensive portfolio of grants aimed at increasing responsive governance and creating the conditions for evidence-informed policymaking in Africa and Mexico.

Ousseynou comes to Hewlett after spending the past two years at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) as a senior regional coordinator for Africa and the Middle East, based in Senegal. In this role, he worked closely with governments and civil society in advancing transparency, participation, and accountability, while supporting the development and implementation of relevant and ambitious OGP country action plans.

Ousseynou’s expertise covers open contracting, extractives, aid effectiveness, open data, and public service delivery. As a senior associate at Development Gateway in Senegal, his work was instrumental in developing data strategies and policies, creating evidence-based advocacy and decision-making tools, and leading hands-on initiatives to inform national planning and drive global conversations.

Previously, Ousseynou was a research coordinator at Dalberg and a lecturer at the University of Bordeaux (UB), France. He holds a master’s degree in quantitative and qualitative research and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UB.

Andrew serves as Interim Director of Luminate’s Financial Transparency impact area and also leads our work in Manchester, UK. His experience as an advocacy and policy specialist spans both the international development and private sectors.

Andrew previously was Advocacy Manager at Publish What You Fund (PWYF), a campaign for aid transparency, where he led engagement with the US, European Union, and World Bank to increase the quantity and quality of public aid information. He also represented PWYF on the steering committee of the International Aid Transparency Initiative.

Prior to PWYF, Andrew served as Public Affairs Manager for Ranelagh International, providing strategic planning and advocacy for clients. Andrew also worked at the Overseas Development Institute on an aid harmonisation project mapping most development aid onto the Ugandan budget.

Laura joined the TAI Steering Committee in 2018.

Erin has been with MacArthur since 2009. She is the co-director of the Foundation’s On Nigeria program and director of the Population & Reproductive Health program. Prior to her current position, she was a program officer for Population and Reproductive Health and Girls’ Secondary Education grantmaking.

Before joining MacArthur, Erin worked at the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization, where she provided strategic guidance and technical assistance to help policymakers in Ethiopia, India, Kenya, and Mongolia use data to make policy and program decisions. Earlier in her career, she worked on adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Latin America and conducted research on maternal and child health in the US.

Erin has an M.P.H. from Columbia University and received her B.A. in Spanish and International Politics from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

She serves on the board of advisors of the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region.

Erin joined the TAI Steering Committee in 2017.

Prior to joining the Foundation Dayo worked for the British Council, Abuja, as Output Manager (Economic and Natural Resources) for the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Program, a five-year initiative to mitigate drivers of conflict in Nigeria. He was Economic Governance Program Manager for the Open Society Initiative for West Africa in Dakar, Senegal, and Senior Program Officer at the Civil Liberties Organization in Lagos, Nigeria.

Dayo received a Master of Arts in Development Studies with a major in Public Policy and Management from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague. He received a Master in Business Administration degree from Olabisi Onabanjo University in Ogun state, Nigeria and a Higher Diploma from the Lagos State Polytechnic in Lagos, Nigeria. He is an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.

Dayo joined the TAI Steering Committee in 2020.

Prior to joining the Chandler Foundation, Leslie was on the executive team of Microclinic International, a global health non-profit. Leslie started her legal career at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell before moving into the non-profit and philanthropic sector. Prior to law school, Leslie spent a year at the World Bank working on financial sector development in Africa. She has been honored as a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and a TEDx speaker. Leslie received her law degree from Harvard and her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ana Carolina González is senior program officer in the Andean Region office in Bogotá focusing on Ford’s Natural Resources and Climate Change program. Her work promotes the rights to territory, participation and the equitable distribution of benefits associated with the access and use of natural resources. She was a member of the Global Board of Directors of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) and of the national committee of the initiative in Colombia until 2016. She was also co-founder of the Colombian Coalition of Social and Academic Organizations for the Transparency of Extractive Industries.

Ana Carolina is an associate researcher at the Universidad Externado de Colombia, where she coordinated a research group on mining and energy resources. She has been a visiting researcher at Columbia University in New York and at the Universidad Catolica in Peru. She has worked as a research and project consultant in areas of transparency, extractive industries, citizen participation and energy transition in the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank’s IFC, the Inter-American Development Bank, Transparency International—Colombia, the National Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).

Ana Carolina holds a bachelor’s degree in government and international relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia, and two master’s degrees—in development and in comparative politics—as well as a PhD in political science from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, France (Sciences Po).

An expert in political economy with decades of experience in economic and financial policy, strategy development, research design and implementation, grant making, and managing multi-stakeholder coalitions.

Andrea Azevedo is acting Director of Strategy and Impact for Open Society Foundation’s Economic Justice Program. In this position, she works closely with the grants and investment teams to build culture and systems that support strong strategy design and MEL that truly contributes to learning and adaptation. Prior to OSF, Andrea was a Global MEL advisor on Women’s Economic Empowerment at Oxfam GB where she led the work around measuring unpaid care work and was co-author of the Household Care Survey Toolkit. She believes MEL is one of the ways we have to generate knowledge about social justice, and therefore should be seen as a tool for change.

As a MEL professional, Andrea worked at different capacities and for a diverse range of organisations in the past 10 years, including the UN System, funders and non-profits. Her most relevant experiences include the global evaluation of UN Women Women’s Leadership and Political Participation strategy, the set-up of MEL systems for a major European Commission funded Modern Slavery initiative in the UK, and providing learning support for one of the first UN multi-agency initiatives on race, gender and ethnicity in Brazil.

Andrea holds a MSc in Political Science from the University of Brasilia (Brazil) and is a Bachelor in Political Science by that same institution. She also holds a MSc in Development Evaluation and Management from the Institute of Development Policy (Belgium).