Our Team

John Gowen

Director of Strategy and Special Projects, GOAL Global

John is a business executive with over 30 years’ experience of working in multiple sectors in a variety of operating environments.

John has spent the majority of his career overseas, primarily in Africa, working in the development, finance, fintech and social enterprise sectors. John’s focus is the successful implementation of GOAL’s 2019-2021 strategy across all six organisational goals.

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Gabriella Prandini

Humanitarian Director, GOAL Global

Gabriella Prandini re-joined GOAL in a new Humanitarian Director role in Nov 2022.

Gabriella has worked in the humanitarian and development sector for over 20 years across several organisations including Concern, CAFOD, Terre des Hommes and Gabriella worked for GOAL since 2013.

Most recently, Gaby held the role of Country Director for GOAL Zimbabwe, and supported the country programme through a significant amount of change including scaling up humanitarian responses to Cyclone IDAI and the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing funding from $1.2m to $9.5m over a five year period.

Prior to her role as Country Director, Gaby worked in Ethiopia for five years with GOAL Ethiopia, heading up the Humanitarian Response Programme. This involved overseeing a budget of over €20m, 400+ staff and multiple humanitarian donor programmes that allowed GOAL to respond to severe drought and high levels of malnutrition.

Gaby is a committed humanitarian who has a breadth of experience within the sector and significant knowledge of GOAL operations. This combination of experience and proven track record will serve the organisation well as we implement GOAL’s Strategy 2025.

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Colin Lee

Director of Programme Operations, GOAL Global

Colin Lee was appointed Director of Program Operations in GOAL in July 2023.

Colin began his career in the humanitarian aid sector with Voluntary Services International (VSI) in Croatia in 1993. He worked in logistics for GOAL in Angola and Tanzania in 1994, before becoming acting Country Director for GOAL in Kenya and Cambodia from 1995 to 1998.

Colin also worked for Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) in Tanzania on the Rwandan refugee program before returning to Ireland to work for GOAL as Humanitarian Coordinator from 1999 to 2003. In 2003, he established Plan International in Ireland and in 2006, he became Chief Executive of Plan Ireland.

From Plan Ireland, Colin moved to the Country Director role for the International Medical Corps (IMC) Lebanon in Beirut from August 2007 to 2014 before moving into the Regional Director role for the Middle East with IMC (Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan & Turkey). He returned to work for Plan International in 2016 from Beirut and established their presence in the Middle East, leading growth and strategy for the organization in the region whilst also covering the Country Director role for Lebanon.

Colin returned with family to Ireland from Lebanon in 2021 and led the integration of the Gorta Group, following a merger with United Purpose by June 2023.

He holds a BA degree in History & Politics from NUIG and Masters in International Studies from UL.

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John Rynne

Interim Regional Director for Africa

John Rynne was appointed GOAL’s Interim Regional Director in Africa in October 2022.

John has worked in senior roles in the humanitarian sector for over 20 years for several aid agencies, including Plan International, Vital Voices, and Self-Help Africa.

He initially joined GOAL in 1996 from Concern, where he was Assistant Country Director for Concern Uganda and over the years, has held a variety of roles within GOAL, including Country Director for GOAL Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zaire, Country Director for GOAL Ethiopia. John has also held the Global Humanitarian Advisor and Emergency Preparedness Advisor roles and was Senior Humanitarian Advisor for GOAL’s Ukraine programme.

John holds a degree in Social Studies from Trinity College Dublin and a Certificate of Qualification in Social Work.

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Gashaw Mekonnen

Country Director, Zimbabwe

Gashaw was appointed as CD of GOAL’s Zimbabwe programme in April 2022.

Gashaw brings over 20 years of experience to the role, including time as a Roving CD and CD across Haiti, Niger, South Sudan and Malawi and across various other positions in our South Sudan and Ethiopia programmes. Gashaw was CD in Sierra Leone for the last three and a half years.

Gashaw’s background is in rural development and development management. He is a trained advocate on Community Development Approaches and a ToT trainer on participatory tools. Over the years, he has managed humanitarian and development programmes in a challenging political environment.

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David Kilcline

Director of People and Organisational Development, GOAL Global

David has 15 years experience across the areas of resourcing & talent, workforce development, and HR operations. He has experience in HR delivery at both field and corporate level. Before joining GOAL David worked with Irish INGO Concern Worldwide and in professional services in the UK and Asia.

David holds a BA (UCD), MA Human Resource Management (National College of Ireland), MPhil Peace Studies (Trinity College, Dublin), and Graduate Diploma IR (London School of Economics and Political Science).

David is committed to placing people development at the heart of GOAL’s work and believes that innovative Humanitarian HR approaches will continue to have a key strategic role in enabling change for the most vulnerable communities.

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Leopold Buhendwa

Country Director, Niger

Leopold has over 25 years of management and senior level technical advisement experience, working in the humanitarian, international development, and public health fields.

He joined GOAL in 2016, initially as chief of party of a USAID-funded project in Malawi, and currently as country director in Niger.

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Luigi Loddo

Country Director, Honduras

Luigi Loddo is a forestry engineer with over 20 years of experience working in fragile contexts on business development, climate change adaptation, sustainable natural resources management, humanitarian aid, and disaster risk reduction fields.

With more than 13 years working with GOAL, as Assistant Country Director Programmes and as Area Coordinator for GOALs programmes in Northern Honduras, Luigi has played strategic roles in GOAL´s Green and Blue Economy and disaster preparedness programmes in Central America.

Luigi previously worked with UNDP in Honduras, managing a large GEF funded Climate Change Adaptation programme, and with Italian NGOs Alesei (as Country Director) and GVC in the LAC region. Experienced in developing solutions for sustainable natural resources management in multicultural and indigenous contexts, Luigi is an advocate for the implementation of an inclusive and sustainable blue and green economy.

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Aleksandar Milutinovic

Country Director, Turkey

Aleksandar Milutinovic was appointed Country Director for Turkey in May 2022.

Aleksandar brings deep knowledge of Syrian Conflict, a track record in humanitarian and development work in several countries, and a reputation for ability to reengineer organizational processes and streamline operations to ensure maximum efficiency, to this role.

A Serbian national, Aleksandar has extensive experience in MENA. Prior to GOAL, Aleksandar served as the Consultant for CARE in Turkey. He also served as Country Director for CARE in Syria.

Prior to CARE, Aleksandar served as the Country Director for the International Rescue Committee in Iraq. He also served as World Bank consultant in Serbia. He also served as Mercy Corps Mission Director in West Bank and Gaza. Aleksandar holds a degree in Management.

 

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James Riak

Country Director, Sierra Leone

James Riak was appointed as Country Director for GOAL in Sierra Leone in April 2022.

James has worked for GOAL for 15 years, most recently as Programmes Director in Sierra Leone for the last four years. Prior to this, James served as Area Coordinator in Kenema and as Programme Coordinator in Bombali. James has been based in Sierra Leone since 2015, moving there after many years of service to our South Sudan programme.

James holds a Master’s in Sustainable Development and a Master of Science in Public Health.

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Alphonsus Martyn

Director of Investigations

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