Meet the team

Dr Kalpana Sankar
Most Hand in Hand leaders have backgrounds in finance or development. Not Hand in Hand co-founder Dr Kalpana Sankar, who earned her PhD not in economics or development studies, but in nuclear physics.“Right from the beginning, Hand in Hand presented a strong rationale for any funding we sought from donors,” says Kalpana, explaining the link between splitting atoms and splitting group savings funds. “Scientific thinking underpins our work.”

Percy Barnevik
“Even when they’re undernourished, downtrodden and illiterate, [our entrepreneurs] have an enormous will. When they get a chance, they’re not letting it go by,” says Percy Barnevik. “These women can move mountains.”At 79, Barnevik knows a thing or two about seizing chances. Before co-founding Hand in Hand with Dr Kalpana Sankar in 2003, a move that would catalyse the creation of millions of small businesses, he ran some of the biggest companies in the world.
Dorothea Arndt
CEO
Nick Aveling
Head of Communications
Dan Browne
Senior Partnerships and Project Officer
Bob Cooke
Chief Financial Officer
Isabel Creixell
Programme Development Manager
Ann Dickinson
Direct Marketing
Joe Dyson
Head of Philanthropy
Michelle Gillan
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager
Lena Hörberg
Assistant to the Honorary Chairman
Amalia Johnsson
Head of Programmes
Elisabeth Marriott
Charity Administrator and Office Manager
Demi Morjaria
Programme Development Officer
Stephanie Nicholson
Head of Finance and Compliance
Jack Ord
Programme Manager
Dorothea Arndt
CEO, Hand in Hand International
Charlotte Bohman
CEO, Hand in Hand Sweden
Seema Ghani
Chair, Hand in Hand Afghanistan
Abdul Rahim Nasry
Country Director, Hand in Hand Afghanistan
Albert Wambugu
CEO, Hand in Hand Eastern Africa
Mary Katoni
Business Trainer | Kenya
Palwasha Rafiqzada
Vocational Trainer | Afghanistan
Chris Mwaniki
Business Trainer | Kenya
Meet our trustees
Entrepreneurialism is in Hand in Hand’s DNA. Our trustees have decades of experience at the helm of some of Europe’s biggest companies.