Based in the UK, with teams in Africa and Asia, we have local knowledge, strong partnership and insights into relevant issues, enabling us to create real impact. Pepal was founded in 2009 with support from Fondation Hoffmann.
Staff Team
Philip Krinks
Executive Director
UK
Philip has over 25 years experience in strategy and organisational development, leadership training and innovation across both the corporate and social sectors. He is a former Partner and Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group, where he was a Leader in BCG’s global Organisation Development & Leadership practice, and focused on healthcare and natural resources.
He is also a former Director of St Martin's Partnership, supporting NGOs, social enterprises and public bodies to develop capacity and grow their work.
Philip holds a PhD in Ethics from King’s College London, an MBA from INSEAD and an MA from Oxford University. He is passionate about partnership working for sustainable growth.
Senior Advisor
UK
Sarah has over 10 years experience in international development. Before joining Pepal, Sarah spent 5 years as the Executive Director of PHASE Worldwide, a UK-based INGO empowering communities in isolated regions of Nepal to access health, education and livelihood opportunities.
Sarah has worked in the education sector in Cambodia and run experiential education tours throughout Asia.
Sarah has a MA with distinction in Education and Global Development from the University of Leeds. Sarah is Clore Social Leadership Fellow and co-chairs the board for the South West International Development Network.
Jane Atkin
Finance and Operations Director
UK
Jane is a qualified accountant (ACMA CGMA) whose career spans the commercial and non-profit sectors. Jane’s has worked for the UK national charity for wheelchair sport and the UK’s largest volunteer charity over her 12+ in the charity sector. Before joining Pepal Jane was the Director of Finance and Resources for a pioneering charity supporting homelessness and those leaving care.
Jane’s career also includes time with companies in retail, manufacturing and engineering and she spent ten years as the Finance Director for an international education social enterprise.
Jane served as a UK state school governor for twelve years and is currently the trustee of a music education charity. She has a degree in Chemistry from the University of Southampton.
Benita Pursch
Programmes Director
Uganda
Benita has extensive experience working in health systems strengthening and public health programme delivery and is passionate about building sustainable health systems and health care solutions around the world.
Before joining Pepal, Benita worked in mental health, focussing on improving quality of and access to mental health support for vulnerable young people in the UK.
Benita has a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and an MSc in Global Health and Social Justice from King's College London, and is committed to embedding social justice principles across her work.
Hezron Festo
Country Director
Pepal Tanzania
Based in Kagera, Tanzania, Festo works closely with government health staff and NGO partners. He is a member of the Regional Health, Community Development and Social Empowerment board in Kagera and part of the National Cervical Cancer Technical Working Group. Prior to joining Pepal Festo managed and coordinated events and logistics.
Festo has BSc in Business Information Systems from Dodoma University, Tanzania. His passions are community development and social empowerment.
Project Manager
Uganda
Shrishti recently graduated with an MA with distinction in Gender, Violence and Conflict from the University of Sussex. Her research focused on honour killings and other gender-related issues, but also more generally around aid and development during her BA in International Development at the University of Leeds.
Her experience, gained through internships in the UK and Uganda and extensive voluntary work in Tanzania revolves around education, campaigning, social media, stakeholder management and leadership training. She is a strong advocate for gender equality and hopes to have a sustainable impact in the community through her work.
Project Coordinator
India
Princy is a social entrepreneur and has held a role as Assistant Professor and Head of Department role in a private technical university in Rajasthan State, India. Princy is currently a Program Manager looking after projects in public health and education for our Indian partners, Progressive Foundation.
Princy has a MSc in Engineering. Princy has been working with the Pepal team to bring the NJIA programme, which uses leadership development to improve cervical cancer outcomes, to Uttar Pradesh, India.
Ingrid McFarlane
Project Officer
Uganda
Ingrid is passionate about international and rural development. For the past seven years, she has been leading the creation and implementation of community psycho-social support programs. Her desire to create positive change for vulnerable Ugandan communities motivates everything that she does.
Ingrid has a wide experience in social work with NGOs and CBOs. She has supported some of the most vulnerable adults and children in Kampala, including street boys, and mothers with children with special needs.
In addition to her social work, Ingrid is also a primary school tutor and is driven to place inclusive and engaging education at the heart of international development programmes. Ingrid has designed bespoke public speaking training course to enable social workers support their caseload more effectively
Ingrid has a Bachelors in Journalism and Communication from Makerere University.
Erick Lugeleka
Assistant Project Coordinator
Pepal Tanzania
Erick has previously worked with banks and microfinance institutions. His work focused on supporting small business owners at community level to solve capital shortages. Giving back to the community is something Erick is very passionate and he has demonstrated this through this work with different community-based institutions to bring sustainable development to societies.
Erick has a Bachelors in Economics from Mzumbe University (Morogoro, Tanzania)
Frank Kutensa
Project Officer
Uganda
Frank is a trained Social Scientist and Public Health Practitioner with three years of experience working in the humanitarian and development sectors on programmes ranging from public health, education, leadership and community development.
In 2022, Frank graduated with a Master’s Degree in Public Health (with distinction) from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He was awarded with a Public Health Leadership and Civic Engagement award for being an outstanding student. Frank also has a Bachelor’s Degree in Community Psychology from Makerere University, Uganda. Frank is an alumnus of the Mastercard Foundation Scholarship Programme which provides fully funded scholarships to students who are from low-economic backgrounds and are academically talented and transformative leaders.
John Mwesigwa
Project Officer
Uganda
John has eleven years experience in Social and Public Health work in Uganda and India and has worked with several non-profit organisations such as Baylor-Uganda, the Nyaka AIDS Foundation, Action Africa Help International and Acwerk Rural Development Foundation in Bangalore, India.
John has a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Uganda Martyrs University, a Bachelors Degree in Counselling Psychology from Kyambogo University, Uganda and has undertaken a range of other trainings in community and civic engagement and leadership and management in Global Health.
John is a member of the Gender Based Violence Prevention Network and he was recognized under the Leader Spotlight for the fight against Gender Based Violence by the US Embassy in Kampala under the Young Africa Leadership Initiative (YALI) in Dec 2018.
The Board
Chair of Trustees / Founder
Julie has over 25 years experience both in the corporate and not-for-profit sectors. For 10 years Julie was Director: Finance and Corporate Services at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, playing an instrumental role in the growth of the organisation from a small niche player to the largest HIV/AIDS organisation in Europe. Julie began her career as an economist with the UK government and was also with DRI Inc in Paris. She worked in investment banking before becoming an economic and financial adviser to privatisation programmes in Bulgaria and Uzbekistan, managing EC funded programmes.
Julie is a qualified accountant, has in MSc in economics degrees from LSE, an MA/BA in economics from Cambridge University and an MBA with distinction from INSEAD. Julie founded Pepal in 2009.
Treasurer (trustee), Pepal Foundation
Vikas is a graduate of the London School of Economics, and a UK ICAEW qualified chartered accountant with 25 years + of experience across the banking industry. Vikas is currently the MD Head of Group Finance, Intermediate Capital Group PLC, a FTSE100 Asset Manager specialising in private markets. Before this Vikas was a Global Finance Controller for Barclays International, managing a significant global finance with responsibilities including financials, key accounting decisions, valuations, and leading key regulatory relationships. Vikas has also worked for UBS Investment and KPMG. He is married with two teenage children. Vikas joined the Pepal board in 2020.
Trustee, Pepal Foundation
Ed has thirty years’ international Human Resources leadership experience in global consumer goods and technology companies. At Nestlé Ed was Global Head of Talent and Organisation Development responsible for a complete approach to hiring, developing and empowering leadership talent for Nestlé’s 350,000 employees. Subsequently, he spent 5 years as Global Head of Human Resources for the $5bn global Nestlé Professional business, developing high performance leaders across Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe. Previously, Ed worked for Hewlett Packard and Autodesk in senior HR positions. Ed has a BA in Geography and is a Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. Ed joined the Pepal Foundation board in 2019.
Dr Andrey Klepikov
Trustee, Pepal Foundation
Andrey is the Executive Director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine, the largest HIV/AIDS-focused organization in the country and one of the largest in Eurasia. Previously he was a Senior Programme Manager at the International Renaissance Foundation (George Soros’ foundation, Ukraine). Andrey has a Ph.D. in philosophy and did his Post-Doctoral Study in Sociology at the New School for Social Research, New York, Andrey also has an Masters in Practicing Management. Andrey joined the Pepal Foundation board in 2009.
Dr Ritah Nakigudde Waddimba
Trustee, Pepal Foundation
Dr Ritah Nakigudde Waddimba is currently the Senior Technical Director and Deputy Chief of Party for the USAID/Uganda Family Planning Activity implemented by Pathfinder International.
Dr Waddimba has 16 years experience in international development specialising in HIV/AIDS and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. She previously worked for the UK Government’s Department for International Development as a Health Adviser in Uganda.
She is a public health management specialist with a wealth of experience in delivering programmes in the Africa region. Dr Waddimba joined the Pepal board in 2021
Director, Pepal Limited
David is an independent management consultant and development economist. David has thirty years of experience across both high and low income countries, working with commercial, public sector and not-for-profit clients. David has recently supported not-for profits in Cambodia, India, Uganda, Tanzania and Myanmar. He has degrees in engineering from the University of Cambridge, business from INSEAD and development economics from the University of Manchester. David joined the board of Pepal Ltd in 2019.
Jane Oyugi
Director, Pepal Limited
Jane Oyugi is a certified Brain-Based Coach through the NeuroLeadership Institute and is experienced helping executives, leaders and teams apply neuroscience strategies to how they think, interact, communicate and work so that they can develop new mindsets, behaviors and habits to achieve their highest potential. Jane has 15+ years of management consulting experience advising, collaborating and partnering with C-Suite and Senior Executives at Fortune 500 clients to transform their organizations. Jane also co-founded a renewable energy startup in Tanzania to reduce energy poverty, enable economic development and improve livelihoods and is an Executive Director of a non-profit that helps youth in underserved villages gain access to a quality education. Jane was born in Tanzania, raised in Kenya and Tanzania. Jane has an MBA from Georgetown University and a B.S. in Computer Engineering. Jane joined the Board of Pepal Ltd in 2021.
Our Advisors
Program Officer, Governance and District Led Programming, Ministry of Health, Uganda
Uganda
Michael is the Governance & Leadership Manager at Baylor-Uganda. Before this, he managed Pepal’s Caring Together project for three years. Prior to joining Baylor-Uganda, Michael worked at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development as a Technical Officer and Monitoring & Evaluation Officer under the expanding Social Protection Program for four years. He has also worked for the Uganda Network on Law, Ethics and HIV/AIDS as a Programme Officer in charge of program development and reporting.
Leadership Coach
Jane qualified as an executive coach in 2017 and works as part of the Leadership Consultancy AESARA Partners. Previously Jane has held positions as the Executive Director UK / Senior Vice President, Europe for the International Rescue Committee, Vice President / Executive Director for Europe for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and Director, External Relations for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. Jane’s earlier career includes the Head of Resource Mobilisation for the International Planned Parenthood Federation, positions with VSO and The British Council, and assignments in Gaborone, Botswana and Zanzibar, Tanzania. Jane holds an MA in Gender and Development and was on the Pepal Foundation board 2011 - 2020.
Executive Director, Progressive Foundation
India
Vinod has a wealth of experience developing education and public health programme in India. He has led extensive social awareness campaigns in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. He has set up teams of international experts for combating deadly Japanese Encephalitis disease in Uttar Pradesh. Vinod studied and graduated in engineering from Madan Mohan Malviya Technical University, Gorakhpur. He has an MBA from SMU in Texas, USA and Masters in International Development from Harvard University. Vinod started working in partnership with Pepal in 2019 to bring the NJIA programme, which uses leadership development to improve cervical cancer outcomes, to Uttar Pradesh, India.
We are a charitable group, based in the United Kingdom, comprised of Pepal Foundation and its wholly owned trading subsidiary Pepal Ltd. All profits from Pepal Ltd will be returned to Pepal Foundation to be used for charitable purposes.
The Pepal tree is the longest-living tree in the South Asian sub-continent and can survive for over a thousand years. The tree is sacred to the followers of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism; Siddhartha Buddha was sitting under a Pepal tree when he was enlightened.