Team
Dawn Haig-Thomas
Dawn is the Innovation Director of the GSMA Development Fund and oversees key aspects of the programme. Prior to joining the GSMA, Dawn worked for Accenture as a manager in their business consulting division where she focused on business strategy, business process re-engineering and change management with numerous clients across the UK and Europe.
She also project managed several large technology implementations. While at Accenture, Dawn began to pursue her interest in international development and was seconded to Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP) where she worked in India together with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), the Indian Government’s Ministry of Finance, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to enable poor producers to trade internationally using the Internet.
Dawn has also acted as an advisor to a fair trade start-up that established an Internet-based business to sell goods from producers in the developing world to US customers. Dawn holds a BA (Hons) degree in Politics and Modern History from Manchester University as well as a Certificate in International Business from Manchester Business School.
Jesse Moore
Jesse is the Senior Advisor for the GSMA Development Fund. Previously, Jesse worked with Vodafone on M-PESA, a mobile payment service targeting Kenya’s unbanked population. From 2002-2006, he founded and directed CARE Enterprise Partners, the division of the large NGO CARE that provides venture capital to businesses in the developing world.
During this period, Jesse helped start base of the pyramid businesses in Bangladesh, Peru and Kenya, and spoke about social investment at dozens of international conferences and business schools. He has also worked as a management consultant at Monitor Company. Jesse holds a BA with distinction from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Morehead Scholar) and earned an MBA with distinction at Oxford University’s Said Business School, where he was a Skoll Scholar for Social Enterprise. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Legatum Centre for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT.
Chloe Chick
Chloe is a Programme Manager for the GSMA Development Fund where she manages the programme’s Connectivity initiatives including the rollout of Community Phones and Community Internet in low income markets.
Chloe joined the GSMA following a year of living and working in sub-Saharan Africa, during which time she worked in business development at the School of St Jude in Tanzania and founded the 3 Peaks 3 Weeks Challenge. The Challenge is an international annual fundraising event that sees women from all over the world congregate in East Africa to climb the three highest peaks within three weeks to raise money for the environment, education and health programmes.
To date the 3 Peaks 3 Weeks Challenge has raised over US$500,000 in support of these programmes. Chloe has also helped to establish women’s micro-ventures in Kenya including the creation of a small business whereby local women design jewellery that is sold internationally.
Chloe is a patron of Save the Rhino International and an advisor to Support for International Change, an HIV/AIDS organisation registered in the US. She holds a BA in Communications from Canberra University in Australia and in 2008 was awarded Young Australian of the Year in the UK for her work in African Development.
Sarah Crampsie
Sarah is the Programme Manager for the mWomen programme. She joined the Development Fund in February 2009 and brings with her a wealth of knowledge and contacts having worked at the GSMA since 2006.
Sarah is responsible for process development, reporting and the smooth running of the project. In addition, she supports the team across our core projects.
Lauren Dawes
Lauren is the Operations Manager for the Development Fund, where she leverages her more than 10 years of Project and Account Management experience to provide the team with ongoing operational and project management support. Lauren also works closely on the Green Power for Mobile programme (GPM) and has managed the GPM working group since the programmes launch in September 2008.
Prior to working for the GSMA, Lauren was part of the new business department at Mobile Innovations helping to roll out Australia’s first broadband telephone company used VoIP technology, Engin. Lauren has studied Business Administration and is currently undertaking a Bachelor of Science in Biomedicine.
Seema Desai
Seema is the Senior Programme Manager for the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme, responsible for managing its day-to-day activities and ensuring that all delivery is clearly aligned with the programme’s objectives.
Prior to joining the GSMA in March 2009, Seema managed a large portion of the Retail Savings P&L for one of the UK’s largest retail banks. Seema has also been a Manager at Accenture, within their strategy consulting division, where she focussed mainly on Financial Services and has worked with a number of FTSE 100 companies. During her 6 years at Accenture, Seema also completed two secondments to Accenture Development Partnerships, a non-profit arm of Accenture that provides business consulting to NGOs and donor organisations. She managed capacity building projects for existing NGOs in the field, and has also managed new start up projects such as the creation of an innovative social franchising network in India. She has also worked in Trinidad and Uganda. Seema holds a 1st Class Honours degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.
Seema has travelled all over the world – and her rock shoes almost always come with her these days. Or her ice axes and crampons, depending on the conditions.
Gavin Krugel
Gavin is a Director at the GSM Association where he is responsible for mobile money strategy development, as well as leading the Mobile Money for the Unbanked initiative. Gavin also led the GSMA’s Mobile Money Transfer initiative which involved 40 mobile operators representing more than 100 markets and 1 billion consumers globally.
As one of the forefathers of mobile financial services, Gavin has been behind some of the best known mobile banking implementations in the world, and founded the boutique consulting firm TroyTyla to serve this niche industry.
Gavin has twelve years of experience in global payment systems and banking products, and has helped develop, implement and manage several successful payment products and solutions. He has held positions at banks such as Standard Bank, Absa Bank and Investec Private Bank in South Africa, as well as global companies such as MasterCard and EDS.
He is currently completing his Masters Degree at GGSB (Grenoble Graduate School of Business), France.
Paul Leishman
Paul is Knowledge Manager for the MMU programme. He is responsible for leading the development and dissemination of commercial content, including business strategy analyses focused on mobile money business models, and case studies profiling key success factors of deployments.
Prior to joining the GSMA, Paul was a Consultant at a Toronto-based firm, primarily supporting a mobile handset manufacturer during the opportunity assessment phase of a new service launch in developing and developed markets. Before this, Paul worked on the Strategic Planning & Execution team at Canadian operator, TELUS Mobility, and earned an HBA (honours business administration) with distinction from the Richard Ivey School of Business.
Danielle Pellikaan
Danielle is Knowledge Manager for the Green Power for Mobile programme. She is responsible for leading the development and dissemination of content, including business strategy analyses focused on green power for mobile business models, and case studies profiling key success factors of deployments.
Prior to joining the GSMA, Danielle worked as a financial researcher for a UK publisher and a consultant for a Dutch consulting company working on new business development and business venture projects. She graduated with a distinction from CASS business school, where she earned a Masters degree in Management. She did her undergraduate in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in International Development in her home country at the University of Amsterdam. Her voluntary work for various NGOs has taken her to various countries, including Bangladesh, Guatemala and Ecuador.
Marina Solin
Marina is Regulatory Director for the MMU programme and previously provided regulatory consultancy to the Mobile Money Transfer programme.
She has over ten years of experience in dealing with regulatory issues on behalf of the telecoms industry.
Prior to joining the GSMA, Marina worked on a European Commission project providing the regulatory analysis for accession negotiations of Eastern European countries in the field of telecoms. She also worked for Deutsche Telekom in Brussels, where she was responsible for lobbying the European Community institutions on interconnection and unbundling of the local loop. As Chair of the GSM Europe M-Commerce Working Group, Marina was also involved in lobbying the European Community institutions on m-commerce related issues such as mobile payments, data protection and copyright.
Marina has completed the Sloan Fellowship Programme at the London Business School.
David Taverner
David is Senior Programme Manager for the Green Power for Mobile (GPM) programme. He has developed GPM through its launch phase in September 2008, having defined the original implementation strategy and business plan. He is responsible for managing the full scope of the programme, leading the team of 6 international staff located in London, Africa, and Asia.
Prior to joining the GSMA, David worked in the energy division at the management consultancy Accenture with a focus on market analysis, investment due diligence and strategic planning for renewable energy clients and private equity firms.
David has a 1st class Bachelor of Science and Management degree from Leeds University and an incomplete PhD in Chemical Engineering with a thesis on the economics of the biofuels value chain.
Fiona Smith
Fiona is the Programme Manager for the mAgri programme. She is responsible for managing the full scope of the programme, including the overall strategy and management of mAgri projects. Fiona has worked on a range of Development Fund projects in South Asia and Africa, with a specific interest in rural development through her work on community internet and phones projects.
Prior to joining the GSMA, Fiona worked at Accenture within the Communication and High Technology division, consulting for a number of telecom clients, with a focus on business strategy, business process re-engineering and change management. While at Accenture, Fiona spent a year in Bangladesh on a business partnership secondment with Voluntary Services Overseas, to provide strategic consulting and capacity building for VSO and its local NGOs across the country. Previously she worked on development and education initiatives in Latin America and South East Asia.
Fiona holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Psychology from the University of Stirling and was an Erasmus scholar at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.
Camilo Tellez
Camilo is the Programme Coordinator for the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) Programme. Prior to joining the GSMA, he worked as a researcher in the technology for emerging markets team at Microsoft Labs in Bangalore and as a junior professional associate in the Operations and Country Services Unit of the World Bank in Washington D.C. He holds a master's degree in International Relations and Latin American studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a master's degree in Information systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Neil Davidson
Neil Davidson is the Business Development Manager for the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme at the GSM Association. In this role he supports mobile network operators that have been awarded grants from the MMU Fund as they develop and deploy mobile money services.
Neil's background and professional interest is in businesses that benefit the poor. Prior to joining the MMU programme, Neil worked for Kenya's second-largest microfinance institution, K-Rep Bank, and as a consultant at McKinsey & Co., where he advised a leading retail bank in Nigeria and to a logistics conglomerate in South Africa. Neil earned his bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Harvard University.
