TackleAfrica is governed by a board of Trustees who oversee the running of the organisation and offer capacity and advice in their areas of expertise. Trustees are identified based on a specific skill set or need and are interviewed and invited by the existing board members.
The current TackleAfrica trustees are:
John Miller (Chair)
Liz Twyford
Sam McPherson
Sam Perera (Treasurer)
Becky Walsh
David Hayman
Gavin Atkins (Secretary)
Trustee Biographies can be found below.
Our current CEO is Charlie Gamble
Charlie is an experienced charity Director and football coach with a background in international and UK social development. Joining the TackleAfrica team as a volunteer back in 2005, Charlie subsequently spent a year in Africa, predominantly coaching football in Uganda, ecoming excited about the possibility of social change through football. With a career that has included Comic Relief and Street League and election to the Network Board of streetfootballworld in 2010, Charlie has an Honours Degree from the University of Leeds and is a committed advocate for the positive influence of creative, non-traditional education.
John Miller has been Chair of TackleAfrica since 2010, John has extensive experience of Change Management and Business Leadership within the public and private sectors. John currently runs an organisation development consultancy with a focus of its work being to foster the engagement of people in successful change and development processes. His career includes youth work, teaching in secondary and higher education, consultancy and latterly 10 years in the executive leadership of a European UK based FTSE PLC.
Liz Twyford is a Programme Specialist based at UNICEF UK, supporting the development of International Inspirational, the London 2012 international social legacy programme, in 20 countries around the world. Prior to joining UNICEF, Liz spent many years in the development field living and working for more than 2 years in Bhutan where she supported Save the Children’s community sport work, and for a year in Cameroon supporting sport for development programmes in the Northwest province. She has worked in more than 10 countries over the past 8 years, with a focus on supporting community mobilisation and volunteering.
Sam McPherson has over 15 years of experience in international development and specialises in research, planning & monitoring & evaluation issues and HIV/AIDS. He has key programmatic and evaluation expertise in HIV/AIDS issues, knowledge management, strategic planning, Results-Based Management (RBM) and Value for Money (VfM) assessment. Sam has recently taken up the position of Associate Director at ITAD. Prior to this, he was Associate Director: Field Programmes at the HIV/AIDS Alliance. Sam has previously worked at PLAN International and the European Commission (Evaluation Unit in the DG for Development). Sam holds an International Masters Degree in Practicing Management, an MPhil in Development Studies and a First Class Honours Degree (MA) in Geography.
Becky Walsh is a highly experienced marketing consultant across a wide range of B2B and B2C industries including retail, marine, wine, dental, property, travel and charity sectors. Becky currently works with two key marketing agencies and supports a range of businesses in marketing strategy, communication planning and new business development. She lives and works in both Saudi Arabia and the UK and has been part of TackleAfrica since early 2009.
David Hayman is a consultant in Accenture’s Public Services Practice. He studied International Relations at the University of Leeds, before spending a year living in New York working for Citi Bank. Since returning from New York, David has set up his own youth focused charity – Future First – which builds alumni networks in State Schools across the UK. David specializes in consultancy services for the not for profit sector, and has recently completed a one year programme working for Accenture Development Partnerships, the not for profit, development sector consultancy arm of Accenture.
Gavin Atkins is an experienced voluntary sector manager, currently working for the leading mental health charity Mind. He has previous worked in project management roles in sport for development and joined the board of TackleAfrica in 2008. Gavin is a qualified football coach and has been involved in the delivery of TackleAfrica’s work in Ghana in 2008 and 2009
TackleAfrica also benefit from the advice of committed experts – including:
Winnie Ssanyo Sseruma
Winnie Ssanyu Sseruma works for Christian Aid UK as the Advocacy & Networks Officer for Community Health & HIV. From 1999 – 2006, she was the Chair of the African Health Policy Network (formerly the African HIV Policy Network), an alliance of African community based organisations working for fair policies for African people living with HIV in the UK. She has and continues to speak at many national and international meetings, including at the UN in New York and she has written articles documenting the needs of people living with HIV in the UK.
