Partnership Board

Andrew Dunnett was appointed Director of The Vodafone Foundation in September 2006. Andrew was previously an adviser to the Sustainable Development unit at the UK Department of Trade and Industry with specific responsibility for the CSR Academy, the lead initiative of the DTI’s CSR program.

Andrew has fifteen years experience in corporate responsibility, community investment and public affairs, including advising organizations such as BTEC, the BBC, the Commission for Racial Equality, and Thames Water as a consultant. He also led a corporate community investment project in the City of London while Director of the St. Ethelburga’s Foundation.

Michael Gehron

Health Information Systems Coordinator (Designee)

Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, U.S. Department of State
 

Mr. Gehron has an extensive information systems background, including co-founding and directing a 400 person firm which was acquired by SRA International. He was subsequently made Vice President at SRA responsible for USAID's global systems before returning to Africa in 2004 where he joined USAID in Tanzania as Senior Advisor responsible for PEPFAR's Public-Private Partnerships.  Mr. Gehron has spent twelve of the past 30 years living and working in Africa.  He has held faculty positions in information technology in the University of Maryland system and has lectured regularly in the School of Business at the University of Dar es Salaam. He holds a Master of Science in Technology and Management.

 

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Frederik Kristensen

Consultant, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Global Health

Norwegian Government (NORAD)

  

Frederik Kristensen is a consultant to the Norwegian Government and Norad on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Global Health since 2010 and serves as the project manager to the UNSG’s Every Woman, Every Child Innovation Working Group. Frederik has worked as a Municipal Medical Officer in rural Norway, as a project manager at the National Hospital where he spearheaded a management system linking clinical and administrative data, as Director of Business Development at Merck and has founded and run companies providing Clinical Decision Support and Electronic Medical Records for primary care physicians. In 2010 he sold his stake in a health economics consultancy which he founded in 2002.  

Frederik is an MD from the Universities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England and Oslo, Norway and received master degrees in Business Administration and Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley. 

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Chris Locke

Managing Director, Development Fund

GSMA
 

Chris is the Managing Director of the GSMA Development Fund.   The Development Fund works with the mobile industry globally to build services that have a development impact for the poorest people in the world.  It helps take critical mobile services such as health, farmer, money & learning tools to scale to help countries develop at a nation-wide level.

Chris has spent the past 15 years working in the mobile and internet industries, for companies such as the Virgin Group, Three, AOL and T-Mobile.
Previous to his industry career he was the Xerox Lecturer in Electronic Communication and Publishing at University College London, and has maintained strong links to the research community, including being the editor of “Thumbculture: The Meaning of Mobile Phones in Society”, an anthology of research considering the global social effect of mobile technology.

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Martha Newsome

Global Director, Health & Nutrition; Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene (WASH)

World Vision

Martha Newsome leads World Vision's global prevention, care and advocacy programs in response to HIV and AIDS. Born in Albany, New York, Newsome earned a Master’s of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins University and then gained eight years’ experience in nutrition and public health before joining World Vision. She has served as the Africa HIV and AIDS Director and as Health Director and National Director for World Vision Mozambique. She is also fluent in Portuguese.
 

Gabi Zedlmayer

Vice President

Hewlett-Packard Office of Global Social Innovation
 

Gabi Zedlmayer was appointed as Vice President of HP's Office of Global Social Innovation in October 2009. In addition, she is also leading HP's Global Citizenship Council. From 2005 to 2009 Gabi was Vice President, Corporate Marketing for HP Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Prior to that, Gabi was Head of Corporate Affairs EMEA focusing on HP's global citizenship strategy and business alignment in the region. Gabi obtained a BA in Business from Georgia State University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Miami. During her academic career, she was assistant chair in numerous departments at the University of Miami including Finance and Operations Management and she wrote a wide range of papers and publications on Investments and Financial Management.
 

Paul Ellingstad leads the office’s global health partnerships and initiatives, a vital new strategic priority for the organization. Upon joining the team in October 2009, he developed the group’s health strategy and launched it in early 2010.

With the support of a high caliber international team and recognized leaders in global health as partners, Paul is collaborating to drive transformational IT implementations which strengthen health systems and accelerate the adoption of mobile solutions within the health sector. Paul has worked in the technology sector for 19 years. Prior to his current role he led communications and customer programs for the head of HP’s enterprise business sales in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, which included driving the organization’s work to improve customer experience and loyalty. He has served in various senior roles in strategy, communications, marketing, and research. Paul Ellingstad holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from the University of South Dakota.

Rick Parnell

Chief Operating Officer
United Nations Foundation
 

Mr. Parnell oversees all aspects of the Foundation’s operations, including finance, grants, budget, HR, operations and board liaison. In addition, he supervises all Foundation staff, ensures the efficient and effective allocation of resources across departments and, along with the president, executive vice president and senior vice president for public affairs, forms the Strategic Planning Committee, which is responsible for creating and directing the Foundation’s core mission and activities.

Before joining the United Nations Foundation in 2001, Mr. Parnell was the senior operations officer for the American Red Cross National Development team and oversaw the day-to-day operations of a $1 billion fund-raising campaign for the national organization and its 1,100 local chapters. Mr. Parnell also served as chief of staff to the president of the University of Florida for 10 years. He holds a B.A. in American History from the University of Florida.