Board of Advisors

Hendrina is a Manager - Education Human Capital and Employment Division at the African Development Bank. An educationalist, mathematician, gender expert, development practitioner, and policy advocate. Hendrina was formerly the Executive Director of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) and has worked closely with multiple ministries of education and training, developed and nurtured partnerships from the grassroots level of organisations to bi-lateral, multi-lateral strategic and funding partnerships internationally. She has excellent skills in networking, partnership management, policy and gender analysis, advocacy, programme design, resource mobilisation and mentorship. Hendrina is Alumni from University of Melbourne Australia, UCD in Ireland, and member of the Global Women Leadership Network, Synergos Senior Fellow and Brave Thinking Institute. 

Larry Cooley is Founder and President Emeritus of Management Systems International and a specialist in scaling innovation and large systems change. He currently serves as Chair of the Governing Council of the Society for International Development and Board Chair of World Learning, and is the author of widely used methodologies for managing policy change, scaling innovation, entrepreneurship development, and results-based management. He is an elected Fellow and Board Member of the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration and a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and he is founder and co-curator of the Global Community of Practice on Scaling Development Outcomes.    

Deng Deng Hoc Yai is Co-Chair of Education.org’s Global Council, where he provides leadership and facilitates exchanges among members to catalyse problem-solving and accelerate progress for the most pressing education challenges globally. He is the former Minister of General Education and Instruction of the Republic of South Sudan (2016-2020) and a highly respected global education expert. Prior to serving as Minister of Education, he served as Minister of the Environment (2013 to 2016), Undersecretary of the Ministry of General Education and Instruction (2011 to 2013), Executive Director, South Sudan Anti-corruption Commission (2009 to 2011) and Director General of Special Programmes in the Office of the President (2006 to 2009). He has also held responsibilities at international and non-for-profit organisations and contributed to the work of several other non-governmental organisations in voluntary capacity. Other roles include: Board Member, Global Partnership for Education, International Consultant, UNESCO; Policy Advisor, Teachers and Lecturers (ATL); Senior and National Policy Advisor, the British Refugee Council. Deng Deng Hoc Yai holds a BA in English Language and Literature from Cairo University (Egypt) and a Masters in Second Language Materials Development from Luton University (UK). 

Sandro holds an MBA from the University of Zurich and a Master of Advanced Studies in development and cooperation from ETH Zurich. From 1999 to 2009, he worked for the Pestalozzi Children’s Foundation, a Swiss educational charity, most recently as head of international programmes. He joined Jacobs Foundation, a leading learning foundation, as Programme Manager in 2009 and then served as Managing Director and Delegate of the Board from 2013 to 2019. In this period he also served on the Boards of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Jacobs University Bremen, and on Barry Callebaut’s Sustainability Council. In April 2020 Sandro joined the multilateral start up GESDA (Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator) as Executive Director, Impact Fund. He currently serves on the boards of Jacobs Foundation and Roger Federer Foundation.