Speakers

David M. Van Slyke is a leading international expert on public-private partnerships, public sector contracting and contract management, and policy implementation. He is Dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and the Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business-Government Policy. Prior to becoming Dean on July 1, 2016, Van Slyke was Associate Dean and Chair of Maxwell’s department of public administration and international affairs, home to the country’s #1 ranked graduate degree in public affairs. He is a tenured, full professor of the Maxwell School and the College of Arts and Sciences and a two-time recipient of the Birkhead-Burkhead Award and Professorship for Teaching Excellence.

Alnoor Ebrahim is a professor at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Massachusetts. His current research addresses two core dilemmas of accountability facing social enterprises, nonprofit organisations, and public agencies: How should they measure and improve their performance? How should they address competing demands for accountability from diverse stakeholders? These questions are addressed in his new book, "Measuring Social Change: Performance & Accountability in a Complex World," (Stanford University Press, 2019).

He is also author of the award-winning book, "NGOs and Organizational Change: Discourse, Reporting, and Learning," and is co-editor of "Global Accountabilities: Participation, Pluralism, and Public Ethics," (both with Cambridge University Press). Professor Ebrahim presently serves on advisory boards to the Global Impact Investing Network and Acumen Fund on the topic of impact measurement, and he previously served on a working group established by the G8 to create global guidelines on social impact measurement.

Professor Ebrahim has also worked with the NGO Leaders Forum, an annual gathering of CEOs of the largest humanitarian development organizations based in the U.S. His previous research on accountability mechanisms within the World Bank led to a congressional testimony on improving the Bank’s information disclosure policy. Alnoor teaches courses on leadership and strategy, and also co-chairs an executive education program at the Harvard Kennedy School for the Schwab Foundation’s social entrepreneurs. Prior to joining The Fletcher School, he served on the faculty at Harvard Business School where he chaired two executive programs for social sector leaders, Harvard Kennedy School, and Virginia Tech. Professor Ebrahim received his doctorate and master’s degrees from Stanford University, and his bachelor of science from M.I.T.

Sir Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and a Professorial Fellow of St Antony’s College. From 1998–2003 he took a five-year Public Service leave during which he was Director of the Research Development Department of the World Bank. He is currently a Professeur invité at Sciences Po and a Director of the International Growth Centre.

He has written for the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. His research covers the causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural resources rich societies; urbanisation in low-income countries; private investment in African infrastructure and changing organisational cultures.

Recent books include The Bottom Billion (Oxford University Press, 2007) which in 2008 won the Lionel Gelber, Arthur Ross and Corine prizes and in May 2009 was the joint winner of the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book prize; Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places (Vintage Books, 2009); and The Plundered Planet: How to reconcile prosperity with nature (Oxford University Press, 2010); Exodus: How migration is changing our world (Oxford University Press, 2013).

His latest book is The Future of Capitalism: Facing The New Anxieties (2018).

In 2014, Paul received a knighthood for services to promoting research and policy change in Africa.

Abha leads British Asian Trust’s Social Finance work across South Asia. She is also a founding member of The British Asian Trust and has contributed to its growth and leadership over the last 15 years. Abha was a Fellow of Practice in 2021 and 2022 at the Government Outcomes Labs, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Before coming to the Trust, Abha was the Chief Operating Officer of the UK India Business Council after five years in the Reinsurance markets in London.

She grew up in Mumbai, India and graduated with a BA in Political Science from the University of Mumbai and a BA Hons in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University. She is currently serving on the Board of Trustees at the London Stock Exchange Foundation and the UK Board of Transform Schools, a non profit focussed on secondary education in India.

Professor Adrian Towse is Director Emeritus of the Office of Health Economics in the UK. Adrian’s current research includes incentives for new drugs and vaccines to tackle Antimicrobial Resistance, the use of 'risk-sharing' arrangements between health care payers and pharmaceutical companies, including value-based pricing approaches; the economics of pharmacogenetics for health care payers and the pharmaceutical industry; economic issues that affect both R&D for and access to treatments for diseases prevalent in the developing world; the economics of medical negligence; and measuring productivity in health care. A visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and a Senior Researcher at the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford, Adrian also has been a Visiting Professor at the University of York. For ten years, he served as the Non-Executive Director of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the UK’s largest hospitals. Adrian was President of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), for the 2014-15 term. Adrian joined the OHE in 1993 and served as Director for 25 years.

Amanda is Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), and also serves as chief executive officer of CGD Europe. Her research focuses on priority-setting, resource allocation and value for money in global health and aid, as well as data for development. Prior to this she served as director for global health policy at the Center from 2010 to 2016, and has more than 25 years of experience working on health and social protection policy and programs in Latin America and elsewhere in the developing world.

Glassman holds a MSc from the Harvard School of Public Health and a BA from Brown University, has published on a wide range of health and social protection topics, and is editor and coauthor of multiple books.

H.E. Dr. Amel Karboul serves today as CEO of The Education Outcomes Fund. An initiative to raise $1 billion to support governments around the world to improve the education and skills of 10 million children and young people.

Amel has held leadership positions across the corporate, political and not-for-profit sectors for more than 25 years. She is known for her dynamic presence, and her innovative and entrepreneurial style, which combines decisiveness with an ability to grasp the ‘big picture’. Amel was the first woman in history to occupy Tunisia’s Minister of Tourism position and co-led the country’s transition after the Arab Spring, leading to Tunisia’s Nobel Peace prize in 2015. She received the Presidential Citizens Medal as recognition for her exemplary deeds and services to her country and fellow citizens.

Anne Davies is Professor of Law and Public Policy and a Fellow of Brasenose College, University of Oxford. She was a Prize Fellow at All Souls College from 1995 to 2001, and the Garrick Fellow and Tutor in Law at Brasenose College from 2001 to 2015. From 2015 to 2020, she was Dean of the Oxford Law Faculty.

Anne writes about labour/employment law and about public law, with a particular focus on government contracts and public service delivery. Her books include Accountability: a Public Law Analysis of Government by Contract (OUP 2001) and The Public Law of Government Contracts (OUP 2008) and in recent journal articles and book chapters she has explored various aspects of NHS reform, the use of social clauses in public procurement, and public law issues in government contracts.

Anne chairs the Oxford Procurement of Government Outcomes (POGO) Club, a knowledge sharing initiative that is open to anyone interested in capacity building in public procurement and in collaboration to improve social outcomes. She is an independent member of the Council of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), and a member of the Advisory Panel to the Welsh Language Commissioner.

Avnish leads Instiglio, a non-profit advisory firm founded to ensure the greatest possible impact from every cent spent to alleviate poverty which has funneled over $500 million to deliver impact through results-based financing projects across Africa, Latina America and Asia.

Avnish formerly worked for MIT's Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), for the World Bank, and as a consultant to a DFID challenge fund. Gungadurdoss holds a MPA/ID from the Harvard Kennedy School, a diploma in performance management for non-profits from Harvard Business School, and a BA in economics and math from Dartmouth College. He was awarded the Echoing Green Fellowship and was elected as one of the "30 under 30" social entrepreneurs for his work with Instiglio. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Impact.

Carolyn J. Heinrich (Ph.D., The University of Chicago) is the Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy, Education and Economics in the Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on education, workforce development, social welfare policy, program evaluation, and public management. She works directly with federal, state and local governments in her research to improve policy design and program effectiveness and also collaborates with nongovernmental organizations to improve the impacts of economic and social protection investments in middle-income and developing countries. She received the David N. Kershaw Award for distinguished contributions to the field of public policy analysis and management in 2004 and was elected to the National Academy of Public Administration in 2011. She has served as the President of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management and the Public Management Research Association and has published more than 80 journal articles and books or book chapters.

Christine is the Lead Specialist at the Innovation Lab of the Inter-American Development Bank Group - IDB Lab - in Colombia. She works on topics of Innovation for Inclusion, leveraging technologies to generate exponential impact through non-reimbursable financing of projects and startups, generating and disseminating knowledge and building networks.

Christine leads IDB Lab’s Social Impact Bond (SIB) and Outcome Fund (OF) Program in Colombia focussing on employment for difficult-to-place populations. Contributed to the inclusion of SIBs and OF into the National Development Plan of the current government and to Colombia becoming the first emerging country in the world to launch a SIB. Also leads IDB Lab’s SIB Facility to gather and disseminate new learning on pay for success initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean from where she commissioned and supervised the study Social Impact Bonds in Latin America: IDB Lab’s Pioneering Work in the Region. Lessons Learnt. Has participated as a panelist in the International Bond Working Group, as well as being appointed a 2020 Fellow of Practice at The GO Lab at the University of Oxford.

Christine has co-led the Extraordinary Value Entrepreneurship program, to identify starts ups with growth potential in low income populations to offer business tools and advisory services focusing on strategy and growth. She also co-created the National Business Formalization Program for Regional Competitiveness together with the leading Chambers of Commerce in Colombia. Both served as input to the National Governments policies on business formalisation and growth.

Eleanor leads the research agenda of the GO Lab. Her research focuses on innovations in social policy and outcomes-based commissioning. She joined the Blavatnik School of Government in 2016 having previously studied at the Universities of Cambridge and Sheffield. Eleanor’s doctoral research investigated the application of outcomes-based commissioning within the UK Government’s welfare-to-work programmes.

Before moving to Oxford Eleanor gained experience from the policy-maker perspective working as an advisor for the Social Investment and Finance Team in the UK’s Cabinet Office and through collaborative research projects with the Department for Work and Pensions. Her work has been published in a range of journals including Social Policy and Administration and Journal of Social Policy.

Gail is the CEO of Sheffield Futures - a large young people's charity which provides specialist support and mentoring for young people in Sheffield and the surrounding region. A social worker by profession, Gail has over twenty-years' experience of working in the public sector - predominantly in the fields of mental health and young people, policy, and commissioning.

Gail has experience of leading two Social Impact Bonds (SIB) at Sheffield Futures, Future Shapers for those not in education, employment and training and Project Apollo, for care leavers. She is particularly interested in outcomes-based delivery and the provider perspective; and service user voice and participation.

Gail holds BA and MA degrees from the University of Sheffield; and is an Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations Fellow. She sits on a wide range of multi-agency boards and chairs the Management Committee at the Sheffield Pupil Referral Unit.

Inga is a Senior Infrastructure Specialist in the Urban, Resilience and Land practice of the World Bank. Over the course of her career she built an expertise in results-based financing and managed projects across infrastructure and social sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, and East Asia Pacific. She is currently leading the work on outcomes-based financing at the World Bank and launched several impact bonds. Inga served as Chief of Staff at the Moldovan Ministry of Education where she headed the Minister’s Cabinet. She was at the forefront of the education reform and the development of the new

Education Strategy and Education Law. Inga graduated from Georgetown University with a Master of Science in Foreign Service, and she holds a BA in Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies, Moldova.

James is part of an entrepreneurial policy team with a cross-government mandate, seeking new ways to tackle social challenges such as homelessness, social care and unemployment through cross-sector partnerships.

James is Director at Ecorys UK and mainly works in the social enterprise and social investment thematic areas. In these areas he has provided support and analysis to social enterprises, NGOs and governments, both in the UK and internationally.

James leads on Ecorys’ social impact bond work, including overseeing three SIB evaluations (Commissioning Better Outcomes Evaluation for Big Lottery Fund, Youth Engagement Fund Evaluation for DCMS and Turning the Tide Evaluation for North Somerset Council), and Ecorys’ consultancy work in helping organisations understand the evidence base and potential savings linked to SIB interventions (for example for Family Lives and Catch22).

James holds a BA and MA in Geography from the University of Cambridge. In his spare time he is a Governor at Barkston Ash Catholic Primary School.

Jonathan Wolff is the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy and Governing Body Fellow at Wolfson College. He was formerly Blavatnik Chair in Public Policy at the School, and before that Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Arts and Humanities at UCL. He is currently developing a new research programme on revitalising democracy and civil society, in accordance with the aims of the Alfred Landecker Professorship. His other current work largely concerns equality, disadvantage, social justice and poverty, as well as applied topics such as public safety, disability, gambling, and the regulation of recreational drugs, which he has discussed in his books Ethics and Public Policy: A Philosophical Inquiry (Routledge 2011) and The Human Right to Health (Norton 2012). His most recent book is An Introduction to Moral Philosophy (Norton 2018).

Earlier works include Disadvantage (OUP 2007), with Avner de-Shalit; An Introduction to Political Philosophy (OUP, 1996, third edition 2016); Why Read Marx Today? (OUP 2002); and Robert Nozick (Polity 1991). He has had a long-standing interest in health and health promotion, including questions of justice in health care resource allocation, the social determinants of health, and incentives and health behaviour. He has been a member of the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, the Academy of Medical Science working party on Drug Futures, the Gambling Review Body, the Homicide Review Group, an external member of the Board of Science of the British Medical Association, and a Trustee of GambleAware. He writes a regular column on higher education for The Guardian.

Louise Savell is Co-founder and Director of Social Finance and jointly leads their international development team where she advises governments, philanthropies and service providers on the design and delivery of social development programmes. She was a 2020 Blavatnik School of Government Visiting Fellow of Practice. She is passionate about driving social impact through rigorous analysis, efficient structures and effective cross-sector partnerships. She has particular expertise in outcomes-based approaches and social investment structures. She co-developed the Impact Bond approach in 2008.

Louise specialises in the development and delivery of new initiatives and has led work in health, education, nutrition, homelessness, financial inclusion and infrastructure in the UK and internationally. Before starting Social Finance, she led the Eastern European programmes of the UK-based philanthropic foundation, Ark, where she worked with government and service providers to accelerate the reform of child welfare systems towards family-based care in Bulgaria and Romania.

Manuela is the Impact and Innovation Coordinator at Inversor and is responsible for the implementation of the social and environmental impact strategy, across all of Inversor´s investments. She has over 3 years of experience coordinating social impact bonds and holds an Industrial Engineering bachelor's degree, with a focus on finance and organizational management, from Universidad de Los Andes.

Mara is an Economist and Decision Analyst and holds degrees from Bocconi University in Milan and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research is motivated by a desire to improve decision making in government, with a special interest and extensive expertise in the field of healthcare. Mara is one of the lead developers of the STAR toolkit, a socio-technical approach sponsored by the Health Foundation to improve resource allocation in healthcare organisations.

Mara has worked extensively with managers of the English and the Italian National Health Systems. She has also consulted for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in Ontario (Canada), the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence and the (then) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England, NATO and the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

María Laura Tinelli is the Director and Founder of Acrux Partners, an impact investment intermediary and market developer focused in South America. She founded and heads the Impact Investment National Advisory Board for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. She is an Investment Committee Member for NXTP Impact Investment Fund in Latin America. Together with Social Finance UK, Acrux and the IADB has structured the first Social Impact Bond for Argentina in 2018, and is currently working on the second one. She currently serves as Impact Investment advisor to the UNPRI.

Mika is a Master of Social Sciences from The University of Tampere. Nowadays he is a Director of The Centre of Expertise for Impact Investing. The Centre was established in the beginning of 2020 to The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment by The Finnish Government. Before the present position Mika led about five and half years Sitra's development operations in terms of impact investing. As the result of teamwork lead by him, there are, for example, altogether several SIB and EIB projects underway or set for launch in Finland. Mika’s team worked also very much in terms of economy of well-being and social outcomes contracting as a part of Finland’s EU Presidency during the second part of 2019. Mika has previously worked in leadership positions in organizations such as Finland's Slot Machine Association from 2008 to 2012 and the Finnish Centre for Health Promotion between 2003 and 2008. He has worked and still works in Finland and abroad, particularly as a champion of proactive and preventive measures in terms of well-being. In addition, Mika has been engaged in the development of collaboration between the public, private and third sectors. One of Mika's most public achievements is the National Heart Symbol system (food labelling) – he headed its development and start-up when was working for the Finnish Heart Association between 1995 and 2003.

Mildred Warner is a Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. She is an international expert on local government services, how to plan for more child and age-friendly cities, and how local governments promote economic development and environmental sustainability. She has conducted extensive research on privatization and other market-based approaches to public service delivery in the US and internationally. Her research showing lack of cost savings with privatization won the Best Journal Article Award in 2010 from the Academy of Management (Public and Nonprofit Division). She wrote the first academic article on SIBs in the US in 2013 and was featured in the international documentary on SIBs, The Invisible Heart, released in 2019. Her research on SIBs finds they fail to deliver on their promises. SIBs rarely increase funding for services. SIB performance metrics actually narrow the range of innovation; and the use of SIB finance schemes has the potential to undermine social rights. Her research can be found on her website www.mildredwarner.org

Naomi is responsible for running Catch22’s operations, spanning children’s services education, employment, apprenticeships, social action and justice. Naomi has 15 years’ experience in both strategic and operational roles in the public and private sectors. She joined Catch22 in May 2008. Prior to joining Catch22 Naomi worked across a range of projects delivering and managing youth work, early intervention and prevention services for young people at risk of social exclusion.

Olivia oversees the technical work of the IMP Structured Network, ensuring that it upholds the collective vision of creating joined-up standards for impact measurement and management that can ultimately be backed by regulation. Olivia also leads the operations across the IMP. Olivia has been with the IMP since its launch in 2016. She is experienced in designing impact measurement and management approaches across diverse geographies, asset classes and for a range of audiences, including wealth managers, investment managers and corporates. She has co-authored a number of reports illustrating best practice impact measurement and management in practice, and regularly delivers training on this topic through global academic institutions and industry membership networks. Prior to this, Olivia led Bridges Fund Management’s impact management strategy in the UK across all fund types (growth equity, social impact bond, social enterprises and property). She previously worked for CDC, the UK’s Development Finance Institution, and with the DFID Impact Fund.

Paddy is Director of Research and Policy at the British Development Finance Institution. He is a development economist by background and regularly publishes policy papers, blogs and academic papers. He has worked both at the Centre for Global Development and the Oversea Development Institute. He was formerly British Academy Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Bristol.

He has currently a strong interest on ways in which to measure outcomes and impact, including ways in which this information can inform decision making during the implementation of interventions.

Sameh Wahba is the Global Director for the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice, based in Washington, D.C. The Global Practice, which also covers territorial development, geospatial and results-based-financing issues, has a portfolio of close to $30 billion in commitments in investment projects, program-for-results and development policy lending, and about 450 staff. Prior to this, Mr. Wahba served as the Director for Urban and Territorial Development, Disaster Risk Management and Resilience at the World Bank Group’s Social, Urban Rural, and Resilience Global Practice, where he oversaw the formulation of the World Bank’s strategy, design, and delivery of all lending, technical assistance, policy advisory activities, and partnerships at the global level. He also served as Practice Manager for the Urban and Disaster Risk Management unit in Africa and the Global Urban and Resilience Unit, and as Acting Director of Operations and Strategy for the Global Practice. He worked as Sustainable Development Sector Leader for Brazil, based in Brasilia, and as an urban specialist focused on housing, land, local economic development, and municipal management and service delivery in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the Middle East and North Africa Regions. Prior to joining the Bank in 2004, he worked at the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies in Rotterdam and at the Harvard Center for Urban Development Studies.

Stéphane Saussier is also a Professor of Economics and Management at the Sorbonne Business School. He is also Director of the Water area at the Florence School of Regulation. He is a specialist of contract and organization theories. Since 2009, he has been running a research group working on the Economics of Public Private Partnerships at the Sorbonne. He published more than 40 articles, many in international journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Industrial and Corporate Change, Review of Industrial Organization, International Journal of the Economics and Business, European Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Marketing Channels, Journal of Transport and Economic Policy, Utilities Policy.

He is also regularly involved in reports for international institutions such as OECD and European Parliament. For the last 10 years, he has expanded his work towards public private contracts and the organization of public services. He has developed research studies in the water sector with the French authority in charge of water services performance indicators and sunshine regulation.

Rachel Silverman is a policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, where she leads policy-oriented research on global health financing and incentive structures. Silverman’s current research focuses on the practical application of results-based financing; global health transitions; efficient global health procurement; innovation models for global health; priority-setting for UHC; alignment and impact in international funding for family planning; and strategies to strengthen evidence and accountability. Before joining CGD in 2011 she worked with the National Democratic Institute to support democracy and governance strengthening programs in Kosovo. She holds a master’s of philosophy with distinction in public health from the University of Cambridge, which she attended as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She also holds a BA with distinction in international relations and economics from Stanford University.

Radana is an adviser at the Department for International Development. She is responsible for DFID’s programme piloting Development Impact Bonds. Prior to DFID she worked at the Cabinet Office, including focusing on UK Social Impact Bonds in youth education and employment.

Sarah oversees the statistical methods and techniques that underpin our surveys and statistics. She ensures our statistics are of the highest possible quality, using the best mixture of data sources. Sarah has a wealth of experience in analysis and statistical methods. She was previously Head of Intelligence and Performance at Manchester City Council.

Zachary is a global expert on social innovation, environmental finance, and impact investing, and has advised government, business and civil society leaders across the globe. Before joining Levoca, Zach led the team that launched the first social impact bonds in the world in emerging markets. Zach has held positions in the Inter-American Development Bank, USAID, and in management consulting.