Our Team

Billy Abimbilla

Interim Country Director, Ethiopia

Billy Abimbilla was appointed Interim Country Director (CD) for Ethiopia in August 2022. Billy joined GOAL’s Ethiopia Team from GOAL South Sudan where he had been Acting CD.

Prior to joining GOAL, Billy served in a CD post with Oxfam from April 2018 to June 2021 and prior to that, Billy worked with War Child UK for five years in CD posts.

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Luigi Loddo

Country Director, Honduras

Luigi Loddo is a forestry Engineer with over 20 years of experience working in fragile contexts on business development, climate change adaptation, sustainable natural resources management, humanitarian aid, and disaster risk reduction fields.

With more than 13 years working with GOAL, as Assistant Country Director Programmes and as Area Coordinator for GOALs programmes in Northern Honduras, Luigi has played strategic roles in GOAL´s Green and Blue Economy and disaster preparedness programmes in Central America.

Luigi previously worked with UNDP in Honduras managing a large GEF funded Climate Change Adaptation programme and with Italian NGOs Alesei (as Country Director) and GVC in the LAC region. Experienced in developing solutions for sustainable natural resources management in multicultural and indigenous contexts, Luigi is an advocate for the implementation of inclusive and sustainable blue and green economy.

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Alphonsus Martyn

Director of Investigations

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Aleksandar Milutinovic

Country Director, Turkey

Aleksandar Milutinovic was appointed Country Director for Turkey in May 2022.

Aleksandar brings deep knowledge of Syrian Conflict, a track record in humanitarian and development work in several countries, and a reputation for ability to reengineer organizational processes and streamline operations to ensure maximum efficiency, to this role.

A Serbian national, Aleksandar has extensive experience in MENA. Prior to GOAL, Aleksandar served as the Consultant for CARE in Turkey. He also served as Country Director for CARE in Syria.

Prior to CARE, Aleksandar served as the Country Director for the International Rescue Committee in Iraq. He also served as World Bank consultant in Serbia. He also served as Mercy Corps Mission Director in West Bank and Gaza. Aleksandar holds a degree in Management and his contact details are shared below.

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Chris McElhinney

Regional Director, West and Southern Africa

Chris has worked for GOAL for the last 8 years and worked for over 10 years in various roles implementing both emergency and development multi-sector programmes across Sub-Saharan Africa. This included working in various countries including Tanzania, Mozambique and South Sudan with shorter work in Turkey, Sudan and Kenya. Chris worked and subsequently led GOALs operation in South Sudan from 2013 – 2020.

Chris is interested in working in fragile contexts and conflict affected areas and holds a Masters Degree in International Security and Conflict from DCU and a Bachelors degree in Business and Politics from Trinity College Dublin. Prior to his current work, Chris worked for 5 years in retail management in Ireland.

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Philippa Sackett

Country Director, Malawi

Philippa Sackett joined GOAL in July 2016, initially as Assistant Country Director of Programs in Malawi. She took on her current role as Country Director in 2018.

Philippa holds post-graduate qualifications in Human Rights (Masters) and NGO management (diploma).

She has over twenty years of professional experience in the international humanitarian/development sector, working primarily with international NGOs. She also spent six years with a public health institute and two with a consulting firm.

Philippa’s geographical focus of experience spans Asia and Africa, including such diverse contexts as Afghanistan, Lao PDR, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Jim Costello

Director of Corporate Services

Jim Costello joined GOAL in May 2022 as Director of Corporate Services. In that role, Jim will be responsible for IT, Facilities, Procurement and Logistics in GOAL.

Jim is an experienced business Leader with over 30 years spent in the IT and IT Services sector Internationally.

A qualified accountant with a Master’s Degree in Executive Leadership from Ulster University, Jim completed the Executive Leadership Program in Stanford University and has a PhD in Data Governance from University College Cork. Jim started his career in Unisys Corporation, an international specialist IT company where he worked in International Logistics for Europe Middle East and Africa and IT Services in France and Globally in partnership with Dell Corporation.

Jim returned to Ireland to become CEO of Southwestern Services (SWS), where he developed the Company from a small Data processing provider to government to an International Data Processing Company. Jim went on to set up his own company, Rosemont Data Business where he has provided Consulting and Advisory services to Compliance and Risks Ltd, a Regulatory Compliance Technology Company, and to the Health Service Executive (HSE) for design of its new ERP systems and Shared Services structures.

 

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Lorraine Marriott

Regional Director, Middle East

Lorraine Marriott joined GOAL in 2019 and has worked for 15 years in leadership roles in conflict and post-conflict environments in the Middle East Region, developing, leading and managing teams in complex development and emergency response challenges.

She has been responsible for operations management, project management and resource acquisition for US and EU multi-lateral donors in various country offices in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. She is also experienced in programme implementation in Education, Gender, Child Protection and WASH. She has been involved in building not-for-profit start-up enterprises from concept phase to establishment and growth.

Lorraine enjoys building strategic partnerships, supervising and mentoring staff and building organizational capacity in all aspects of multi-sectoral programme development and planning. As well as the Middle East and Eastern Europe she has worked in Africa and Asia. Lorraine holds an MBA in International Management.

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Jessica Cope

Country Director, Sudan

Jessica Cope took up her position as Sudan CD in July 2022, having previously been Malawi CD.

Jessica joined GOAL in April 2021 from Oxfam where she was CD for Iraq. Prior to that Jessica has held CD, Programme Advisor and Programme Coordinator positions with Medair and Mercy Corps in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria.

On the academic side, Jessica holds a Masters’ Degree in Public Health from the University of Newcastle and a Bachelors Degree in Social Science from the University of Queensland.

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Jeannie Zielinski

Country Director, Syria

Jeannie Zielinski has worked with GOAL since January 2019 and has overall responsibility for the planning, management and development of GOAL’s work in Syria. She leads a team of more than 500, most based in Northwest Syria but with support staff in Turkey and Jordan.

She has extensive experience in the international humanitarian and development sector. A results and value-driven leader, manager, and adviser she has overseen complex multi-million dollar budgets, and has led on designing, building and implementing programmes.

Before joining GOAL Jeannie worked for over 25 years with CARE holding senior positions in Africa and Latin America. In more recent years she worked with CARE in the USA in change management, overseeing key projects during transition and leading on global strategic partner mapping.

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Jennifer Williams

Country Director, Uganda

Jennifer has worked with GOAL for over 8 years at a senior management level in Zimbabwe, South Sudan and Sudan. She joined the GOAL Uganda country program in 2018.

A qualified charted accountant (ACA), Jennifer has a strong background in operations and financial management, applied in both a humanitarian and development context. Prior to joining GOAL, Jennifer spent over 6 years auditing clients in the banking and financial services industry.

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