Our Team

Eamon Sharkey

Director of Fundraising, Marketing & Communications

Eamon Sharkey joined GOAL as Director of Fundraising and Marketing in April of 2018.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts from UCD, and Masters in both International Development and Business Administration.

Before joining GOAL, Eamon has spent time in the humanitarian sector with Trocaire and Caritas, and brings over 12 years experience in marketing, e-commerce, communications and fundraising in Ireland and Australia.

Eamon believes in the power of compelling communications to convey the importance of global issues, such as inequality, poverty and climate change, and how every person can play their part in creating a fairer and just world for all.

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Billy Abimbilla

Country Director, Ethiopia

Billy Abimbilla was appointed Country Director (CD) for Ethiopia in October 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 an 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.

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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 implementing both emergency and development multi-sector programmes across Sub-Saharan Africa in various roles. 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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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, the Middle East, and Africa, and IT Services in France and globally in partnership with the 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. As 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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Janette Macleod

Acting Country Director, Uganda

Janette Macleod was appointed Acting CD for GOAL Uganda on 1st Nov 2022.

Janette joined GOAL in Feb 2016 as Senior Humanitarian Advisor and was in that position for two years. For the last four years, Janette was Assistant Country Director Systems.

Prior to joining GOAL, Janette was Grants Officer and then Programme Supervisor with Cairngorms National Park Authority in the UK and prior to Cairngorms, Janette worked with Merlin (UK based International Charity) in Logistics, Operations and Project Management related roles.

Janette holds an MSc in Disaster Management from Cranfield University in England and an MPhys in Optoelectronics and Laser Engineering from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.

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Vicky Long

Interim Global Director, FBD

Vicky was appointed Interim Global Director, FBD (Funding and Business Development) in October 2022. Vicky joined GOAL’s Business Development Unit in 2015, initially to support GOAL’s Emergency Response work in Guinea, Nepal, Ukraine, and Iraq in addition to leading the development of strategic bids with USAID, BHA, BPRM, EU, ECHO, FCDO and GIZ.

In recent years, Vicky took on the roles of Strategic Partnerships Manager in 2017, Senior Business Development and Innovation Manager in 2019 and more recently was appointed Head of Business Development in 2021.

Prior to joining GOAL, Vicky worked in the LAC region for eight years, principally in Ecuador in roles ranging from Institutional Development for a Regional NGO, to working for private sector companies as a CSR Lead and as principal coordinator of a public private partnership education project funded by the Spanish Government (AECID).

Vicky holds a Master’s Degree in Strategy and Innovation from University of Maynooth Business School and a BA from the University of Sheffield.

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