Our Team

Leopold Buhendwa

Country Director, Niger

Leopold has over 25 years of management and senior level technical advisement experience, working in the humanitarian, international development, and public health fields.

He joined GOAL in 2016, initially as chief of party of a USAID-funded project in Malawi, and currently as country director in Niger.

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 CD.

Prior to joining GOAL, Billy held CD roles with Oxfam, ChildFund USA, War Child and ActionAid, amongst others, in a number of countries.

Dawit Beyene

Country Director, Uganda

Dawit was appointed Country Director for GOAL’s Uganda in February 2023.

Dawit brings over 19 years of experience to the role, including time as GOAL Country Director in Sudan and Interim Country Director in South Sudan. Prior to joining GOAL, Dawit served as Head of Office for Mercy Corps in Darfur and Assistant Country Director – Programmes for Action Against Hunger (ACF) in Yemen. Prior to that, Dawit worked with Tufts University/ Feinstein International Centre as a consultant in various roles in Ethiopia.

Dawit’s educational background is in Rural Development (MA) and Sociology & Social Administration (BA). Over the years, he has managed humanitarian and development programmes in complex and protracted humanitarian settings.

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.

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.

Gashaw Mekonnen

Country Director, Zimbabwe

Gashaw was appointed as CD of GOAL’s Zimbabwe programme in April 2022.

Gashaw brings over 20 years of experience to the role, including time as a Roving CD and CD across Haiti, Niger, South Sudan and Malawi and across various other positions in our South Sudan and Ethiopia programmes. Gashaw was CD in Sierra Leone for the last three and a half years.

Gashaw’s background is in rural development and development management. He is a trained advocate on Community Development Approaches and a ToT trainer on participatory tools. Over the years, he has managed humanitarian and development programmes in a challenging political environment.

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.

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.

Alphonsus Martyn

Director of Investigations

Janette Macleod

Global Head of Systems

Janette Macleod is Global Head of Systems and Acting Head of Logistics and Procurement

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.

Vicky Long

Vice President for Development, GOAL USA

Vicky was appointed Vice President for Development, GOAL USA in October 2023. Prior to that, Vicky was Interim Global Director, FBD (Funding and Business Development).

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.