International Advisory Group

Germany

Victoria Bainbridge

Victoria is a highly experienced public financial management professional and business consultant. Her recent international portfolio has included technical advice for the Strengthening Capacity of the Public Sector Accountancy Profession in Zimbabwe, and business development of public financial management initiatives in South East Europe including expanding coverage of qualification programmes, adoption of IPSAS and training product development.  She has also implemented accrual accounting across public, commercial and third sectors.

Victoria’s career in PFM started in public sector audit at the UK National Audit Office - where she also obtained the CIPFA qualification - and then KMPG.  Her subsequent experience includes managing implementations at Andersen and business analysis for the not-for-profit sector.   She has been based in Germany since 2006, where her consultancy business has included a wide range of financial control and governance projects and training programmes for many commercial and public sector clients, and academic courses.  She also holds the Certified Internal Auditor qualification and has been CIPFA European Group`s secretary for over a decade.

Switzerland

Simona Blazheska Stankovikj

Simona Blazheska Stankovikj is a leadership and life coach. Her focus is on individuals, supporting them to connect with their inner self, discover their hidden dreams, clarify their priorities, and maximize both their personal and professional potential.

Previously, Simona worked as program facilitator at the Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF) in Slovenia, where she founded and led the thematic area ‘Data and Analysis for Designing Policies’. Also, she has held various positions in the financial sector (banks and development finance institutions) in Germany, Austria and Macedonia.

She holds a Master’s degree in Banking and Finance and she is trained Co-Active Coach.

The causes that she cares about are income and gender inequality, financial inclusion, financial literacy and education.

UK

Kathryn Cearns

Kathryn Cearns is chair of the Office of Tax Simplification and is also a non-executive director of Highways England, the chair of Highways England’s Audit and Risk Committee and a member of the Group Audit and Risk Committee at the Department for Transport. She is also a non-executive board member and member of the Audit Committee for Companies House.

A chartered accountant with extensive senior level experience in both the public and private sectors, Kathryn was chairman of the Financial Reporting Advisory Board to HM Treasury from 2010 to 2016 and was chairman of the ICAEW Financial Reporting Committee for 10 years up to the end of 2017. For many years she was the consultant accountant for Herbert Smith Freehills, an international law firm. Until March 2019she was also on the Council of ICAEW.

Kathryn currently holds a number of non-executive, trustee and advisory appointments most notably as a member of the External Audit Committee for the International Monetary Fund, a non-executive director for the UK Supreme Court, a non-executive director for The Property Ombudsman and as a trustee for Royal British Legion Industries.

USA

Richard Gregg

Richard (Dick) Gregg, who retired from the US Treasury in 2014, has more than 40 years experience as a Treasury executive and leader.  During his tenure he directed organizations with several thousand employees and budgetary resources of about one billion dollars.  In late 2015, Dick joined HJS PLLC as a managing director.  HJS provides business advisory and assurance services in the federal market.

Dick came out of retirement in 2009 andwas appointed Fiscal Assistant Secretary by Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner.  As the Fiscal Assistant Secretary, he was responsible for developing policy and overseeing the operations of the financial infrastructure of the federal government, including payments, collections, electronic commerce, government-wide accounting, government investment fund management, delinquent debt collection, and shared services.  The responsibility also included managing the government's daily cash position and producing the cash and debt forecasts used to determine the size and timing of the government's financing operations as well as overseeing the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (formerly the Financial Management Service (FMS) and the Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD)).

Prior to his retirement in June 2006,Dick was the commissioner of FMS for nine years and before that served as Commissioner of BPD for 10 years.  He also held numerous other management positions at Treasury during his long career.As commissioner of FMS, Dick provided leadership on a variety of financial matters and was responsible for managing over $3 trillion a year in collections and disbursements of federal revenues.  He also oversaw government-wide programs for cash management and debt collection.

As commissioner of BPD, he directed the debt financing operations of the federal government and the staff that accounted for the resulting public debt.  He also directed BPD’s franchise operations, which include providing financial management, administrative, and information technology services to other federal agencies.

Among his accomplishments, Dick has instituted fundamental and transformational change at BPD and FMS by developing a book entry environment for marketable Treasury securities, modernising the savings bond and government-wide accounting programmes, moving towards an all-electronic Treasury for collections and payments, and revitalizing the debt collection programme.  In 2012, under his leadership the two fiscal service bureaus (FMS and BPD) were merged into the Bureau of Fiscal Service.  That merger has produced significant savings and created an organization with the mission and capability of providing strong leadership for federal financial management throughout the federal government.

Dick holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Dakota; a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the George Washington University, Washington, DC, and a law degree, also from the George Washington University.

Dick’s leadership and accomplishments are widely recognized throughout Treasury, the Federal Reserve System, and the government.  He is the recipient of numerous Presidential Rank Awards, and he has received the George Mitchell Payments System Excellence Award twice, most recently in 2013.  He has also received the two highest Treasury awards:  The Treasury Medal in 2006 and the Alexander Hamilton Award in 2014.

Canada

Marcel Holder Robinson

Marcel is a public finance and international development expert and her career has progressively blossomed into a broad range of skills including financial management and capacity development.  She has experience in providing technical advice and direction to various levels of governments in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, North America and United Kingdom.

Throughout her career, Marcel has held a number of permanent and contract positions and her capabilities are demonstrated in the advisory, technical and senior management roles she held. Her understanding of the political dynamics of public financial management and ability to actively engage policy makers and development partners are instrumental in directing policy and operational improvements in public institutions.

With over 20 years of experience, Marcel has gained in-depth knowledge of several countries’ public finance policy development environments. At the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy she was very instrumental in leading key public finance policy initiatives impacting the Commonwealth and the institute’s strategic priorities.

Marcel is committed to excellence, enjoys pioneering new and workable strategies, and pursues opportunities to inspire others.

Manj Kalar

Manj Kalar, founder and principal consultant at Kalar Consulting Ltd, specialises in developing and supporting public sector organisations to enhance accountability and transparency through improved financial reporting. She has a varied portfolio working with international clients within private and public sector, particularly as an author, conference developer and delivery, technical expert, ghost writer and consultant.

Manj has over 25 years of experience working in the public sector, focusing on implementation of accrual accounting across UK central government departments and the Whole of Government Accounts consolidation. Notably she was the team leader responsible for the turnaround of the UK government department: Home Office’s financial statements from disclaimed to unqualified in 18 months. This is the only UK central government entity to have their accounts disclaimed.

She then joined CIPFA to lead CIPFA’s strategy and thought leadership in Central Government and Financial Management. Afterwards, she joined ACCA as head of public sector (global), leading on the drivers of change in the public sector, and successfully delivered the first public sector conference held outside the UK.

Manj is passionate about developing finance professionals and coaches several CIPFA apprentices and tutors at the University of Greenwich.

UK

Maia King

Maia King is an economist and researcher on the History of UK Public Spending Control project at the Blavatnik School of Government, having joined in June 2017 after a PhD at Queen Mary, University of London.

Maia has academic and professional expertise in public finance, governance and institutions, public goods and networks. Her doctoral research was on microeconomic theory, investigating the welfare implications of the structure of networks with local public goods, and the role of information in supporting cooperation in networks with community enforcement. Other research projects examine the links between public finance, clientelistic networks and political institutions in developing countries, and targeted carbon tax reforms in intersectoral networks.

Maia has worked as an economist at the UK Treasury, focusing on macroeconomic analysis and tax policy, and as an Overseas Development Institute Fellow in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Madagascar and the Macro-Fiscal Analysis Unit of the Liberian Ministry of Finance. She also worked as a researcher and consultant at the ODI focusing mainly on public finance in fragile states, aid management, and the political economy of service delivery.

Nepal

Prakash Lamsal

Prakash Lamsal, FCA, CPFA is in public practice in Nepal since 2001 and his clients include various government organizations and public listed companies. He served the Nepalese capital market as a board member of Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON), regulator of the capital market in Nepal and also nominated by Nepal Government as executive member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation Committee (ABC) under Nepal Press Council Act. He was also engaged as a member of the second PEFA assessment team (as of 2013-14) under the Ministry of Finance, Nepal Government for the assessment of public financial management of Nepal.

His involvement in public finance also includes as a reviewer of assessment of financial management capacity of a few government departments under UNDG’s project.

He is a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN), The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and CIPFA, UK.

He was president of ICAN in 2015/16 and council member of ICAN from 2012/13 to 2017/18. At present, he is a board member of CAPA and a member of CAPA PAODC committee since 2015/16. He was also a member of CAPA PSFMC committee in 2015/16. He also served South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) as a board member in 2015/16 and currently serving SAFA as a member of International Relations Committee since 2012/13.

He has widely travelled the world and participated in various international programs, he is also engaged in the Rotary movement. He was President of Rotary Club of Balaju, one of the rotary clubs in Nepal and involved in various committees of Rotary Nepal District. Flagship projects of the club include, micro credit to underprivileged women.

Delphine Moretti

Delphine Moretti is a senior policy analyst in the OECD Budgeting and Public Expenditure division, where she is leading the network on ‘Financial management and reporting’. In this capacity, she advises OECD countries on reforms to their budgeting and financial reporting systems and conducts various analytical studies.

Prior to joining the OECD, Delphine served at the International Monetary Fund’s Fiscal Affairs Department, where she assisted several countries in introducing a range of fiscal reforms. Delphine was involved in particular in the workstream on fiscal transparency.

She also worked for the French administration, in the Finance Ministry and Court of Accounts. She participated in particular in the implementation of financial reporting reforms.

Delphine has also been involved in the work of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board for more than 10 years, first as an observer for the IMF and OECD, and after this as a member of the Secretariat of the oversight body for the IPSASB’s Public Interest Committee.

Kenya

James Muraguri

James Muraguri is the founder and chief executive officer of the Institute of Public Finance Kenya, a non-profit think tank in Kenya. He is an accountant by training and has over 15 years of experience working in the non-profit sector, focusing on youth and governance. Further, James is an Atlantic fellow for Social and Economic Equity at the International Inequalities Institute based at the London School of Economics and a lead consultant for Open Budget Survey (OBS) in Kenya, which is the world’s only independent, comparable measure of government budget transparency, participation, and oversight.

As an active public finance practitioner, James dedicates his time to understand the role of tax in improving people’s lives and how public finance practitioners engage in the process.

UK

Simone Rensch

Simone Rensch is a journalist specialising in education, public finance and international development. She is currently the deputy editor of EducationInvestor Global, covering education markets. Before this, she was the international reporter at Public Finance International, writing about topics like gender budgeting and the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals and sparking global debate among public finance professionals. She has a track record of covering trends relevant to the public finance profession, from issues like public financial management, accrual accounting and international accounting standards to international aid and corruption around the world.

Simone has a postgraduate degree in human rights, where she specialised in law, equality and the ethics of poverty, and did extensive research on children’s rights as part of her dissertation on supernatural beliefs. She is a passionate advocate for women’s economic empowerment and a strong believer in gender equality across both the social and economic space. In her current role, she is leading a series putting focus on the women in the education sector, particularly in the male-dominated world of investment.

Born in Denmark, raised in Thailand, Simone is currently living in London.

UK

Joana Sales

Joana is a business leader with a proven track record and experience in leading and managing innovative and value-adding digital education and learning transformation and change initiatives globally.  She has managed and implemented several online learning projects from concept, design, development and delivery for various professional and membership bodies and learning and development sectors in the UK and the EMEA regions.

In Joana’s current capacity as head of learning at CIPFA, she oversees the institute’s digital learning content strategy development and implementation. Joana manages CIPFA’s collaborative e-learning partnerships with other organisations, which include a MOOC development project with the Open University. She led the successful launch of CIPFA Learning, CIPFA’s own online learning platform, enabling a more integrated, accessible, flexible and effective learning experience across its various education and training programmes and solutions globally. This innovation also created new opportunities to support the UK government’s renewed focus on apprenticeships with students and employers benefitting from greater flexibility and choice.

Concurrently, Joana also leads a new strategic and cross-functional project at CIPFA to create and develop ‘Public Finance Focus’, a brand new online learning resource and portal to support and grow CIPFA’s global community of public finance management professionals.

Previous to CIPFA, Joana served as the Interim head of training for the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI).  Joana was responsible for the global commercial services business across open and bespoke training courses and programmes, conferences and supported networking events for members.  She was also involved in the consultations in developing CQI’s Competency Framework.

At the Royal Institution of Property Surveyors (RICS), Joana developed a suite of e-learning courses, created and pioneered new Distance and Blended Learning and Executive Education product portfolios to drive the growth of these business opportunities on a global basis.  This transformation required improving RICS’s Moodle-based Learning Management System and Online Academy website, and deploying online learning design solutions such as custom e-learning, web classes and webinars and distance learning programmes.

Working within the managed service sector, Joana completed a highly collaborative project for an IT-Business Outsourcing trade association with over 200 member organisations globally.  She delivered a training curriculum framework to support 15 different career pathways and an online design and delivery solution to implement it.

Joana also created and established a subsidiary for a design and property managed service firm to provide talent management and development training and consultancy solutions to clients around the world.

Joana’s early career was spent working with a successful global telecommunications company owned by Globe Telecom and Singapore Telecom. Here she has honed her people and talent development skills by doing various roles in HR from Learning and Development, Organisation Development, Change Management and HR Business Partnering.  She was also given the opportunity to set up a training school to manage the training of more than 3,000-strong staff at that time on a range of technical, business, management and leadership skills.

Joana holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science and a Master’s degree in ICT in Education. She is a recipient of the prestigious Chevening Scholarships by the Foreign Commonwealth Office.  Joana is also a Certified Executive Coach by the Centre of Executive Coaching.

Belgium

Petra Schirnhofer

Petra Schirnhofer is a manager in the Strategic Support Unit of the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI). Among the issues she strategically covers is the integration of a gender perspective throughout IDI’s work in its Strategic Plan period (2019-2023).

With more than twelve years of global professional experience in development cooperation, she has a broad range of expertise including public financial management, gender equality, governance issues as well as programme and project management.

She has worked in several countries for and with different institutions, including European and UN institutions, foreign affairs and NGOs. She enjoys leading and working with multicultural teams and has been passionate about addressing gender inequality throughout her career.

Petra holds a master’s degree (MPhil) in Political Science from Vienna University and a master’s degree (MA) in International Political Economy from the University of Kent.

She speaks several languages, including German, English, French and Spanish. She is currently based in Brussels as a regional employee for IDI.

UK

Ileana Steccholini

Ileana Steccolini is a professor of accounting at Essex Business School. She held previous positions at Newcastle University and Bocconi University and was a visiting scholar at the University of Sydney, the University of Edinburgh, RMIT Melbourne, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Getulio Vargas Foundation.

Her expertise develops at the interface among public administration, management and accounting. She has published extensively on public sector accounting, budgeting, performance management and accountability, reform and change processes, governmental financial resilience, inclusion, participation and gender in public services. She has also consulted governments and public sector entities as an expert in public sector accounting, reporting and performance measurement.

She is the chair and founder of the Accounting and Accountability Special Interest Group within the International Research Society of Public Management, the incoming Chair of the Standing Scientific Committee of the European Accounting Association, a member of the IRSPM board, and joint editor of Financial Accountability and Management. She serves in the editorial board of several journals, including Public Administration Review and Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal.

South Africa

Margott Terblanche

Margott Terblanche qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC and subsequently held the role of financial manager for a group of companies in the wool and mohair processing industry, before relocating to London with her husband, Etienne.  Here she led a team of management accountants in the printing and reprographics industry for just over two years.

She always had a desire to venture into lecturing and training and got the opportunity to join BPP Professional Education as tutor performing exam training for both private and public sector students of professional accounting bodies such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA), the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT).  She went on to join BPP Business School as associate lecturer teaching undergraduate courses in Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting, Financial Management, Business Economics and Professional Ethics.

She returned to South Africa to join Ducharme Consulting and Ducharme Training Institute as Senior Consultant and E-Learning Developer and, in this role, she provides advisory and training support in the PFM space through delivery and facilitation of training courses for various reporting frameworks, including accrual accounting, first-time adoption of IPSASs, modified cash accounting, GRAP and IFRSs as well as practical solutions through assisting clients with applying the theoretical concepts to their financial reporting processes. She has been involved in developing training material for and presenting training on various reporting frameworks (IFRS, GRAP, IPSAS and modified cash standards).

China

Miranda Yu

ACA (ICAEW), CPA (mainland China and Hong Kong)

Chief executive - Emile Woolf International（EWI）China

Major in accounting, dual MBA degree from America and Netherland universities

Lifelong membership in the international Honor Society Beta Gamma Sigma

Miranda has 27 years of professional experience. She used to work in the corporate sector as a chief financial officer and as audit partner in an accounting firm. These experiences awarded her with deep knowledge in international and Chinese accounting, tax and businessregulations as well as the best practices of business operations.She also has good experience of working both in China and the UK, which enable her to understand the culture difference and economic system discrepancy. An international MBA study brought her a broad view in terms of economy, culture, politics, society and sustainability since her studies covered multiple countries in Europe, Asia, North and South America.

She joined Emile Woolf China as chief executive in 2010 and turned her direction to helping businesses to shape their financial health while focusing on sustainability. She provides training to the accountants and assists Chinese and Western businesses during mergers. She also helps listed companies to improve governance and strategy management in the role of non-executive director.

She is dedicated to case study teaching and research to help professionals to combine knowledge, experience and analysis to enable businesses shaping financial health and individual professionals choosing rewarding career.

Canada

Trinish Padayachee

Trinish is an experienced policy professional with a demonstrated history of working in government administration at a senior management level. She previously held the position of Director Fiscal Analysis in the Budget Office at the National Treasury of South Africa. This role entailed managing the national government’s fiscal framework, advising on revenue measures, expenditure proposals and the trajectory of public debt.

She holds a Masters degree from University College London, during which time she conducted primary research in the field of transport justice for women in Johannesburg, South Africa. Trinish also participated in a United Nations University research project on the history of fiscal consolidation in South Africa and was previously a mentor for emerging South African economists through the country’s Government Technical Advisory Centre.

She has extensive experience in Africa, particularly in the areas of fiscal policy, public financial management, public finance advisory and advocacy, economic policy development and analysis, local and international development and gender.

Trinish recently located to Ottawa, Canada where she is exploring new opportunities to build on her extensive public finance experience.

Georgia

Lorena Rivero del Paso

Lorena is an economist and holds an MSc-LLM in Law & Economics by Bologna University, Hamburg University and the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research of India. As a Public Financial Management expert, she has worked in M&E of government performance, open government and combating corruption, from government positions and as an international consultant.

During her tenure as General Director of Performance Monitoring in the Ministry of Finance in Mexico, she coordinated the establishment of non-financial indicators, subnational governments' expenditures monitoring and fiscal transparency policies.

Her experience also accounts for the design of the architecture for national planning including linking the budget with the Sustainable Development Goals.

As Manager for Technical Collaboration and Cooperation at the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency, she leads the technical development of the Open Fiscal Data Package and its implementations across countries.

UK

Loretta Outhwaite

Loretta, a Chartered Management Accountant, is an experienced Director/Chief Finance Officer, who has worked for over 30 years within healthcare and the public sector in the UK and in Jersey.

In 2018, Loretta founded ‘Turn the Tide Solutions Limited’, which delivers consultancy, interim support, training and coaching and mentoring to executives, aspiring leaders and managers. A recent addition to the business is ‘The Lettuce Patch’, which focuses on personal development and supporting small businesses owners.

Loretta is a passionate about personal development, life-long learning and diversity and inclusion. Whilst SRO for the NHS Future-Focused Finance workstream ‘Great Place to Work’, Loretta led work on diversity and career development. She has been a tutor for the HFMA Academy on their ‘Managing the Healthcare Business’ module and is a mentor for the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme and Public Finance by Women. In addition, Loretta is a member of the BSI ‘Healthcare Organisation Management’ committee and the lead for the Institute of Healthcare Management on a number of groups.

United Kingdom

Jo Kemp

Jo is an Economist and Executive Coach. She has a MSc in Globalisation and Development from SOAS and a first-class BSc degree from Durham University. As a public financial management expert, she has worked for the World Bank, DFID, UNDP, DFAT and UNICEF.

Jo’s career in public financial management started in the Department of National Planning and Monitoring for the Government of Papua New Guinea, where she worked as a civil servant in the Budget Division. Since then she has worked in 15 countries overseas on a range of assignments including conducting a fiduciary risk assessment in Afghanistan, establishing a line ministry expenditure analysis toolkit in the Solomon Islands and calculating natural disaster-related liabilities in Sri Lanka. Most recently, she has been working with the World Bank on understanding linkages between public financial management and health service delivery. The linkage between public financial management, service delivery and human development outcomes remains a key part of her work.

During her role as Head of Governance and State Building at Crown Agents, she ran a DFID-funded public financial management programme in Nepal supporting financial reform in five sectors of government. Jo is now based in London.

Kenya

Anne Elizabeth Owuor

Anne Elizabeth Owuor is an accomplished Accountant who has served in the public service for over twenty years. Anne is a holder of an MSc in Audit Management from the University of Birmingham U.K and a Masters in Business Administration from USA. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Certified Risk Management Assurance (CRMA) and Certified Forensic Investigator Professional (CFIP).  Anne worked for Kenya Power & Lighting Company Limited a government business entity, for over 20 years in various senior positions in the Finance, Internal Audit and Customer Service divisions before taking early retirement in 2015. Previously she worked with the civil service in the Office of the President and the Public Service Commission in Kenya.

Internationally, Anne has served her profession as a Board member of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSAS) for six years, Committee member on Quality Standards of the international Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) for six years and member of the Accounting Standards Committee of the International Consortium of Government Financial Management (ICGFM). She has also served as a Committee member of the Professional Oversight Committee of the International Federation of Accountants worldwide allocating funds to needy accountancy bodies from developing countries.

Nationally Anne has served as a Commissioner with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) for a term of six years which ended in December 2017.  Currently she serves as a Board member of the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board of Kenya (PSASB (K)) affiliated to the National Treasury serving her second term.  Anne has also served her profession as a Council Member of Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK), Chair of the Institute of internal Auditors in Kenya, Chair of the Association of Women Accountants and council member for the KCA University in Nairobi. She also serves as a board member of Stima Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Ltd.

Anne has received several awards for her exemplary service in the accountancy profession including two presidential honours; Elder of the Burning Spear (EBS) and Head of State Commendation (HSC) as well as Fellowship from the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya and Emeritus status from the Institute of Internal Auditors. She is married to Dr. W. Owuor - Ogony with whom they have four children, plus a daughter in law and three grandchildren. She has also served her community as the Treasurer of the All Saints Cathedral church, Nairobi for five years and as a charter member of the Rotary Club of Karura in Kenya.

UK

Isabel Bucknall-Williams

Isabel is an international public financial management consultant, who is passionate about supporting women to build their confidence in the fields of economics and public finance. She is currently based between Ramallah and London, working as an advisor to the Ministry of Finance in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as they introduce for the first time a budget performance function within their medium-term programme budget framework.

Isabel ran the Women Working in International Development Network at leading accounting firm BDO, convening a group of international development specialists through regular events and its online network.

Her career started at the aid data think-tank Development Initiatives, where she spent time working in Kenya supporting civil society organisations to analyse and monitor budget and aid data. Since then, she has worked for a number of international development consultancies, designing and delivering public finance and governance projects in countries as diverse as Sierra Leone, Ukraine and Kosovo. In Saudi Arabia, she designed policies and administrative processes for new municipal-level taxes and licenses. In Botswana and Rwanda, she researched the capabilities of finance ministries for CABRI.

Isabel holds a Master’s in Public Administration jointly from the London School of Economics and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

Mozambique

Mariam Umarji

Mariam Umarji is a Senior Specialist and Field Work Manager, who brings extensive experience of evaluations, technical assistance and capacity building work on PFM and health sector issues, in mostly Portuguese-speaking countries and in Sub Saharan Africa. She has worked on several assessments serving as both team leader or deputy team leader. She has assisted in: the management and coordination of evaluations; undertaken documentary analysis; drafted reports; and overseen the conduct of field missions.  Mariam has delivered numerous PEFA assessments, including 4 national level assessments (3 in Mozambique, 1 in São Tome & Príncipe), 6 sub- national assessments (5 in Mozambique, 1 in Sta Catarina, Brazil) and 3 Health PEFAs (2 in Mozambique, 1 in Tanzania). She has also conducted several PEFA trainings, notably in Capetown, Maputo, Paris and Accra over 2017-18, working with the PEFA Secretariat on the “roll-out” of the 2016 methodology. Also, Mariam was responsible for translating the 2016 PEFA Framework from English to Portuguese, as officially published by the PEFA Secretariat. She is a member of the Community of Practice and in the Roster of Consultants recognised to apply the 2016 methodology.

Mariam started her management consulting company in April 2010 – MB Consulting Lda. It is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company. It is a Mozambique company that employs mainly Mozambican staff that she trained and nurtured over the years. It has been listed as one of the 100 Best SMEs in Mozambique in 2014 and 2015. She also started, in 2010, the Academia de Gestão & Finanças Públicas, a training institute that focuses on capacity building and research in the field of management with a specialization in public financial management. Mariam is a PFM specialist and has been involved in the design, management, monitoring and evaluation of public policies for almost 15 years in Africa, and worked as part of the team evaluating national and sector PFM systems. She is fluent in English and Portuguese.

Malaysia

Paddy Siyanga Knudsen

Paddy Siyanga Knudsen is a Development Economist and PFM expert with 15 years of professional experience in regional integration, governance, budget support and public finance management (PFM). Paddy has worked for various donors and development partners formulating and implementing projects/programmes in East and Southern Africa and, for the last 4 years based and working in China. She has been a senior consultant with the International Organization for Migration in China providing support in the developing implementation and monitoring of 5 million Euro, EU funded projects. She is also a freelance consultant working in sub-sectors of interest including PFM, budget support and regional integration. Focus countries were Tanzania and Kenya with a regional perspective on East and Southern Africa. Prior to this, Paddy was the Donors Coordinator for the Public Finance Management Reform Secretariat in Tanzania (for 2 years), supporting the government secretariat, key ministries and other partners in achieving the set objectives and workplans of the fourth phase of the PFM Reform Programme (PFMRP). She participated, as the local PEFA process secretariat, in the 2013 PEFA for Central government and the preparations for the PEFA at local government. For 8 years, Paddy worked for the European Union Delegations in Tanzania and Zambia as Programme Officer on governance and regional integration covering the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) regions. Paddy holds a MSc Financial Economics and BSc Development & Economics. She speaks English, French, Swahili and Chinese

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Germany

Aliya Boranbayeva

Aliya began her professional journey as a Journalist and an Editor in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Soon Aliya moved to the UK, where she studied Marketing and Finance, gaining an MBA in Finance from the University of Wales. Over the time, Aliya developed professionally as an international Communications specialist, extending her experience through a variety of projects in the UK, China, Russia and Azerbaijan. Along the way, she set up a fashion start-up, which gained recognition as a British-made product and was featured on Channel 4.

During the period at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as a Communications specialist, she became interested in Global Development, which encouraged her to study Global Public Policy at Potsdam University. Aliya is experienced in crisis PR, film-making, working with large-scale events across the UK, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. She has considerable social media knowledge, strongly developed communication skills, and an expertise in developing and implementing media strategies across traditional and digital channels.

Aliya strongly believes in women leadership and advocates for gender equality. She was attracted by the PFW principles and objectives to connect women working in public finance around the world.

United Kingdom

Sumita Shah

Sumita is a Freelance Consultant, currently working on international assignments to implement regulatory, financial reporting and audit practices in Eastern Europe and to develop guidance for professional accountancy bodies to increase their engagement with the public sector in the Asia Pacific Region.

Sumita’s 35+ year career includes being a practicing public sector auditor with the Audit Commission, before joining ICAEW in 2001. In this role, Sumita successfully led in the delivery of the public sector strategy, including its policy and technical work on public sector audit and assurance, and in particular, local public audit; she researched and authored numerous technical and thought-leadership publications; contributed to consultations and discussions on international and European public sector financial management issues; edited organisational newsletters and journals; and uniquely, she worked with UK government departments to help them develop their grants assurance frameworks.

Sumita has presented and participated at key international conferences, panels and high-profile round table events. She has delivered training on a variety of topics including to the Ukraine National Forum of Accountants, and the Croatian Chamber of Auditors. She facilitated workshops between the Cypriot Finance Ministry and TROIKA on their bailout agreements. She has also organised and delivered conferences and learning events.

Sumita has a long history of volunteering in humanitarian settings. This includes Crisis’, the homeless charity where, until 2015, she supported the development of its Christmas project and training to volunteers, as well as running one of its homeless shelters during the Christmas period. Since 2015, Sumita has operated independently in Greece, to provide strategic leadership, operational and logistical support to grassroots agencies and volunteers. In emergency situations, she sometimes has to react quickly, identify issues, offer solutions and drive forward their delivery. She is often called upon to de-escalate conflict situations and find solutions to difficult and, what can sometimes be, life-threatening situations. She mentors long-term volunteers, provides advice and guidance to them and delivers training to new volunteers, before they start their volunteering assignments.

Sumita is a qualified ICAEW, CIPFA and AAT member. She is currently a member of a UNHCR Communications working group in Greece.

She was previously a member of the Confederation of Asian Pacific Accountants Public Sector Financial Management Committee, the UK’s Ministry of Health, Communities and Local Government’s Local Audit Delivery Board and its Local Audit Sub-Group. She previously held Board level positions with two charities and was also a member of the Crisis at Christmas Steering Group. She was a judge for the Women in City, Future Finance Leaders Awards Panels for 2016 and 2017 and an accredited mediator with the ADR group between 2006 and 2015.

US

Jana Dean, CPA, CIA

Jana currently is the Chief Financial Officer for Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI), a nationally engaged non-for-profit public health institute located in Okemos, Michigan.  At MPHI she is responsible for all accounting functions, financial reporting, payroll, benefits, contracts, grants, and information technology.  Prior to joining MPHI, Jana worked in the Internal Audit Department at Michigan State University (MSU) as the Finance & Operations Audit Manager from June 2007 to August 2015.  At MSU she had the opportunity to learn the internal audit industry, importance of risk assessment and more about operations in a complex government setting.  Before joining MSU, Jana worked as a Senior Associate at Plante & Moran, PLLC (P&M) from 1999- 2007.  During her tenure at P&M she worked on clients in various industries but was drawn to the important work of not-for-profit and governmental clients and eventually specialized in those industries.  Jana worked at Arthur Anderson, LLP as a staff auditor for about 16 months from 1997-1999, primarily auditing manufacturing clients.    Jana graduated from MSU with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 1997. Jana became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in 1998 and a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) in 2010.  Jana is a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the Michigan Association of CPA’s (MiCPA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).  Jana was also a past Board President for the Lansing Chapter of the IIA and a 2014 graduate of the Association for College and University Auditors Leads program.  Lastly, Jana has participated in mentoring programs through MSU for students enrolled in the business program.

UK

Fabienne Garrigou-Grandchamp

Fabienne Garrigou-Grandchamp is the Commercial Finance & Legal Director of Executive Education at London Business School.  Her                                                                                                                                            career started in External Audit at both KPMG and Arthur Andersen. She then joined the L’Oréal Internal Audit Team and widely travelled the work. Before moving to London, she was the L’Oréal worldwide Luxury Division Finance Controller where she was following all financial developments, monitoring risks and opportunities as well as preparing the Annual General Meetings and Investor Analyst Conferences.

She is also certified as Executive Coach EMCC and is a AVARAP programme facilitator (a career change methodology based on group dynamics and creativity). Hosted by the ESCP London, Fabienne led several groups during their 4 to 5 months’ change journey.   Fabienne has been based in London since 2010 and is passionate about delivering excellence. She is a seasoned business professional who knows how to combine strategic vision, execution skills and team empowerment.  The causes that she cares about are financial literacy, education and sustainability.

US

Racheeda Boukezia

Racheeda Boukezia is senior economist at the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department and specializes in Public Finance Management. Her areas of expertise cover cash management, external audit, fiscal reporting and transparency, public investment management, governance and ant-corruption policies. Ms. Boukezia is a specialist of building capacities in fragile and conflict affected states and she has advised government in over 30 countries, covering all the regions of the world but more specially in Africa, and the Middle East in countries with fragile and politically complex institutional environment . Her current research focuses on fragile states, fiscal risks as well as governance/corruption. Prior to joining the IMF, she worked for the French Court of Account and held a managerial position in a globally renowned consulting firm, providing advice to utilities companies on concessions arrangements and public-private partnerships. She also was a lecturer at Science Po Paris for two years in two masters (Public Administration and International Law). Ms. Boukezia holds a master’s degree in business administration with a major in Finance from EDHEC Business School in France and Edmonton University, Canada. She recently earned an executive certificate from the Harvard Kennedy School.