Gavin Ganendran
Designation
Senior Communications Officer
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Gavin Ganendran
About
Gavin joined The Elders in September 2015.
A passionate advocate for refugee and women's rights, he has previously worked at Freedom from Torture and Plan International and has volunteered at Amnesty International. Gavin has a BA in Management with Chinese Studies from The University of Nottingham and a MSc. in Human Rights from the London School of Economics.
Gavin loves food, wine, travel and all things Disney!
Alistair Fernie
Designation
Chief Executive
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Alistair Fernie
About
Alistair joined The Elders in November 2021 as Chief Executive. He advises Elders on all aspects of their activities, and leads the Secretariat team. He reports to the Chair of The Elders (Juan Manuel Santos).
Alistair’s career spans development, human rights and foreign policy over three decades. He led British government aid programmes in Kenya, Somalia, Afghanistan and the Middle East, and was a diplomat at the UN in New York, and the UK Director responsible for World Bank policy. He has also been a strategy consultant with McKinsey, a humanitarian aid worker with Médecins Sans Frontières, and a human rights campaigner with Amnesty International. He has lived and worked in 10 countries across 5 continents, including 10 years in Africa and South Asia.
Alistair took the top First in Politics at Oxford University in 1992. He has run 16 marathons. He lives in south-west London with his wife, their teenage twins, and a rescue greyhound called Grace.
Lisa Harris
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Lisa Harris
About
Lisa Harris is the founder of Align Capital, LLC a private equity firm in Austin, Texas. Ms. Harris is a major investor and involved in all aspects of Align Capital, LLC, including investment opportunities, acquisitions, portfolio oversight, and overall firm management. She has over 35 years of experience in banking, family office investments, real estate and private equity.
Ms. Harris manages the family office investment portfolio of ARH Family Partnership, which holds commercial real estate, early stage capital in young companies, and numerous other investments in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
Ms. Harris currently serves on multiple corporate boards, including as the Chairman of Americas Technology Acquisition Corp [NYSE ATA.U] which operates as a blank check company and aims to acquire one or more businesses and assets, via a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, and reorganization.
Additionally, Ms. Harris serves and has served as a board member for non-profit boards, including Jeremiah Program, Gen Austin, and others. She is an advocate for transforming families from poverty to prosperity two generations at a time. Her non-profit work prepares determined single mothers to excel in the work force and readies their children to succeed in school, reducing generational dependence on public assistance.
As an ambassador to A Glimmer of Hope she is very passionate about her work in Ethiopia to provide clean water, education, health care and microfinance loans which support resilient communities and empower women and girls.