Our people
The diversity of our people is exceptional, and every one of them is a passionate advocate of our missions, from operational staff to the board of trustees.
Pharo School catering team, Nairobi.
Led by operators, governed by trustees.
Pharo is run by an experienced management team, accountable to a diverse board of trustees who steward the strategy and the capital entrusted to us.
In 2025, we appointed our first chief executive from the private sector, with a clear mandate to bring greater discipline, pace and accountability to the organisation. Our executive team is mostly based in our Nairobi headquarters, with some in London and other offices.
Our management team
The executives and country directors who run the Foundation, its programmes and its ventures.
Appointed in January 2025, Pharo’s first chief executive from the private sector, brought in to bring greater discipline, pace and accountability, with deep experience across the continent.
Tom Mason
Chief Executive Officer
Leads operations across four countries, owning the operating cadence, systems and execution that hold a multi-country organisation together.
Tim Kasperidus
Chief Operating Officer
Leads financial discipline across the Foundation and its ventures, from controls and planning cycles to the Business Central and Planful systems.
Kudzai Munyavi
Chief Financial Officer
Leads the Research, Evaluation and Data team, giving Pharo real-time evidence on what works, in collaboration with academic partners including Berkeley and UMass Amherst.
Ken Lee
Chief Impact Officer
Appointed October 2025 to build the Pharo Schools network. Previously Portfolio Head for Primary Schools at SPARK Schools in South Africa, where she led a network of 21 schools.
Nkazimulo Moyo
Managing Director of Pharo Schools
Leads operations in Kenya and Pharo’s health work across the group, including the diagnostic and clinical services and the NCD programme.
Dr Edward Rukwaro
Global Director of Health
Leads Pharo Foundation and Ventures operations in Ethiopia, from the Homosha and Assosa schools to the edible oil plant and Pharo Health.
Ephrem Feleke
Ethiopia Country Director
Vacant
Kenya Country Director
Vacant
Somaliland Country Director
Leads Pharo in Rwanda: Pharo School Kigali, the Teacher Capacity Building programme, and the Kigali Venture Studio.
Jannek Hagen
Rwanda Country Director
Builds the people and culture of a fast-growing organisation of close to 800 colleagues across five countries.
Faith Mbutu
Global Director of Human Resources
Sam Schmidt
Global Head of Communications
Develops the co-funding and collaboration that scale Pharo’s missions beyond what it can deliver alone.
Francesca Beausang
Director of Partnerships
Builds the systems backbone of the Foundation, from the ERP to the GMF Central impact platform that tracks performance across the portfolio.
Spass Dimitrov
Global Director of IT
Our board of trustees
The trustees who govern the Foundation and steward the capital entrusted to us.
Founder and Chairman. Also founder and managing partner of Pharo Management, the emerging-markets hedge fund that funds the Foundation. Previously a managing director at Merrill Lynch in New York.
Guillaume Fonkenell
Founder & Chairman
A founding trustee of the Pharo Foundation, involved since its establishment in 2011.
Farah Jirdeh-Fonkenell
Trustee
A trustee of the Pharo Foundation, bringing investment and governance experience to the board.
Matthieu Baumgartner
Trustee
A trustee of the Pharo Foundation, supporting the board’s stewardship of strategy and capital.
Nicolas Sagna
Trustee
A trustee of the Pharo Foundation, contributing to the governance and oversight of its missions.
Funsho Allu
Trustee
Join the team.
We are always looking for people who want to build something that lasts.