DARA expands Board with three distinguished thought leaders

We are very pleased to announce DARA has expanded its Board of Trustees with three new members  who will reinforce the organisation’s humanitarian mission and international perspective:

The new Trustees are distinguished thought-leaders in the fields of aid, development, communications and business.

  • Karen A. Tramontano, Chief Executive Officer at Blue Star Strategies and Founder & President of the Global Fairness Initiative (GFI)
  • Michel Ogrizek,  International Consultant in Strategic Communications and Founder & President of MGroup
  •  Ricardo Solé- Arqués, Senior International Humanitarian Aid Evaluator; Former Deputy Director of DARA (see full bios below).

Full list of DARA’s Board of Trustees

The new Trustees are distinguished thought-leaders in the fields of aid, development, communications and business. Their individual skill sets will complement the skills of existing Trustees, and help drive DARA forward in its continuous mission of helping humanitarian aid actors deliver effective and quality assistance to vulnerable populations suffering from conflicts and natural disasters.

Bios of new Board Trustees:

  • Karen A. Tramontano is the Chief Executive Officer at Blue Star Strategies, LLC and provides corporate, institutional and public sector clients with results-oriented strategies. In her previous work experience Ms. Tramontano played a critical role in shaping some of the most important global policy issues of our time, including China Permanent Normal Trade Relations, environmental and labor standards in agreement, and US signing of the ILO’s Child Labor Convention.  From 1997 to 2001, Ms. Tramontano served as Deputy Chief of Staff to President Clinton and continues her work with President Clinton as President and Founder of the Global Fairness Initiative. She also serves as Senior Advisor to Guy Ryder, Director General of the International Labor Organization.
  • Michel Ogrizek is a seasoned international consultant in strategic communications, counseling leaders of international institutions and global corporations for more than twenty years. Previously, Mr. Ogrizek was Global Vice Chairman of Edelman (New York); Managing Board Director and Head of Communications at the World Economic Forum (Geneva & Davos); Managing Director and Global Head, marketing & communications at UBS Warburg (London); Global Head of corporate relations & Corporate Officer at Unilever (London and Rotterdam); President & CEO of Edelman’s European operations; President and CEO of Hill & Knowlton, France, and Head of Eurosciences; Director of Healthcare, Environment, Issues and Crisis Management at the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller.
    Mr. Ogrizek graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Paris, specializing in tropical medicine and was Research Associate in Cultural Anthropology at Berkeley (UCLA). His first job was Chief Medical Officer at the French Ministry of Cooperation operating in the bush and later he served as Medical and Public Affairs Director for Africa and Canada at Warner-Lambert. He was also a Médecins Sans Frontières trainer.
  • Ricardo Solé-Arqués is a Medical Doctor, specialist in Internal Medicine, holding a Master in Public Health and Health Services Management. After practicing clinical medicine for a number of years, he became involved in humanitarian and aid activities, first with medical NGOs and International Organizations, and later as a technical assistant and consultant. Mr. Solé has extensive field work experience at the managerial, operational, programmatic and strategic level, applying learning and evaluative frameworks, as well as evidence-based approaches.
    He has been Head of Mission for MdM in BiH, Coordinator for WHO in Opt,  ECHO representative in Colombia and Angola, and ECHO’s regional health expert in BiH,  Kosovo,  and at the regional office in Amman. He served as deputy director of DARA in 2009/2010. As a consultant he has carried out a number of assignments for different parties (MdM, MsF, WHO, ECHO, DARA, AECID, UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP, etc) in Africa, South East Asia, the Middle East and Central and South America, with a particular focus on learning and participatory evaluations, and a number of studies on policy issues of development and humanitarian aid.
    Ricardo Sole is currently an independent consultant, team member of Dahlia and associated professor of the Andalusian School of Public Health (easp).