Erastus Mwencha Board Chairman

Erastus Mwencha is the former Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission. He is also a former Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Prior to COMESA, Mr Mwencha served in the Government of Kenya in several capacities, including as Head of Industrial Promotion Department, Secretary to Industrial Sciences Advisory Research Committee, and as a Senior Economist at the Kenyan Industrial Survey and Promotion Centre. He holds a Master’s degree in economics from the University of York and has received several awards and honours, including ‘Elder of the Golden Heart’ in 2009, and ‘Moran of the Burning Spear’ in 1998, both presented by the President of the Republic of Kenya. He has also received Officer of National Order in 1977, the highest national award in the Republic of Madagascar, and the highest Presidential Award given by the President of the Republic of Djibouti. Lastly, he led COMESA to the ‘International Gold Award for Excellence and Business Prestige’ in 2002, during the Quality Summit Award in New York.

David Beer Chief Executive Officer

David Beer took up his appointment as TMA Chief Executive Officer on September 1^st, 2022.  He has over 20 years senior international experience in aid for trade, governments, diplomacy, multilaterals, and development.

David previously represented the United Kingdom (UK) advising respective UK Executive Directors to the Boards of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on areas such as institutional risk management, adaptive programming and disaster risk financing, alongside macro-economic management, and development programming. Additionally, he has led development efforts for the British Government and other international organisations across Africa, including Uganda, Sudan, Burundi, and Ghana; where he led innovative commercial investment projects, economic development, and humanitarian strategies. Prior to Joining TMA, David was the UK’s High Commissioner to Malawi and the Country Director for Malawi’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. He is a graduate of Oxford University, UK.

Njoki Mungai Senior Director, Programme Delivery Hub

Njoki is a dedicated leader with a solid senior management background and extensive experience in implementing medium to longer-term organisational strategies. She has 20 years of development experience and a bachelor's degree in Communication and Business Administration from Daystar University, Kenya. Currently, she leads TradeMark’s Programme Delivery Hub, covering planning and information management, programme budgeting, procurement cycle management, and results-based monitoring and evaluation. The Hub also oversees sustainable trade, including project risk management, safeguarding, climate change and environment in programmes. In addition, Njoki is involved in strategic and partnership management, corporate planning, and programme and project design. Before joining TradeMark, she worked at the United Nations Strategy for International Development (UNISDR) and the USAID East and Central Africa Global Competitiveness Trade Hub.

Anthe Vrijlandt Director, Strategy and Partnerships

Anthe Vrijlandt has over 25 years of international development experience with an extensive track record in fund-raising, business development, programme management of trade and development interventions, government and donor relations and public Affairs.

She previously worked for the Netherlands Embassy in Rwanda, and overseen development projects in Rwanda, Kenya and Burundi with various organisations.

Anthe is currently the Director of Corporate Affairs at TradeMark East Africa (TradeMark) where she advises and supports the Senior Leadership team in fundraising and strategy forecasting especially on areas of Gender and Inclusion, Diversity and climate change, in terms of greening of transport and trade corridors.

Previously, Anthe served as the TradeMark European Liaison Manager driving strategic engagements with the European Union in Brussels, the World Trade Organisation, as well as Foreign Affairs ministries for countries funding TradeMark. Prior to this, she was the Country Director for TradeMark’s Burundi Country Programme. Anthe holds a degree in Philosophy and a master’s degree in Theology from KU Leuven University.

Hellen Oriaro Council member

Hellen Oriaro is an International Development Officer at Global Affairs Canada.

Mark Priestley Chief of Party, USAID, ERRA 1

Mark is a Senior Director for Trade Logistic Clusters and leads on this new work stream under our Strategy 2 to support export-led industrialization in East Africa. He has been with TMA since its startup, first as Country Director for Rwanda and then as Senior Director for Country Programmes where he spearheaded new programmes in Ethiopia and DRC. Mark is a development economist with 25 years experience of managing aid-funded programmes in private sector development, trade and regional integration in emerging economies. He spent his formative years with the European Commission supporting East European countries with their transition to a market economy and their entry into the European Union. During his time with the EU in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was involved with post-war economic regeneration, before moving to South Africa where he managed a large EU grant fund. Prior to his current position, Mark was the Senior Director, Country Programmes at TMA.

Allen Sophia Asiimwe Chief of Programmes

Ms. Asiimwe is a Ugandan advocate and policy leader with over 20 years’ experience as a development advisor and practitioner. She is passionate about shaping Africa’s narrative on governance, trade, regional integration and development issues. She has designed and managed programmes for government agencies, private sector, civil society and donors across the African region (including in all East African Countries, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and DRC). Allen has served in the past as CEO of AVID Development, a regional consulting firm working on key issues of trade, development and governance in Africa. She has also worked as a consultant for (attached to the Managing Director) at the African Export Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK) in Cairo, Egypt supporting the implementation of the Intra Africa Trade Initiative- aimed at increasing trade among African countries. She has also worked previously in TMA as the Uganda Country Director. Allen holds a master’s in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School (Edward Mason Fellow, 2017) and a Masters in International Business Law from the University of Manchester, UK (1998).

Abhishek Sharma Senior Director, Transport

In his role as Senior Director, Transport, Abhishek supports regional integration and trade competitiveness in East Africa by helping infrastructure agencies prepare and finance key transport and logistics facilities. Abhishek has over 18 years of experience and in this time he has worked on the entire value chain of infrastructure development, from strategy to implementation as well financing. He has worked in a number of developing countries in Asia and Africa for a variety of institutions including national and state governments, infrastructure developers, private equity companies as well as several development finance institutions. Prior to joining TMA he was a Director in Deloitte.

Damon Bristow Council Member

Otto Stenius Council Member

Patricia Ojangóle Board Member

Patricia is a professional accountant with 17 years’ experience in Banking and Finance. Currently, she is the Managing Director of Uganda Development Bank Limited she has been instrumental in turning around the Bank to become the preferred and trusted partner to the Government of Uganda in achieving Socio-economic development aspirations.

Prior to becoming the Managing Director, she worked as a Chief Audit Executive at Uganda Development Bank and a Senior Internal Audit Manager at Standard Bank Group. She has specific competences in Strategy development and implementation, Risk management, Corporate Governance and Finance

Patricia holds a first-class Master of Philosophy in Development Finance from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. She also holds an Executive Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institute, Arusha, Tanzania; a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Degree from Makerere University, Uganda and has completed several leadership and management programs. She is currently undertaking her PhD studies in development finance at the University of Stellenbosch.

Patricia is a Fellow of the Association of the Certified Chartered Accountants (UK); the Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU), as well as The Institute of Internal Auditors Uganda (IIA).

She is a member of the Board of Uganda Development Bank Ltd, Busitema University Fund Ltd, and The New Vision Group. She is also a member of the Management Board of the European Union Funded START facility and serves on the boards of the Association of Development Finance Institutions in Africa and in the Association of member countries of Islamic Development Bank.

Gabriel Negatu Board Member

Mr Gabriel Negatu is the former Director General at the Africa Development Bank (AfDB). He has more than 25 years of senior level program, operations and managerial experience, including 18 years at AfDB. He has extensive experience in operations having been senior and principal programme officer from 1998 to 2002, chief programme officer from 2002 to 2006 and sector director for economic and financial governance, where he headed the bank's first governance department. Mr. Negatu was credited for successfully leading the bank’s response to the global financial crisis and for spearheading the use of budget support operations for fragile states.

Mr Negatu holds a bachelor's degree in Geography and Planning from California State University and a Master's Degree in Public and International Administration with a focus on Economics and Social Development from the university of Pittsburgh.