Catherine Fitzgibbon is an independent consultant currently based in the UK after over 15 years working in the Horn of Africa region. She has worked for a wide range of clients including donors, World Bank, UN agencies and NGOs.

Catherine currently provides technical assistance to Kenya’s National Safety Net Programme (NSNP) and the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) in the implementation of its Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP) providing cash transfer payments to the extreme poor.

Catherine is also an adviser on disaster risk financing initiatives with the World Bank’s Finance and Markets Global Practice unit.

Prior to becoming a consultant Catherine was Programme Quality and Design Director at Save the
Children UK (Kenya) and as Head of Operations for Save the Children (Ethiopia).

She is a critical thinker with frontline experience of the issues facing poor communities in Africa.
Catherine has recently been appointed to the Board of Partner Africa.

Dervla is a qualified FCA with over 16 years PQE in practice and industry. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from University College Dublin, Dervla continued to study for her ACA qualification while
working in the audit department of a top 5 audit and advisory practice. Dervla has considerable audit, advisory and transaction experience across a range of growth focused businesses covering SME’s, multinationals and listed
companies both domestically and internationally.
In 2009 Dervla moved into the recruitment industry and joined Sigmar. She is responsible for the finance function of the Group with particular emphasis on working capital management, financial reporting, project management, statutory accounting and audit, taxation, payroll, legal and corporate compliance.
Qualifications:
Bachelor of Commerce, University College Dublin
Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ireland

Mary Robinson is the Chair of United Purpose and has been a UP trustee since 2018. She is an independent consultant in the NGO/international development sector, specialising particularly in NGO management and programme evaluation. She has worked with many UK and international clients including INGOs, foundations, donors and governments.

Mary was a Director of GCPS Consulting, a small consultancy in the UK specialising in child protection and safeguarding, from 2014-2022. Prior to becoming a consultant she was Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International. She has been a school governor and a member of prison Independent Monitoring Boards for 15 years. Until recently she was an independent panel member for the Judicial Appointments Commission, chairing panels for the recruitment of judges in England and Wales.

She was a trustee and Co-Chair of Gloucestershire Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre from 2016-2022. She has a degree in French and German and postgraduate qualifications in information science.

Catherine has a wealth of experience from the commercial, education and charity sectors, including her current role as Director of Marketing and Income Generation at Cat’s Protection, where she leads the organisations fundraising and commercial activities raising approximately £70m per year. Prior to this she was Executive Director of Fundraising and Partnerships for Comic Relief developing a new strategy and new income streams for the well-loved charity brand; Director of Fundraising at UNICEF UK where she doubled income in a 5 year period; and Group Head of Fundraising at the RSPCA where she led the creation and implementation of a new fundraising strategy bringing high growth in income from individuals and high value partnerships. Catherine joined the RSPCA following a long career in sales and marketing which began in 1994 with Haymarket Publishing after studying History at the University of Aberdeen and Marketing as a postgraduate at the University of Strathclyde. She later exhibited an interest in the not-for-profit sector working at Imperial Cancer Research Fund and then later as Marketing Director at King’s College London, leading the University’s national and international marketing activities. Catherine plays an active role in the wider fundraising community, including sitting on the Institute of Fundraising’s Learning and Development committee, and the Fundraising Regulator’s Complaints and investigations Committee.

Geoff is an experienced professional in the commercial and not-for profit sector. He served as Group Finance director of Glanbia plc from 1992 to 2005 at which point he took on the additional role of Deputy Group Managing Director until his retirement in 2009. He has a broad range of experience covering business operations, acquisitions and disposals, investment appraisal, banking arrangements/negotiations, IT and shared services and general management. In the not-for-profit sector he served as National President of the Society of St Vincent DePaul from 2012 to 2017.

Geoff is a Certified Public Accountant having trained with PwC in Kilkenny. He currently self-employed consultant providing commercial and financial advice to mainly medium sized businesses. He is a director of several companies including Enterprise Ireland as well as being chairman of the boards of Bord na Mona and Bon Secours Health System.