Board of Directors

Sandiran (Sandi) Premakanthan is a Sri Lankan born Canadian Citizen. Sandi lives in Ottawa, Ontario Canada. He holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Ottawa with concentration in Finance, Accounting, Auditing and Evaluation. Sandi is an Accredited Productivity Professional /Industrial Engineer (Fellow Institute of Management Services, United Kingdom – FMS and an Associate, Institute of Industrial Engineering – AIIE, a Certified Quality Auditor (CQA), Quality Management Systems (ISO 9000), American Society for Quality (ASQ), Lead Auditor, Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14000) and a Certified Provisional SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination – ISO 15504) Assessor (CPSA).

Sandi has over 25 years of general management consulting, evaluation and auditing experience in the public and private sectors. During the past several years with the Public Service of Canada, Sandi successfully developed Performance Results Based Management Strategies and conducted evaluations. He is currently a Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor with the Office of Business Integration and Planning Directorate, Health Security Infrastructure Branch (HSIB), Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Sandi has taught Production/Industrial Engineering, Evaluation, Auditing, and Management at the University, Community College and Professional Institutions for over 25 years. Over the past decade, he presented a number of papers, workshops and seminars on Managing for Performance Results and other related subjects at international conferences and events in North America, Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe.

He is the President and Principal Consultant, Symbiotic International Consulting Services (SICS), Ottawa, Ontario Canada. Sandi is a Certified Trainer and is engaged in providing Management Education and Training/Professional Development and Facilitated Learning events and Services.

Sandi is a Credentialed Evaluator (CE) and an active member of the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES). He has close links with several other evaluation societies, associations and networks worldwide. He is the Chair /President of the International Organization for Collaborative Outcome Management – IOCOM (www.iocomsa.org), a Canadian registered not-for-profit Corporation.

Zicky Hammud is a senior management consultant with the Canadian federal government’s internal consulting arm: Government Consulting Services. He has 25 years of consulting experience in the public, private and non-governmental sectors. Having worked with all levels of government officials (both in the federal bureaucracy and the Canadian Parliament), Zicky is people-oriented, innovative, and delivers improved business and organizational capabilities with forward thinking solutions.

Zicky is a skilled relationship builder, who is analytical, self-motivated, and entrepreneurial. His expertise includes organizational design and change management, streamlining core work processes, evaluating government programs, developing strategic plans and policies, and general governance.

Originally from the Nova Scotia on Canada’s east coast, Zicky holds a Master's degree in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. Zicky has travelled extensively abroad and considers himself a citizen of the world who closely monitors world events and their implications. Zicky is also active with non-profit organizations involved in development issues and the arts. He is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

Raymond Peterkin graduated with a B.A.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the University of Ottawa in 2003 summa cum laude with options in co-operative education and management and entrepreneurship. Raymond is now a member of NCCT where he finished his M.A.Sc in Electrical Engineering in 2006 conducting researching in reconfigurable computing (FPGAs) and MPLS to optimize how data is routed on the Internet and best effort networks. He is now a Ph.D student continuing research in embedded systems and higher layer networking protocols like the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

Raymond is a member of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the IEEE Computer Society and the Golden Key Society.

Kunzang Lhamu is a Bhutanese citizen and lives in Thimphu Bhutan. Kunzang obtained her Master degree in public policy from the National University of Singapore.

Kunzang has recently been appointed as the Director of the National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC), Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB). Prior to this, she worked as the Chief of the Research and Evaluation Division (RED) of the Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC), RGoB. She has spearheaded initiatives to institutionalize outcome management in Bhutan through development of the National Evaluation Policy and National Evaluation Protocol and Guidelines (currently in draft) and also is the Chair of the Evaluation Association of Bhutan, which is in the process of being registered as a Civil Society Organization.

Dr. Ishwar Awasthi, a Ph.D. (Economics) from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (India) is presently working as Professor of Economics at Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow, UP (India). Prior to joining this institution, he was senior faculty at the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (Planning Commission, Government of India) Delhi. He received specialized training on Manpower Planning from the Institute of Employment Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom. He is alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (India). He has received training on International Programme for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) organized by the World Bank and Carleton University in Ottawa (Canada). He works in the areas of labour, employment and livelihood issues in mountain economies, human resource planning and development and on development evaluation. He has contributed over 3 dozen papers in the professional journals. He has participated and contributed papers in international conferences. He was a Member, Competencies for Development Evaluation Evaluators, International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS), 2012; European Evaluation Society, Prague 4, Czech Republic; Development Evaluation Society of India (DESI), New Delhi and currently Member, Governing Council of International Organization for Collaborative Outcome Management (IOCOM).

Prabin Chitrakar is a Nepali citizen and lives in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is currently with Ban Landmines Campaign Nepal(NCBL)as a Mine Risk Education Program Coordinator and Finance & Technical Officer. Prabin has more than ten years of experience in the field of Mine Action. He is a member of International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS), European Evaluation Society (EES) and few other national organisations. He has received Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) training including the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) of the World Bank and Carleton University Canada. He has been involved in M&E for his organization. Prabin is an M&E trainer and conducts training workshops in Nepal. He has a keen interest in continuous learning and getting involved in the field of M&E outcome and development management. He plans to transfer his knowledge in building M&E, outcome and development management capacity in government and the private sector.

Md. Abu Hanif currently lives in Afghanistan and he holds Bangladeshi citizenships by birth. Hanif obtained his Masters in Development Study degree from Southeast University, Dhaka majoring in poverty alleviation, development concepts and measurements of indicators, micro and macro economics, monitoring and evaluation in NGO affairs, project management and development, environmental development and gender and development. He has obtained diploma degree on ‘Basic Ecology on Integrated Rice and Fish Farming System’ from Sains University, Malaysia. He attended two weeks training on ‘Integrated Rice and Fish Farming system’ from Kantho University in Vietnam. Hanif has attended in series of training on ‘International Programme of Development Programme, Monitoring and Evaluation in development and peace building programme’ in Carleton University Ottawa Canada, University of Ulster of Northern Ireland, Pretoria in South Africa organized by IMA International and many more in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Egypt and Cambodia.

Hanif has over 18 years of research, monitoring and evaluation, and project management experience across a number of sectors including livelihoods, economic development, education, health, disaster risk reduction, environment, emergency, and local governance. Hanif has authored numerous research and evaluation reports, articles and workshops on topics such as assessing program impacts, results-based management, project baselines, projects feasibility studies and participatory monitoring and evaluation guideline. He has provided monitoring and evaluation and Humanitarian Accountability standard training to more than 400 national and international NGOs staff it Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Abu Hanif is currently employed as the Programme Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor of Concern Worldwide, Afghanistan with more than 3,000 staff and Concern implementing Food Income Market Interaction, Health, Education, HIV and AIDS and Emergency Programme in Afghanistan with more 32 countries over the world. Hanif has also held the positions of Monitoring and Evaluation Expert with the Concern Worldwide, Bangladesh and more than six years with CARE Bangladesh. Hanif is a founder member of Community of Evaluation Expert forum of Southeast Asia, member of Asia Peacebuilding Forum, AMAN Bangladesh and networking member of IPDET, INCORE, IDEAS, Keystone, 3i, Afrea and European Evaluation Society as well as the accountability forum of National and International Organisation in Southeast Asia.

Syed Rashedul Hossen, a Bangladeshi national, now lives in Hiroshima for higher study. He obtained his Master's degree from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh majoring in Management. He has received training in the field of development administration, policy formulation and implementation, project management and in the various other related disciplines. He also attended many national and international seminars and symposiums including the International Program for Development Evaluation and Training (IPDET) jointly sponsored by the World Bank and Carleton University of Canada in the year 2009.

Mr. Hossen has 10 years of experience as a career civil servant in public policy and general administration arena in the government of Bangladesh. He is now pursuing higher studies in Hiroshima University, Japan under the joint Japan-World Bank Scholarship Program designed for mid-career professionals. Having served in various ministries in the government of Bangladesh he was mandated to monitor and evaluate different government projects and programs and acquired hands on experiences in this field.

Mr. Hossen has been relentlessly working to strengthen and institutionalize the M&E concept in the different levels of the government in Bangladesh as well as in corporate and NGO environments. His current research focus is also related to socio-economic impact analysis in the context of developing countries. He is also interested in sharing knowledge and experiences between GO and NGO, and interacting with people from multiple disciplines. He is an active member of IDEAS (International Development Evaluation Association) and also highly enthusiastic and immensely happy to be partnered with the IOCOMSA and hopes that under the umbrella of IOCOM, M&E enthusiasts can work together to spread the practice of greater accountability in the form of monitoring and evaluation throughout South Asia.

Asgar Bhikoo has worked in the Academic, Tourism, Research, Non-Profit (Manufacturing, Grant-Making and Entrepreneurial Development) and Corporate Sectors (Petrochemical and Retail). He has provided Human Resources, Research, Facilitation and Supervisory capacity in these sectors. He has completed his Masters degree in Programme Evaluation at the University of Cape Town in 2011, along with an Honours degree in Organisational Psychology (in 2007) an Undergraduate degree in Psychology and Organisational Psychology at the same university (in 2006).

Asgar is an active member of the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA) and the American Evaluation Association (AEA). He also participates in South African Organisational Development Network (SAODN) activities. He was awarded and participated in the Claremont Evaluation Center (USA) and Eval Partners Scholarship in 2013. He has also contributed to writing a chapter Evaluation management in South Africa and Africa, by F. Cloete, B. Rabie, and T.C. de Coning.

Currently he works for the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer. He provides strategic input into Monitoring and Evaluation activities, Research, Organisational Development, Selection and Assessment and Operational Support to the organisation. He is the Chairman of the Health and Safety Committee. Asgar is passionate about Programme Evaluation, Entrepreneurial Development, Research, Education, Economic Development, Organisational Development, Networking, Collaborating and Psychology.

MA, MBA, Ph.D, FCMC
Director MBA Program and Centre for Business Analytics and Performance University of Ottawa, Telfer School of Management.

Greg Richards is currently Director of the MBA program and of the Centre for Business Analytics and Performance at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. He teaches courses on Organizational Performance Management, Strategy, and Management Consulting. Prior to his posting at the Telfer School, he worked as an internal performance management consultant with Transport Canada and as a Senior Consultant with Consulting and Audit Canada’s (CAC) Financial and Innovative Service Delivery unit. At CAC, his focus was on building business focused government organizations and therefore his practice included business planning, operational audits, and costing of services. He has conducted performance management engagements with a variety of organizations including Transport Canada, Health Canada, CFIA, CSE, the Canada School of the Public Service, Public Health Agency of Canada, PWGSC, Service Canada, The Passport Office, University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, Panasonic Industrial Corporation, BASF, MetLife, Schindler Corporation, and the Queensway Carleton Hospital. In addition, he has supervised over 40 student projects in government, healthcare, and private sector organizations.

He is a Certified Management Consultant and has been Chair of the local chapter of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants, a member of the Ontario Certifying Institute, and Chair of the National Certification Committee. He is also a Fellow of the association and an Academic Fellow of the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes.

His current research interests include organizational learning (frameworks for using performance measurement to stimulate learning in organizations), methods for building high performing organizations, the impact of performance management technologies on organizational effectiveness, and the use of decision-frameworks to improve business intelligence capability. His research appears in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Journal for Healthcare Quality, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Journal of Database Management, the Journal of Computer Information Systems and Decision Analytics.

As Director of the IBM Centre for Business Analytics and Performance, currently housed at the Telfer School of Management, he is responsible for coordinating a research program that includes a variety of research teams working on healthcare performance improvement, development of user-focused business intelligence systems, the use of social media analytics and the application of Big Data in government.

Awuor Ponge is the founding President of the African Policy Centre, where he presently serves as Associate Research Fellow in-charge of Research, Policy and Evaluation. He is a Doctoral Candidate at Kenyatta University’s Department of Gender and Development Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Ponge is an Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Gender and Development Studies at Kenyatta University as well as in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Kisii University. He has also served as an Associate Research Fellow and the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR – Kenya), and the Education Enhancement Centre (EEC). He is a Double-Masters Degree holder in Development Studies from the Institute for Development Studies of the University of Nairobi on a Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF) Scholarship; and in Education, Gender and International Development (MA – EGID) from the Institute of Education of the University of London on a Commonwealth Scholarship. He has previously been an International Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England; and a participant at the International Programme for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He has previously been an Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Development Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA); and the Department of Development Studies at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). He is at present the Special Rapporteur of the Think Tank Network in Eastern Africa (TTN-EA). Previously, Ponge graduated with a Summa Cum Laude Bachelor of Arts Degree in Literature and Philosophy from the University of Nairobi.

Ponge has had comprehensive international development experience including evaluation research and assessment; theory-based evaluation; data analysis; and program and policy analysis. He has worked as a Consultant for many organisations including Isalmic Relief Worldwide, UN Women, FEMNET, UNICEF, USAID, DfID, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, World Vision, PACT International, ACBF, AfrEA, Tetra Tech ARD, Chemonics, Coffey International and IDRC, on a number of multidisciplinary research and evaluation projects. He has been extensively involved in capacity building and in project management, and has over 16 years of experience in academia as a lecturer and trainer in tertiary educational institutions in Kenya.

Ponge has over 5 years experience providing technical and advisory support to both State and Non-State Actors both national and international on various areas of mutual interest.

Ponge has authored/co-authored and edited 4 books and has authored a wide range of articles in peer reviewed Journals. He is at present a reviewer for the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) Journal. His research interests are in gender dynamics in educational evaluation; gender and information technology; impact of research on policy and legislation; evidence-based research; Youth and development policy; gender and governance in general; and monitoring and evaluation.

He is a highly motivated, independent and responsible individual, quick learner, adaptable, and a great team player. Given his diverse background and experiences you can be assured he can be calm under pressure. Throughout his career he has developed sound critical analysis, strategic thinking skills, good judgment, relationship management, and leadership and communications skills. As a professional, bound to uphold his credentials, his work ethic centers on principles and commitment.

Ponge is the immediate former National Treasurer of the Evaluation Society of Kenya (ESK). He is a member of the African Evaluation Society (AfrEA) and the African Gender and Development Evaluators Network (AGDEN). He has previously served as a Board Member at the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA) as well as Former Board Member and Regional Representative for Sub-Saharan Africa at the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS). Ponge has also previously served as the Kenya Country Representative at the International Organization for Collaborative Outcome Management (IOCOM). Ponge is the Convener of the Gender and Evaluation Thematic Interest Group at IDEAS; and also the founder and former Leader of the Working Group on Mentoring Emerging Evaluators Programme at IDEAS. Ponge presently sits at the EvalGender+ Management Group, where he is Co-Cordinator for the Communication and Knowledge Management Task Group; where previously he was also Co-Convener of the Advocacy and Leadership Task Group.