ARK Directors & Trustees
ARK Patrons
ARK US
ARK Executives
ARK Managment Team
Charles Abani, Chief International Advisor
Before Charles joined ARK in May 2010, he was Regional Director, Southern Africa for Oxfam GB. Charles also worked in various capacities with ActionAid and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). He has had extensive experience in networks of development and management in Africa as well as development work at an international level. He also has experience of working in the private sector and government in the UK.
Charles has a first degree in History and a Masters Degree in Political Science from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria.
Paul Bernstein, Managing Director
Paul joined ARK in September 2003 from the private sector, originally as COO of ARK South Africa. Prior to that, he worked as a business consultant for Vodacom in South Africa, and as Marketing Executive for Vodafone Global Products and Services, where he brought to bear his marketing, strategic planning, and project management skills.
Paul holds an MA Hons. in Economics from Jesus College, Cambridge and MBA from Cranfield University.
Sally Morgan (Baroness Morgan of Huyton), Advisor to the Board
Sally joined ARK in September 2005 from her post as Director of Government Relations at 10 Downing Street. Sally worked as a senior adviser to Tony Blair from 1995. Originally a secondary school teacher Sally has a BA (Hons) in Geography from Durham University, PGCE from London University and MA in Comparative Education from the Institute of Education.
Sally was created a life peer in 2001 and served as a Cabinet Office Minister on Equalities.
Micky Sandall, Chief Financial Officer
Micky joined ARK in March 2009. Prior to this he was Finance Director of the Royal Society of Medicine, which is the largest provider of post-graduate medical education in the UK and has over 20,000 members. Originally qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen, he worked in Malawi, East Africa, for over 3 years.
He has nearly 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry and was Finance Director for the Caribbean and Middle East regions of Cable and Wireless with responsibility for 37 trading operations. Subsequently he was European FD for CellStar, a US based distributor of mobile handsets.
ARK Programmes Team
Frank Aswani, Regional Director, Sub Sahara Africa
Frank Joined ARK in December 2008 from Eli Lilly, a leading American pharmaceutical company, where he was the Sales Director for South and Sub Sahara Africa.
Frank holds a Veterinary degree from the University of Nairobi, Kenya and an MBA from the Gordon’s Institute of Business Science (GIBS), University of Pretoria.
Sue Fox, Country Director, Mozambique
Sue joined ARK in 2008 as a Senior Programmes Manager which oversaw ARK’s Children in Care portfolio, focusing on de-institutionalisation in Bulgaria and Romania. Prior to this, Sue worked as a Project Manager at The Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies in Geneva, a Programme Manager at United Nations Association of the USA in New York, and a Research/Project Manager at the Centre for AIDS Development Research & Evaluation (CADRE) in Johannesburg.
Sue has a MA in International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and BSc in Journalism from Ohio University.
Lucy Heller, Managing Director, Schools UK
Lucy joined ARK in 2004 from TSL Education, a subsidiary of News International, where she was Joint Managing Director. Her previous roles include General Manager of The Observer and Executive Chairman at Verso, a trade and academic publisher.
She has worked for many years with a number of charitable and voluntary organisations including the Marshall Commission, Community Links and the Bush Theatre.
Laura Parker, Managing Director, Child Protection
Laura joined ARK in 2005. Prior to joining she was Director of Save the Children UK’s Bulgaria Programme. Prior to this, she worked for the European Commission as Social Policy Advisor in the EC Delegation to Bulgaria and on trade and development policy for the EC in Brussels. Laura has also worked for the UK Department of Environment and with non-government organisations in Cambodia and India.
Laura holds a BA in Latin American Studies and a Masters in Public Administration, both from the University of Liverpool.
Amitav Virmani, Country Director, India
Amitav Virmani joined ARK in August 2008. Prior to this he was General Manager in the office of the CEO & Managing Director of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (RLL), India’s largest pharmaceutical company. Amitav previously worked with Bristol Myers Squibb spending four years in New Jersey and then moved to India to help set up the Indian office. Amitav is also a Trustee and Manager of two family run schools that serve lesser privileged children in New Delhi.
Amitav earned his MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000, after graduating with Honors in Economics from the St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, India in 1994.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, Director of Education, Schools UK
Michael has been a Headteacher for 22 years in inner London secondary schools. From 1985-2003 he was head of St Bonaventures school in the London Borough of Newham. This 1300 boys comprehensive school is one of the most improved schools in the country and was one of the first specialist schools in the country with beacon status. St Bonaventures also gained a reputation for raising attainment levels of Afro-Caribbean boys and was mentioned in the Ofsted report on this issue in 2001.
Michael has supported a number of schools in special measures and in 2003 was appointed as the first Principal of Mossbourne City Academy in Hackney on the site of the failed Hackney Downs School. Ofsted described Mossbourne as outstanding in its inspection report of 2006.