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This is Who We Are

Our Team

As our name suggests, it all comes down to people. Our mission is about people and our work is for people. And the most important resource we have to succeed at our mission is the incredible people who work for us and with us.

We want to thank all the volunteers, employees, board, field partners, funding partners, donors, and strategic partners for their dedication, tenacity, and selflessness in helping us work to solve the world's water crisis – for Everyone Forever.

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Global Leadership Team

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Samson Hailu Bekele

Co-CEO

SAMSON HAILU BEKELE
CO-CEO

Samson Hailu Bekele joined Water For People as the Africa Regional Director in 2017. He contributes his 35 years of experience in strategic planning, managing finances and programs, strengthening fundraising and grant management processes, and mentoring people. He has visited or worked in 25 countries – 18 in Africa – and savors time with his two, now nearly adult, children. He holds an MBA from Strathclyde Business School, a postgraduate diploma in business analysis from Lancaster University, and a BA in Accounting from Addis Ababa University. 

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Mark Duey

Co-CEO

MARK DUEY
CO-CEO

Mark believes the global water and sanitation crisis can end during our lifetime. Mark joined Water For People in 2008 as coordinator of a school WASH program across Central America. He later became Latin America Regional Director, Chief Programs Officer, and was most recently Water For People’s Chief Operating Officer. Mark was a consulting engineer and then a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras before joining Water For People. He holds an MS in Economics, Finance, and Management from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and his BS is in Civil Engineering from the University of Nebraska. Mark is based in Denver and enjoys strong family ties to Central America where his wife and two of his three children were born. 

Learn more and connect with Mark.

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Abdi Debela

Chief Financial Officer

ABDI DEBELA
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Abdi finds deeper meaning in the convergence of her professional career in finance and her passion in life: positively and sustainably impact one person, one village, or a community at a time. She holds a BA in Accounting from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, her native country, and an MBA in Finance from Vanderbilt University. She is also a U.S. Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA).

Learn more and connect with Abdi.

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Jody Debs

Chief Administrative Officer

JODY DEBS
CHIEF ADMINISTRATION OFFICER

Jody is excited to bring her more than 30 years of legal, compliance and risk experience to Water For People.  She is passionate about leveraging her knowledge and skill set to support Water For People’s mission and values.  Jody has been active on other NGO boards in the international development and legal sectors.  Jody has JD and a MA in Economics from Duke University and a Bachelor’s of Journalism and of Arts from the University of Missouri.  Jody enjoys the Colorado outdoors with her family and gardening, music, theater, dance, and art.

Learn more and connect with Jody.

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Bishwadeep Ghose

Country Director, India

BISHWADEEP GHOSE
COUNTRY DIRECTOR, INDIA

Bishwadeep Ghose joined Water For People India in fall 2020 as the Water For People India Country Director, contributing 25 years’ experience sharing knowledge on, managing national and international programs, and advocating for programs related to water security, agriculture, and forestry. He has contributed to water policies and the design of large-scale programs of India’s Central and State Governments while with Arghyam and the India Water Portal. He also served as an Interim Director of Hivos’ Regional Office and is the Founding Director of the India Foundation for Humanistic Development. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Forest Management and a bachelor's degree in chemistry and enjoys spending free time with family and being outdoors. 

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Daniel Oporto

Regional Director, Latin America

DANIEL OPORTO
REGIONAL DIRECTOR, LATIN AMERICA

Daniel is an international development expert with 20 years of experience designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating projects in areas related to pro-poor and private sector development. Daniel's experience has focused on the following fields: market-based mechanisms in water and sanitation, sustainable and climate-smart agriculture, public-private partnerships, linking smallholders and farmers to markets, value chain and market systems development, and bottom of the pyramid markets, to name a few.

Daniel has worked on multicultural project teams with clients and employers from the private sector, multilateral and bilateral institutions, humanitarian aid agencies, nonprofits, microfinance institutions (MFIs), social entrepreneurs, and business associations in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. He currently lives in La Paz, Bolivia where he enjoys reading and researching issues related to poverty and likes long walks with his family. Daniel speaks Spanish and English fluently.

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Katherine Williford

Chief Growth Officer

KATHERINE WILLIFORD
CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER

Katherine believes that through Water For People’s Everyone Forever strategy, poverty is solvable – and is passionate about connecting supporters with our work to achieve that vision in our lifetime. Katherine found her calling on a community service trip to Honduras, which inspired her to move to Honduras full-time as a volunteer – where she saw firsthand the impact water poverty has on families. She brings more than a decade of business development and board experience in the nonprofit sector, and has lived, worked, and traveled to more than 25 countries. Katherine holds a B.A. in Spanish Language & Literature from Rhodes College, and enjoys hiking, camping, skiing, and show-shoeing across Colorado with her husband and dog in their free time.

Learn more and connect with Katherine.

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COUNTRY DIRECTORS

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Andrés Abasto

Country Director, Bolivia

Andrés Abasto
COUNTRY DIRECTOR, BOLIVIA

Andres joined the organazation on October 1st, 2021. He brings over 20 years of experience implementing and managing projects in specific areas such as economic growth, business development, market access, and poverty alleviation. His management capabilities have focused on consulting firms, aid agencies, development programs and, local and international NGO’s. His qualitative results orientation skills, in addition to his implementation of participation-based development activities have allowed him to build opportunities for fundraising, partnerships, business development, risk capital funds, trade and social entrepreneur sustainability.

Andres has led investment projects in economic growth, was National Director of PROCOIN, an UE Economic Growth and Investment Promotion Program (over €17 million), and worked as Deputy Director at Integrated Food Security (IFS), Abt Associates and USAID Project, with a US$ 26 million budget.

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Ulemu Chiluzi

Country Director, Malawi

ULEMU CHILUZI
COUNTRY DIRECTOR, MALAWI

Ulemu Chiluzi joined Water For People in 2020 as the Malawi Country Director. A civil engineer, he contributes his 18 years of experience leading development programs spanning the education, food security, livelihoods, WASH, governance, and HIV/AIDS sectors. He excels at organizational development and strategy, networking, relationship building, and resource mobilization. He has worked with CARE International, United Purpose (formerly Concern-Universal), Plan International Malawi, ActionAid Malawi, and Self-Help Africa. He has an MBA and a BS in Civil Engineering. In his free time, he enjoys playing chess.

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Eugene Dusingizumuremyi

Interim Country Director, Rwanda

Coming soon

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HENRY GUDIEL

Country Director, Honduras

Coming soon

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Gisela Murrugarra

Country Director, Perú

Gisela Murrugarra
COUNTRY DIRECTOR, PERÚ

Joining Water For People in 2021 as Country Director in Perú, Gisela Murrugarra has more than 20 years’ experience managing, implementing, and evaluating programs. She has worked in both the private and public sectors, including the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Housing, Construction, and Sanitation. Gisela led multidisciplinary teams and facilitated public-private partnerships funded by World Bank that include the design and management of rural WASH programs and support for sanitation companies in Peru.  She brings to Water For People a strong background in continuous program improvement, in-depth analysis of processes, and financial risk management.

Gisela received her degree in Project Management from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad de Lima. In addition, she holds a Global Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Thunderbird School of International Management (USA) and TEC de Monterrey (Mexico). In Gisela’s spare time, she enjoys reading, running, and spending time with her family.

Gisela joined Water for People because she, like Water for People, believes that the biggest challenge in achieving the SDG6 is sustainability, which goes beyond coverage, as well as innovation to look for new solutions for population without access to quality services.

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Brenda Achiro Muthemba

Country Director, Uganda

Brenda Achiro Muthemba
COUNTRY DIRECTOR, UGANDA

Achiro Brenda Muthemba has a masters in Business Administration from East and Southern Africa Management Institute (ESAMI), a masters in Social Sector Planning and Management  and a Bachelor's degree in Forestry and Nature Conservation from Makerere University Kampala.

Brenda is a WASH professional with over 15 years’ experience in leading and managing development and humanitarian work for Not-for-Profit organizations in Uganda, managing country-wide programs, providing oversight in design, planning, implementation, accountability, and learning. Her experience covers program/project development, Human resource management, research - especially Action based research, project procurements, audits, quality assurance support and accountability /reporting.

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Liza Rivera

Country Director, Nicaragua

LIZA RIVERA
COUNTRY DIRECTOR, NICARAGUA

Bringing 10 years of experience working with regional and international non-profits, Liza Rivera joined the Water For People family in February 2021. She believes that combatting the world water crisis and climate change are the most pressing issues facing humanity.

Before coming to Water For People, Liza worked as a Resource Development and Fundraising Manager with Habitat for Humanity, promoting access to affordable and quality housing. She also served as an Operations Manager with the Central American Institute of Business Administration (INCAE) in Nicaragua. Originally from Jinotega, Liza graduated from the Universidad Católica de Nicaragua (UNICA) with a degree in Systems Engineering and holds an MBA from INCAE. In her spare time, she enjoys singing, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

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Mario Velásquez

Country Director, Guatemala

Mario Velásquez 
COUNTRY DIRECTOR, GUATEMALA

Mario is a Forest Engineer, specializing in Water Resources Management and Economics of Environmental Goods and Services, with a Master's Degree in Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment.

For more than 18 years he has worked as a staff professional, executive, university professor, researcher, and consultant in different development projects, both in governmental, non-governmental, academic, and international cooperation entities, where he has led multidisciplinary and multiethnic teams, carrying out coordination processes with the central government, local governments, and community authorities.

From 2013 to date he has developed more than 20 resource management projects for local NGOs and GOs. In the last 4 years he has dedicated himself to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene issues, with a market focus and with a the goal to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goal 6 of the United Nations Organization.

"In these 4 years, I am inspired by the idea of ​​contributing my knowledge and experience to bring a better quality of life for people. At Water For People I have found an important challenge in achieving sustainable access to basic services for Guatemalans."

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Global Team
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Country Teams

Water For People has a dedicated staff throughout the world.

Interested in joining our team?

If you're ready to make waves in the nonprofit sector, we'd love to have you on our team.

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