Devex Pro Weekender: Julia Roberts to lead BRAC, and WHO leadership change

WHO has reshuffled its leadership team again, with Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the health emergencies program, taking on the additional role of deputy director-general, per a scoop from my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo. That means congratulations are in order to former deputy director-general Zsuzsanna Jakab, who finally managed to retire in February. Controversially, she was already older than WHO’s retirement age when she was appointed in 2019 and had originally planned to stop working in 2022. But WHO chief Dr. Tedros asked her to postpone it to help the organization deal with a leadership scandal at its Western Pacific office. ➡️ As you might have noticed, we’ve been making some changes to the Weekender lately. I’d love to know what you think about them — please do reply to this email if you have feedback. Coming up: Remember that early bird tickets for Devex World 2024 are now on sale — and Devex Pro members get more than $100 off. Also in today’s edition: World Bank Spring Meetings kick off, why social entrepreneurs are like Hannibal, and lots more high-level job moves. Jessica Abrahams Editor, Devex Pro Bits and pieces Erin BRACovich. Julia Roberts (not that one, sorry) will take over as CEO of BRAC USA at the end of the month, replacing Donella Rapier who retired at the end of February. Roberts was previously vice president of global fundraising and communications at Population Services International and has also worked for USAID and U.S. CDC. Are there any other celebrity name twins floating about the global development industry? + For Pro members: Does BRAC offer a different model for development organizations? Round in circles. In Paris last week, my colleague Fiona Zublin hit up Circle Forum — a series of talks about blockchain and cryptocurrency taking place in an underground room with massive doors reminiscent of a bank vault. But talk did eventually turn to humanitarian aid in a chat with Scott Salandy-Defour, co-founder of Liquidstar, which won a USAID grant in 2021 to pilot its solar-powered microdata centers. The centers, known as Waypoints, are planted in rural areas and produce internet, electricity, and water — some of which is sold to locals, and some of which is used in cryptomining. “The hardest part of all of this ... is not the technology. It’s working with organizations like USAID, U.N., that is way way more difficult than any of the stuff we're doing on the ground,” Salandy-Defour told the crowd. Earlier in the day, Circle hosted a pitch competition, eventually awarding 75,000 in USDC digital dollars to Rahat, a blockchain-powered financial platform backed by UNICEF that eases emergency response and cash assistance. + For those of you interested in cryptocurrency fundraising, we hosted an event for Pro members a couple of years back on how to get started. Watch the recording. Find a way or make one. At the Skoll World Forum last week, my colleague David Ainsworth was listening out for wit and wisdom from the leaders of the social enterprise movement. Enter Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, a former U.N. high commissioner for human rights who’s a compelling speaker — although his metaphors weren’t watertight. At one point, he compared the power of the social change movement to Hannibal, the Carthaginian leader who crossed the Alps with a force of elephants to fight against the Roman Empire. It’s true that Hannibal faced a great challenge, one that seemed impossible, with courage and persistence. But most of his elephants perished, many of his soldiers deserted him, and his mission ultimately failed. So let’s hope the similarities only go so far. Zebra investors. While social entrepreneurs might be like a herd of warrior elephants, some startups are more like zebras. That’s what entrepreneur-turned-mentor Mitra Ardron told my colleague Vince Chadwick at the Impact Investment Summit Asia Pacific in Sydney last month. Vince found Ardron, whose most recent startup Lumeter provided software for off-grid solar, looking unimpressed at the summit and asked him for his thoughts, which were basically: • Too many investors at expensive conferences, rather than entrepreneurs telling those investors what problems they are experiencing. • Time-consuming due diligence imposed by investors, who may not even invest for long enough or at sufficient scale to let the founder focus on running their company before they have to start looking for funding elsewhere. • A gap between angel investors investing up to $200K or so, and larger impact funds whose $40K transaction costs mean they can't invest less than $2 million. The result? A tendency to look for one unicorn startup to invest an entire fund in. “It doesn’t work in impact,” Ardron told Vince. “I’ve never seen a 40x exit in impact [investing].” “We're chasing the wrong models. So we're leaving on the table good, solid companies that could generate a solid, risk-adjusted return, but which don’t meet the unicorn model. We're more like zebras than unicorns.” ✉️ Do you have insights into any of this week’s bits and pieces? Let me know by replying to this email. Moving on The U.N. Capital Development Fund named Pradeep Kurukulasuriya of Sri Lanka as its new executive secretary. Eason Jordan has joined the Rockefeller Foundation with an interesting job title: senior vice president for connected leaders. The former CNN and Malala Fund executive’s new position will focus on “growing, engaging, and energizing the Foundation's network of convenings and fellows to advance partnerships and alliances that amplify action in support of its mission,” according to a release. Keifer Buckingham has left the Open Society Foundations, where they worked for several years on the foreign policy team, most recently as advocacy director. They’ll be joining the office of Jessica Stern, the U.S. special envoy to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons, as a senior adviser. Ebere Okereke resigned as CEO of the Africa Public Health Foundation, which mobilizes resources for Africa CDC. She’ll have been in the role for a year by the time she steps down in May. She told Devex: “My decision is truly personal as I want to focus more intentionally on my passions and to have time for other interests.” Leslie Maasdorp is stepping down from his role as vice president and chief financial officer of the New Development Bank. The recruitment process for his replacement is underway. Stefan Germann, former head of Fondation Botnar, is the inaugural CEO of a new philanthropic organization, the Ursimone Wietlisbach Foundation, which will focus on health, education and sport. It’s backed by Urs Wietlisbach, who signed the Giving Pledge in 2022. Thomas Cueni, director general of IFPMA, is retiring after seven years at the helm of the organization. He’s passing the baton to David Reddy, previously CEO of the Medicines for Malaria Venture. IFPMA represents the biopharmaceutical industry in matters of global health and access to innovation. Noa Gafni is the new managing director of FSG, a global nonprofit consulting firm that partners with foundations and corporations on social impact. She was previously executive director of the Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation. In memoriam The Basel Institute on Governance paid tribute to its managing director Gretta Fenner, who died in a car accident. “Gretta has been an extraordinary force for change in the fight against corruption — both personally and through the Institute that she lovingly and passionately built and led for so many years,” the institute said in a statement. “We, and our partners and counterparts around the world, will miss her greatly.” The Basel Institute is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to countering corruption and improving standards of governance around the world, with field operations in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Up next World Bank Spring Meetings. Greater scale. Greater impact. Speed and simplicity. Those were some of the priorities World Bank President Ajay Banga outlined at a press conference previewing this week's International Monetary Fund-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. He highlighted how the bank is working to enact its evolution road map, which includes streamlining the approval process for loans and projects, squeezing more out of the bank's balance sheet, and addressing intertwined crises such as climate change and poverty. "Time is of the essence. … We need a better bank to address all these challenges,” he said. We’ll have a team of reporters bringing you updates from the meeting. Reply to this email if you’d like to get in touch with them. April 15-20. + Our cheat sheet for Pro members: Everything you need to know about the World Bank’s reform plans. Food security in Africa. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s regional conference for Africa is taking place in Morocco with a focus on transforming agrifood systems. One of the key goals of the conference, and its three days of ministerial meetings, is to pin down priority areas as FAO prepares its budget and program of work for the next two years. April 18-20. UNGA Sustainability Week. The U.N. is holding its first Sustainability Week at its New York HQ. It’s addressing sustainability across all sectors that contribute to the SDGs, but there seems to be a particular focus on economics. Special themes include debt sustainability, tourism, transport, and infrastructure, and there’s also a global stocktaking on energy sustainability. April 15-19. Did we miss one? Is there a change on the horizon? Let us know at devexpro@devex.com.