MEET OUR TEAM
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TRUSTEE BOARD
Thomas Billington
Co-Founder,
Fish Welfare Initiative
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Karolina Sarek
Co-Founder, Ambitious Impact; Chair, EA Animal Welfare Fund
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Akhil Bansal
Doctor; Head of AMR Funding Circle at Schmidt Futures; Research Advisor to The Life You Can Save
Patrick Stadler
Co-Founder, New Incentives; Co-Founder and Managing Director, Pour Demain
Andres Jimenez Zorrilla
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Shrimp Welfare Project
JOEY SAVOIE
Co-founder and CEO
Joey works on high-level strategy across all the departments and mentorship and training for the participants of the Incubation Programs. He is also one of the primary contributors to the handbook "How to Start a High-Impact Nonprofit".
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Prior to AIM, Joey co-founded Charity Science, a meta-organization that increased the amount of counterfactual funding going to high-impact charities. Subsequently, he co-founded Charity Science Health, a nonprofit that increases vaccination rates in India using mobile phones and behavioral nudges. He has given lectures on various aspects of charity entrepreneurship and Effective Altruism in Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, EAG London, EAG San Francisco, Berlin, Basel, Vancouver, Stockholm, and others.
SAMANTHA KAGEL
Chief Program Officer
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Before joining AIM, Samantha consulted for various non-profits and EA organizations spanning agile project management, learning & development, team design, and business strategy. Previously, she worked at Google as a Team Lead and Account Strategist, supporting 400+ small businesses in marketing strategy and leading her team’s development. Much of her prior experience has involved work in mental health, including designing programs to address anxiety, burnout, imposter syndrome, and isolation in the workplace.
DEVON FRITZ
Chief Operating Officer
Devon Fritz brings a wealth of expertise, spanning over 15 years across the private, governmental, and non-profit sectors. His pivotal roles in high-impact organizations, notably as CTO and Managing Director at Founders Pledge, have contributed to mobilizing over $2 billion in commitments to organizations driving meaningful change. After founding a charity incubated by Charity Entrepreneurship and joining its board, Devon is excited to now deeply engaged with the team to amplify the organization's impact.
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JUDITH RENSING
Chief of Staff
Before joining AIM, Judith went through the CE Incubation Program and co-built up the charity High Impact Athletes that raised over $300,000 USD for effective charities in its first year; co-managed a social start-up; and conducted research to identify high-impact, cost-effective charity interventions. She also holds a master's degree in Philosophy and has worked in two bioethics research groups.
Judith is a passionate generalist both at work and in her hobbies - when she is not in hyper-focus mode working, you might find her running forests and mountains, backpacking, playing music, or reading books.
She has also co-authored AIM's impactful grantmaking book "How to Launch a High-Impact Foundation" and occasionally gives talks on nonprofit entrepreneurship in places like Oxford, Canberra, and Mexico City.
JACINTHA BAAS
Founding to Give Program Director
Jacintha leads our AIM Founding to Give Program.
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She is an entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience in founding & scaling organisations. In her role as co-founder of a sustainable tech scale-up, she grew the company to 30+ staff. Her achievements were awarded with various prizes and recognitions, such as the Next Women To Watch, the Inspiring Fifty: Women in Tech, and the Forbes 30 under 30. She holds a degree in Sociology from the London School of Economics.
MORGAN FAIRLESS
Research Director
Morgan is our Director of Research. He holds an MSc in Public Policy & Administration and BSc in Politics & Philosophy, both from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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Before joining AIM, he worked in international development consulting, student union leadership, and freelance writing and editing in social science.
BEN WILLIAMSON
Recruitment Director
Ben is the Director of Outreach at AIM. He is responsible for coordinating the communication of AIM’s work with the goal of finding the best possible talent to join AIM’s programs.
Prior to joining AIM, Ben co-founded the Maternal Health Initiative (MHI) through the 2022 Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program. MHI tested a scalable model of postpartum contraceptive counselling in northern Ghana to reduce maternal mortality and increase reproductive autonomy.
He is also the founder of Effective Self-Help, a mental health research organisation, and co-Director of Holyrood Parkrun, a free running race with around 400 participants each week in Edinburgh. Ben holds an MA (Hons) in Geography from the University of Edinburgh.
VICKY COX
Senior Research Manager (Animal Welfare)
Vicky is part of the research team, investigating and evaluating animal advocacy interventions. She is also the Program Manager of AIM Research Program and advisor to the animal program participants.
Before joining the AIM team, Vicky went through the CE Incubation Program. Prior to this, she was a research intern for AIM, primarily completing the priority country research for our recommended animal charities. She did this internship alongside her Maths with Actuarial Science degree at the University of Southampton, where she helped to found an effective altruism society. Vicky went vegan and became interested in effective altruism in 2016, after reading works by Peter Singer.
STEVE THOMPSON
Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program Manager
Steve co-leads our flagship Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program. He develops content and approaches, coaches our startup founders, consults on new programs and outreach, and contributes to overall team dynamics, cohesion, and direction, as well as finding great founders and great co-founder pairings.
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Steve previously co-founded the Entrepreneurs Academy in Ireland where he was the Head of Learning and Creative Director. He has worked across the corporate sector as a Senior Leadership Development Consultant for over 10 years where he focused on creativity, EQ, and teamwork. He has extensive experience in both the design and facilitation of large scale training and development programs.
Steve has also published a book to raise money for GiveWell, designed a full-scale magic and illusion show, built his own house from scratch, and is a co-founder of Training for Good, the new EA meta charity.
BRECHTJE VAN DEN BOSCH
Senior Operations Manager
As Senior Operations Manager, Brechtje focuses on enhancing efficiency within Ambitious Impact. She also provides operational support to nonprofits arising from the Charity Entrepreneurship program as well as advise on risk and security management topics to charities operating in medium/high-risk areas.
Prior to joining AIM, Brechtje ran operations for a specialist risk management consulting firm in West Africa. Whilst living in Nigeria, she managed more than 80 consultants working with clients throughout the whole region. She also worked as a consultant in Amsterdam and supported clients on compliance, security and crisis management topics. She holds a bachelors in Safety and Security Management and has a background in the Dutch police force.
DILAN FERNANDO
Operations Manager
Dilan is passionate about building and nurturing the impact ecosystem. As Operations Manager, he works to amplify AIM's effectiveness through productivity improvements, HR, and administrative support for incubated charities.
Previously, he served as People Operations Lead at Animal Think Tank, where he developed the organisation's core processes and led its adoption of Holacracy. He also helped launch Animal Rising as its Media Coordinator, leading a 30-person volunteer team to put plant-based food systems on the UK press agenda.
Dilan's journey to impact began in 2015, after an unlikely friendship with a dog in Cambodia changed his worldview. He went on to co-found the Monash University Vegan Society and Young Voices for Animals, and in 2019 left a marketing role at National Australia Bank to pursue purpose full-time. Outside of work, Dilan is a Vipassana meditator, an aspiring singer, and a die-hard Sri Lanka cricket fan.
ISABELLA (IZZY) MENCATTELLI
Operations Manager
Izzy is one of our Operations Managers, helping our organization and incubated charities to run smoothly and efficiently. She focuses on program support, as well as managing our office space and events.
Izzy’s previous experience includes fundraising and event planning. Before joining AIM, she led an academic summer program for teenagers, to help them navigate their future career options. Izzy is a Board Advisor for an international development charity that empowers communities in Kenya and Tanzania through quality education.
BRET HOMER
Senior Recruitment Manager
Bret is responsible for making the selection systems at AIM as accurate as possible. As Senior Recruitment Manager, he iterates, conducts, and evaluates the vetting system of CE's Incubation Program. He also supports AIM's outreach by speaking and scouting at global conferences.
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Before AIM, Bret received a doctorate in industrial-organizational psychology and led a project focused on designing personality-based team assignment algorithms for the US federal government. Bret volunteered as a consultant and researcher for animal welfare nonprofits before connecting with AIM at the Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit.
FILIP MURÁR
Senior Research Manager (Global Health & Development)
Filip is our Senior Research Manager working on systematically evaluating ideas for new charities to be incubated by Charity Entrepreneurship Program.
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Before joining the AIM team, Filip was a Senior Research Advisor at The Behavioural Insights Team. He oversaw the design, delivery, and evaluation of quantitative behavioural science studies, with methodologies including online lab experiments, randomized controlled field trials, and machine learning predictive analytics. During his studies at the University of Cambridge and University College London, he led the Trinity Effective Altruism student group and co-founded Effective Altruism UCL.
TRISH KENNELLY
Founding to Give Program Manager
Trish is the Program Manager for the Founding to Give program. She has spent her career connecting people and possibilities, and she's excited to continue doing just that at AIM.
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Previously, Trish was COO at On Deck, where she helped to grow the company from pre-funding through Series B and launch the On Deck accelerator for founders at the earliest stages. Prior to that, Trish ran programs for impact founders at Unreasonable Group, was the first employee at Remote Year where she helped to scale the company through Series A and acquisition, and worked in a boutique consulting firm focused on real estate and development.
In her spare time, Trish loves to surf, hike, travel, and do anything that feels like a "concentrated dose of life".
EMMA STOKS
Recruitment Manager
Emma finds and selects top talent for our high-impact programs. With a background in education consulting and a passion for self-directed learning, she has a unique approach to finding individuals who are driven by making a difference.
Prior to joining AIM, Emma studied Political Science at Minerva University, a global program through which she studied in seven countries. She started her first business at 17 as an education consultant, helping others optimize their learning through self-directed methods. Her entrepreneurial background and international experience give her a unique perspective on recruitment and talent development. Emma brings first-hand experience of our programs to her role, as she is an alumna of the AIM Effective Giving Incubation program.
CRYSTAL LAM
Recruitment Manager
Crystal is focused on finding talent for our programs. She holds a BA in Philosophy & Politics from Durham University—where her thesis on the value of equality earned highest-honors—and a BPhil in Philosophy from the University of Oxford, with her postgraduate thesis on the philosophy of love similarly recognized.
Before joining us, Crystal worked in business development, operations and project management at an Oxford-based machine learning startup specialising in Bayesian optimisation and strategy consulting at PwC.
Outside work, Crystal enjoys bouldering, goes to church, and bakes sourdough with her three-year-old starter, Ryelie. She delights in creating delicious, cost-effective, time-efficient recipes for friends and family. An avid dog lover, she’s also co-run several summer puppy training courses.