US Board Members
Henriette Nielsen
Henriette is a unique combination of an experienced international businesswoman with strong operative leadership abilities and a gift for innovative thinking and an international lawyer. She is currently EVP of Business Transformation at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. She has executive responsibility for all human resources, communications and people-related matters, is responsible for building out our ESG program and is a member of Mallinckrodt’s executive committee. Henriette also worked as General Counsel for a number of pharmaceutical companies and start-ups, as well as for eight years as a commercial lawyer for the largest law firm in Denmark. Henriette has worked globally and lived in the US, Scotland, Iceland, Switzerland, and Denmark.
Marie Amerasinghe
Marie has an extensive background handling corporate governance, securities, and general corporate legal matters. She has worked as a senior attorney in the pharmaceutical, online media, non-profit and banking spaces for over 20 years. She is currently the Head of Corporate Governance and Assistant Secretary at Apple Bank for Saving, advising the bank and its Board of Directors and executive management team on governance matters. Marie is passionate about making quality education accessible to all children across the globe.
Maniza Ntekim
Maniza Ntekim leads the Early Childhood Development East and Southern Africa initiative for the Conrad Hilton Foundation. Previously, Ntekim served as regional advisor for UNICEF’s Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, overseeing the early childhood development programmes of 21 UNICEF Country Offices. She has served as a senior programme officer at the Open Society Foundations (OSF), where she led on OSF’s global ECD advocacy programme, supported ECD systems strengthening in Africa, and represented the private sector and private foundations on the Global Partnership for Education’s Country Grants Committee. Maniza has worked as a policy advisor and advocate for the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Amnesty International UK, and the Confederation of British Industry, the UK’s largest employers’ federation. She has also worked as a consultant for Save the Children UK, UNESCO, Oxford Policy Management and DfID. Maniza holds a master’s degree in international politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oxford.
UK Trustees
Leslee Udwin
Leslee was voted by the New York Times the No.2 Most Impactful Woman of 2015 (second to Hillary Clinton) and has been awarded the prestigious Swedish Anna Lindh Human Rights Prize (previously won by Madeleine Albright). She has also been named Safe’s Global Hero of 2015, Global Thinker by Foreign Policy, and received the GlobalMindED award for Arts and Education. In 2019, Leslee was awarded the UN Women for Peace Activist Award at the United Nations, UN Association USA’s Global Citizen of 2019 and the Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award. Leslee is on various high-level think tanks, including the Inter-American Development Bank’s ‘Coalition for 21st Century Skills’; Pope Francis’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences: ‘Global Compact for Education’; and the Education Task Force for Mission 4.7, the patrons of which include former Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, and the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay; it is co-chaired by Jeffrey Sachs, Stefania Giannini, Jeffrey Cheah and Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo.
Karim Bechir
Karim is a management consultant at Oliver Wyman with a special interest in the role that education plays in society at large. His focus is on improving social mobility and social inequality, particularly in emerging markets. He has experience leading various Inclusion & Diversity initiatives and recently published a report on London’s social mobility issues in partnership with the Mayor’s Fund for London. Karim led Think Equal’s first rollout in Sri Lanka and joined as a Trustee in July 2019, with a focus on growth, operations and digital strategy.
Jacob Bier
Recognised as one of Denmark’s 2-3 leading corporate lawyers, Jacob also served as Danish law firm, Plesner’s, head of Corporate Group and Vice Chairman of the firm. Since 2015 Jacob has been an investor, non-executive director, business advisor (including as Senior Advisor to US investment banking firm, Greenhill) and co-founder of Bier Brothers Ltd. Jacob currently serves as chairman, director or board member of five commercial enterprises and three, not for profit organisations.
Philip Bier
Copenhagen born, Philip moved to London in 1985 and completed his degree in photography in 1988. Philip worked until 2008 as a commercial photographer-his claim to fame is 2 of his portraits are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. In 2005 Philip joined forces with the Danish retail chain Tiger and brought the brand to the UK in a 50/50 JV. At the end of 2016, Philip exited the business having been CEO for 12 years and growing the business to 44 stores, with 700 staff. Since leaving Tiger Philip has become a business consultant, investor and NED/trustee for several charitable organisations.
Emma Goltz
Clare Hardwick
Clare first worked with Think Equal as a pro-bono legal adviser at her previous firm, Latham & Watkins, and now runs a business consultancy in the film and television sector. She represents a broad range of clients from well-known American media organisations through to individual film directors and production companies. She focuses on representing women and women-owned businesses and amplifying their voices from a commercial standpoint. In 2019, Clare co-founded the WEN-MEDIA (Women’s Equality Network for Media) and speaks regularly about the hurdles facing women in getting sustainable jobs and securing (overdue) promotions throughout the film and television industry, particularly in business affairs and operations.
Stephen Harvey
Stephen is an experienced charity leader and has led teams at Oxfam, Riders For Health and Practical Action before becoming CEO of CHIVA Africa. He has built high performing teams, and delivered wide-ranging strategies which have changed the culture and direction of organisations. Now, as co-founder of advisory group Bateleur Partners, Stephen works with boards, senior teams and founders of social impact organisations to help them work smarter and have more impact.
