The ALMA Inc. board of directors provides fiscal oversight of the nonprofit corporation set up to support the ALMA secretariat.
Tim Castano
Tim Castano serves as the Executive Director of the Community Health Acceleration Partnership, an initiative hosted by the WHO Ambassador for Global Strategy to expand access to essential health services in sub-Saharan Africa.
He previously served as President of New Start New Jersey, a think tank and nonprofit organisation established by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy to explore and enact the most effective public policy initiatives to grow the economy, create new jobs and improve the quality of life in the state. He also served as Co-Chair of Governor Murphy’s Government Technology and Innovation Transition Committee. In 2019, Governor Murphy appointed him as a member of the Public Bank Implementation Board.
Tim has held the position of Chief of Staff to the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals and for Malaria – philanthropist and business pioneer Ray Chambers – an entity created specifically to provide lifesaving interventions across sub-Saharan Africa and the globe in order to reach the ambitious humanitarian targets set at the turn of the century.
In addition, Tim held the position of Special Advisor to the Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. As the Chairman’s primary representative within the agency, he focused on the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site and the restoration and security of the region’s critical infrastructure assets in the years following September 11th. Tim also has worked as a policy advisor and speechwriter to New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey and as the Assistant Director of the Policy Research Institute at Princeton University.
He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Rutgers University, where he was a Fellow of the Eagleton Institute of Politics. He graduated magna cum laude with a BA in English and Philosophy and a B.A.H. in honours from Villanova University.
Tim volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters and sits on the Board of Directors of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance and the Advisory Board of the New Start Career Network.
Anna Hakobyan
Anna is the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation’s (CIFF) Chief Impact Officer and oversees evidence generation, monitoring and evaluation of CIFF’s portfolio of investments across all sectors.
Before joining CIFF in 2009, Anna led the Learning and Evaluation function at Y Care International working on programmes in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Before this, Anna was a Senior Policy and Research Coordinator at Transparency International where she developed and managed an evidence-based advisory desk for governments and multilateral agencies on good governance and transparency. In the early years of her career, Anna worked at the World Bank and led development and climate programmes at a grassroots NGO in Armenia.
Her professional interests and expertise include strategy and portfolio level evaluations, assessing the impact of policy and advocacy investments, transparency and accountability.
Anna holds a Master’s degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex, UK and is a Soros Foundation scholar. She was elected and served as Trustee of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development and is engaged with a number of European and Africa-based networks focusing on issues of impact, quality and accountability in the international development sector.
Aron Betru
Aron is the Chief Strategic and Operating Officer at Trident which he joined in summer 2021. Mr Betru is responsible for social impact initiatives for Trident and portfolio companies, key strategic partnerships, and leads fundraising efforts. Mr Betru is also a member of Trident’s Investment Committee.
Mr Betru has more than 20 years of financial sector, strategic consulting, and social impact experience. Prior to joining Trident, Mr Betru was the Managing Director of the Milken Institute’s Center for Financial Markets, leading a financial markets public policy team with a focus on financial innovations for social good. Mr Betru was also a member of the steering group for the Blended Finance Task Force launched by the Business & Sustainable Development Commission. Further, he has previously co-chaired the Partnership for Lending in Underserved Markets, a joint initiative with the US Small Business Administration.
Prior to the Milken Institute, Mr Betru was the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Financing for Development, specialising in innovative financing solutions for international development. Mr Betru’s extensive experience includes economic development roles at the United Nations Foundation, TechnoServe and Dalberg Global Development Advisors as well as private sector experience at McKinsey & Co and Goldman Sachs.
Mr Betru is a member of Board of Directors for Calvert Impact Capital, National Bankers Community Alliance, FHI360, African Leaders Malaria Alliance, and FHI Foundation, as well as a Senior Advisor to Milken Institute, Financial Health Network, and Wells Fargo MDI Investment Committee. He holds an MBA from Columbia University, an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and a BA in Economics and International Studies from Northwestern University.
Peggy Clark
Peggy Clark started her tenure as CEO and President for the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) in October, 2021. Throughout her three-decade-long career, Peggy has worked tirelessly to tackle and address unequal gender norms, such as women’s economic security, health, and well-being. She is a champion for racial equity and diversity, and possesses unique skill sets and executive expertise, along with respect for evidence-based solutions.
Prior to ICRW, Peggy served as the Executive Director for the Aspen Global Innovators Group, which under her leadership brought innovative and practical partnerships to the table to address some of the most important development challenges including, the fight for economic gender equality and greater access to healthcare for women and marginalised communities around the world. While at Aspen, Clark was recognised for promoting breakthrough strategies to combat challenges in global development and secured more than US$80 million in multi-year funding for global health and women’s programs and over US$150 million in support of the Aspen Global Innovators Group.
Peggy’s career has included positions at The Ford Foundation and Save The Children, where she developed and implemented programs in 45 countries and across six geographic regions. Together with former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson she founded Realizing Rights to promote rights-based solutions to major global challenges and was instrumental in the passage of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the Ethical Recruitment of Health Workers. She has also led major research projects, including a study of the role of mid-level health care providers in reducing maternal mortality in Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania and a multi-year study of women’s welfare levers and micro-enterprise in the US. She is a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Microenterprise for her research efforts.
Peggy currently sits on four boards across the United States and Africa, including Last Mile Health (Massachusetts), Calvert Impact Capital (Washington, DC), Ashesi University (Ghana), and the African Leaders Malaria Alliance US Board.
She holds a Master of Arts in Economics and Latin American Studies from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Fine Arts from Colgate University.