Meet the team

We value curiosity, imagination and creativity. We add value to our clients by approaching subjects with a fresh perspective. With diverse professional and academic backgrounds, we encourage our partners to be ambitious and innovative, to develop new activities and programmes based on experience and insight from a range of different disciplines.

  • Daniel Skillings, Director and Co-Founder

    Daniel brings is a strategy design and evaluation expert in the international development sector. He has supported private and public organisations across the globe.

    Prior to founding Aleph, Daniel was a Director at Altai Consulting and spent several years stationed in fragile environments such as Afghanistan and South Sudan.

    Daniel also worked for a leading global think tank in Brussels, within their preventive diplomacy initiative.

    Daniel holds a MA in International Relations (Distinction) from the University of Kent, Canterbury and China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing where he specialised in the political and security dynamics in East Asia, and also a BCom in International Business and Entrepreneurship from the University of Victoria.

  • Jonathan Rider, Director and Co-Founder

    Jonathan is a researcher and evaluator focussing on cultural heritage. With a diverse professional background, Jonathan has worked in Central and South Asia, the Middle East, East Africa and Europe.

    Jonathan worked for political polling company in the UK, before embarking on a career in research in Afghanistan. Later he led policy and communications at the Aga Khan Foundation. Later still, he managed conservation projects at the World Heritage Site in Bamiyan, Afghanistan for UNESCO.

    Jonathan has a BA from the University of Nottingham in archaeology, and a MSt from the University of Oxford, also in archaeology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a Member of the ICOMOS (UK) Cultural Tourism Committee.

  • Asra Memon Aleph

    Asra Memon, Research Analyst

    Asra is a qualitative researcher focusing on international development and public health. She has assisted in data collection, qualitative analysis and evaluation, and workshop design under multiple projects for international organisations including World Health Organisation, UNICEF, and Danish Refugee Council.

    She holds a MSc in Social Anthropology (Distinction) from the London School of Economics and is currently pursuing her second Master’s in International Development Management from University of East Anglia.

  • Chiara Fall, Project Manager

    Chiara has 7 years of experience conducting research and evaluations for international organisations and NGOs in the humanitarian and development sectors. She has extensive experience using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, collecting primary data in the field, as well as managing local research teams remotely.

    Prior to Aleph, Chiara worked for a consulting firm where she conducted various evaluations and research projects for actors such as Mercy Corps, Médecins du Monde, AFD or Elrha. Before that Chiara has worked on projects for the IOM, the World Bank and AFD. Prior still she worked for the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime on a research project on migration and smuggling in Libya and the Sahel for the European Union. She has developed an expertise in projects relating to migration but has also worked on humanitarian programming, conflict analysis, social cohesion, youth empowerment or harm reduction issues.

    Chiara holds a MA in Migration Studies from the University of Sussex, a master in Geography and Development and a bachelor in History from Sorbonne University.

  • Souad El Khoudar

    Souad El Khoudar, Research Analyst

    Souad is a research analyst with a specialization in socio-political issues related to the Arab world, as well as migrant rights, women's rights and gender inequalities. In the course of her career, she has been able to address these issues in various contexts, including the evolution of women's rights in Iran, as well as migration policies in Europe. Souad speaks several languages (French, English, and Arabic) and has extensive knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

    She holds a Master's degree in International Politics and Analysis of Democratic Transitions from the University of Lyon, a second Master's degree in European Politics and Euro-Mediterranean Project Engineering from Sciences Po Aix, and a Diploma on the Contemporary Arab World from Sciences Po Aix.

  • Mark De Pulford, Senior Consultant

    Mark is a senior consultant with expertise in aid effectiveness, governance, rule of law and anti-corruption. In recent years he has evaluated multipartner peacebuilding, resilience and reconstruction projects for the UNDP, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the FCDO, among others.

    Previously, Mark was a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior in the United Kingdom.

    Mark has a MA from Oxford in Philosophy, Political Science and Economics.

  • Florent Loiseau, Senior Consultant

    Florent Loiseau has over 20 years’ experience as an evaluator and implementer, bringing deep technical expertise in highly complex, multi-country programme and portfolio reviews. He has very good knowledge of UNESCO’s ways of working and of its evaluation practices for having worked for seven years in IOS. As an external evaluator, he also conducted several evaluations of UNESCO Culture projects including the evaluation of capacity-building project for implementing the International 2005 Convention on the promotion of cultural diversity. Being based in Paris, Florent will be able to meet regularly with the Entity for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CLT/DCE).

  • Kiria Borak, Consultant

    Kiria is a project manager and researcher with a focus on socio-political issues across West Africa and the Sahel, particularly trade, livelihoods, and migration.

    She has experience delivering on-the-ground activities, media campaigns, research products, capacity building trainings, and outreach/awareness workshops. Her work has been funded by UNDP and IOM, as well as the US, UK, French, and German governments.

    Kiria has also conducted academic research on the history of monetary policy decisions and nationalism in Mali and Niger as well as natural resource extraction and ethnic conflict across the Sahel. She holds a BA in International Political Economy and French from Bates College and studied at L’Institute des Études Politiques in Bordeaux. She is fluent in English and French.

  • Geoffrey MacDonald, Consultant

    Geoffrey is an education and youth cohesion expert. He has 14 years of experience in the education field. In his various roles as teacher, researcher, and policy analyst, Geoffrey has developed wide ranging curriculum, designed numerous and varied education programmes, developed and led quality assurance mechanisms at the provincial level, and taught children and youth.

    Geoffrey also lived and taught in China for two years, and was the international education senior policy analyst for British Columbia's Ministry of Education.

    Geoffrey has a Bachelor's Degree in 20th Century History, a Post-Secondary Post-Degree Professional Programme Diploma that qualifies him as a teacher, a Master's Degree in Education , and a Master's Degree in Public Administration.

  • Marta Pérez, Consultant

    Marta is a trained lawyer & political scientist with more than 10 years of experience in the field of social development and cooperation. She is specialised in Human Rights with extensive experience in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

    She offers a strong methodological background in quantitative and qualitative data analysis combined with an extensive experience in the field having provided technical assistance, analysed, reviewed and/or monitored more than 115 international cooperation projects.

    She brings gender-sensitive and right-based approaches to her work and is particularly interested in the implications of cultural differences in the field of M&E. She works in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

  • Mohamed Arous, Consultant

    Mohamed Arous is a senior capacity building expert and evaluator, with a focus on youth, migration and culture. He has 13 years of cumulative experience (countries include Jordan, UK,Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Portugal) on interreligious dialogue, intercultural dialogue, preventing violent extremism, conflict sensitivity and instability, community development, gender, economic reforms, and youth. Mohamed held the title of co-chair of the USIP's global Youth advisory Council between 2021 to 2023. His former clients include: The World Bank, Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL), the Middle East partnership initiative, WeWorld GVC (in Tripoli), several youth and migration-related NGOs, the British Council, and the British Embassy’s Conflict, Security and Stability Fund (CSSF). He holds a MA in Communications, BA in English Studies from the University of Sfax, crisis communication diploma from the UK Cabinet Office and the London's City, Cash and Voucher in Humanitarian Expert title from Kalu Institute and Guilds Institute’s Foundation Program in UK International Policy and Diplomacy.

  • Rosa Vane, Consultant

    Rosa has 10 years of experience in the delivery and M&E of protection and human rights programmes. She has worked in-house and consulted for a wide range of corporations and NGOs operating in the Middle East and Africa, including the World Organisation Against Torture, the British Red Cross, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Mukwege Foundation and the Dutch Relief Alliance.

    She has spent time living in Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran, learning the language wherever she went. She has a diploma in Foundation Studies in Art and Design, a BA in Arabic language and History of Art, and MAs in International Relations and the Conservation of Heritage.