Our senior staff
Dan Collison, Chief Executive
Dan joined Farm Africa as its new Chief Executive in May 2020. His background is in international development and humanitarian affairs, and most of his work has been focused in the NGO sector. Prior to Farm Africa he led the international programmes for War Child, working on children’s rights in conflict affected countries such as Afghanistan and Yemen. He worked for several years for Save the Children, including in Myanmar and in south-east Asia, as well as in southern Africa and Angola. He lived and worked in Kenya and South Sudan for a number of years with Christian Aid. Dan has led the development of Farm Africa's new five-year strategy, building on the organisation’s strengths in agriculture, market engagement and natural resource management, and increasing the focus on food systems and climate action.
Shewit Emmanuel, Director, Ethiopia
Shewit leads the team in Ethiopia. With more than 15 years of experience, she has worked for the UN, DFID, civil society organisations and public and private clients, leading large teams on complex and large transformational engagements. Shewit is a private sector development specialist, with extensive experience in agriculture, climate, urban development, political economy analysis, extractive and heavy industries, public financial management, governance and conflict, gender mainstreaming and humanitarian work. Shewit holds a Master’s in Human Resource Economics from Addis Abebe University, in collaboration with Oxford University.
Mary Nyale, Director, Kenya
Mary became Farm Africa’s Country Director in 2023, after extensive professional growth within Farm Africa since joining the organisation in 2015. Mary is highly skilled in project management, negotiation and developing sustainable agricultural value chains and community livelihoods. She has provided programmatic leadership at Farm Africa, acting as a representative for Farm Africa to government, donors, private sector partners, and other NGOs. She previously worked as a Field Manager for Fintrac Inc coordinating a USAID-funded project across 12 counties in the Western, Nyanza and North Rift regions of Kenya.
Mary Batterman, Director, Tanzania
Mary leads the team in Tanzania. She is an international development professional who has lived and worked in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for more than a decade. Mary’s career has focused on agriculture, market systems strengthening, supporting small and medium enterprises, private sector development and renewable energy. Before joining Farm Africa, Mary headed the Tanzanian office for the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), which has invested in over 70 agribusinesses and renewable energy companies throughout the country. Mary holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Princeton University.
Samuel Arop, Country Representative, Uganda
Sam re-joined Farm Africa as the Uganda Country Representative in 2024, after completing a two-year tenure as the Deputy Chief of Party for the USAID funded Integrated Community Agriculture and Nutrition Activity (ICAN). He previously worked as Farm Africa’s Programmes Manager in Uganda. Sam has over 16 years of experience leading regional integrated and cross-sectoral development programmes in Uganda. His areas of expertise include resilience (livelihoods, agriculture, food security, nutrition, WASH, access to finance and inclusive community governance); market systems development; gender, youth and social inclusion and integrated programme and operations management.
Tom Cadogan, Director of Programmes
Tom has extensive experience of leading and managing development projects over the past 17 years in East and Southern Africa. Prior to joining Farm Africa in June 2016, he headed the Rural Livelihoods and Agriculture portfolio for Irish Aid in Tanzania, chairing the project investment committee of the Agricultural Marketing Development Trust and developing policy research on the food reserve agency and national input subsidies. Before this he was Director in Zambia and Tanzania for the youth-led agency Restless Development. He holds a PhD from the University of London (SOAS).
Jenni Hollobone, Director of External Relations
Jenni leads the fundraising directorate at Farm Africa responsible for raising vital funds through a variety of channels. These include supporting and communicating with Farm Africa’s individual supporters as well as delivering corporate and events fundraising. Jenni is also responsible for driving forward Farm Africa’s ambitious digital strategy, finding new and innovative ways to engage with supporters online. Prior to joining Farm Africa in 2016, Jenni began her fundraising career at the RNLI before working at Shelter.
Luci Mallace-Lu, Director of Finance
Luci joined Farm Africa as Director of Finance in June 2021, where she sets the strategic direction for finance and oversees the organisation’s financial management, governance and risk. Luci is passionate about financial planning to maximise impact, innovation in systems and processes and women’s economic empowerment. Prior to joining Farm Africa, she was Head of Management Accounts & Procurement at Amnesty International, where she led on budgeting, business partnering and financial recovery. Luci is a Chartered Accountant (ACA) with extensive charity and commercial sector experience. She studied at Oxford University, and began her career in audit at PwC. Luci is currently on maternity leave.
Syed Alam, Head of Finance
Syed leads the Head Office finance team and ensures effective co-ordination with country office teams ensuring that we maintain effective financial control and compliance across the organisation, and provide accurate and timely management information to support decision making. Prior to joining Farm Africa in 2022, Syed held various positions in Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and led the International Finance team on donor reporting, proposal development, financial management and donor/country compliance. Syed is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).
Jane Doughty, Head of Human Resources
Jane leads Farm Africa’s human resources function and has more than 16 years’ experience in the not-for-profit sector. Jane joined Farm Africa in 2003, working in a number of roles, before moving into human resources in 2008. Prior to taking up her role with Farm Africa, Jane worked in the retail and marketing sectors, working for a number of organisations including the British Parachute Association.
Martin Holliday, Head of Programme Funding
Martin leads the programme funding team, with a focus on identifying and managing restricted funding opportunities to deliver Farm Africa’s programmes. Before joining Farm Africa, Martin worked in a variety of programme development and funding roles at the international child protection agency War Child, supporting organisational growth and impact across east and central Africa and the Middle East.
Anissa Msallem, Head of Partnerships
Anissa leads the partnerships team, managing and securing partnerships with our corporate, trust and foundation partners. Anissa began her career in financial services at Visa developing digital payment systems with banks in North, West and Central Africa. Transitioning to the third sector, she joined the corporate partnerships team at WaterAid before moving to Plan International UK where Anissa spent eight years leading teams and managing strategic corporate partnerships.
Leila Ndiema, Head of Programme Support
Leila leads the programme support team, supporting all country teams in the efficient delivery of Farm Africa’s programmes. Before joining Farm Africa in 2018, Leila worked in a variety of communication and programme support roles at Malaria Consortium, particularly supporting the delivery of multi-country programmes across eastern and western Africa. She holds a Master's degree in international law, has lived in Uganda for more than ten years and is currently based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Dr Diana Onyango, Head of Technical Team
Diana has over 19 years of experience working in animal health, climate mitigation and livelihoods programmes in the Horn of Africa. She leads the technical team in Farm Africa, overseeing technical expertise and quality assurance of our programmes. Before joining Farm Africa in 2020, Diana worked with various NGOs and the private sector in different countries in eastern Africa supporting pastoralist/agro pastoralist communities and smallholder farmers on programmes focused on strengthening resilience in the face of climate change.
Libby Plumb, Head of Communications
Libby leads the communications team. Prior to joining Farm Africa in 2015 she worked for WaterAid America for eight years leading the communications team, and previously managed the communications services and community fundraising teams at WaterAid UK. She started her career at a design and event management company managing accounts for major TV and film companies. Libby holds an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.