IDinsight welcomes four acclaimed members to the Advisory Board

13th August 2024 – IDinsight is pleased to announce the appointment of Cassandre Pignon, Chris Chibwana, Robert Gardner, and Tao Tan to its Advisory Board. These new members bring a wealth of experience and expertise that will significantly enhance IDinsight’s innovative data and evidence service provision to global development practitioners.

Cassandre Pignon

Cassandre Pignon has over 20 years of experience in public policy and development across multiple countries, most notably in the Middle East and Africa. 

She has held leadership, program management, and technical advisory roles with McKinsey, the Tony Blair Institute, and the United Nations, where she worked closely with Ministers and Heads of Government. A former IDinsight Partner, Interim Africa lead, and Africa COO, she built IDinsight’s offices and presence in West and North Africa as Regional Executive Director.  

Today, Cassandre is the Head of Programmes for Cartier Philanthropy, where she also oversees the education and early childhood development portfolio. Her focus is on school readiness and foundational literacy and numeracy. 

Cassandre holds a Master of Engineering from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and a MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.

Chris Chibwana

Chris Chibwana is a Program Officer in Gender Equity and Governance at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where he manages a portfolio of grants to enhance government effectiveness in Africa through evidence-informed policymaking.  

With nearly two decades of experience in development, he previously led the Hub for Agricultural Policy Action at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, advancing data-driven agricultural policies. Chris also served as the Southern Africa Regional Director and Head of Africa for IDinsight, representing the organization across the region. 

At USAID, he designed and oversaw projects in Bangladesh and Malawi to improve the welfare of smallholder farmers and support evidence-based agricultural, trade, and industrial policies. He began his career as a researcher with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the International Food Policy Research Institute. 

Chris holds a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University and a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness management from the University of Malawi.

Robert Gardner

Robert Gardner is a seasoned executive with a robust business transformation and leadership background. Robert has driven significant financial and operational improvements at Ultra Intelligence & Communications, where he currently serves as the Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) and COO.

He was previously an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company and led transformative initiatives across various industries. With additional experience as a Manager at Triumph Group, Analyst at Bentley Systems, and Platoon Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, Robert brings a disciplined, results-oriented approach to leadership. 

Robert holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where he earned a merit scholarship for academic excellence, and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, graduating magna cum laude.

Tao Tan

Tao Tan is the Senior Vice President at Fanatics, where he heads operations and strategic growth for the Collectibles business. He was formerly a partner at Perception Capital Partners, an investor in advanced industrials, and an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company’s New York office, where he held leadership roles in transforming private equity practices. Prior to that, he held investment banking and capital markets roles at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers.

Tao is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and co-chair of its Term Member Program Committee, a member of the Economic Club of New York, a Millennium Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Trustee of the Museum of Chinese in America, and a member of the Education Committee of Columbia University. 

Tao received his BA and MBA with honours from Columbia University, where he was an Erwin Wolfson Scholar and a Toigo Foundation Fellow.

“We are thrilled to welcome these four dedicated and experienced individuals to our Board of Advisors. We feel fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from them as the organization enters an exciting new phase of refreshing our strategy and building out data and evidence innovations to help address the most pressing problems in the global development sector. We are especially delighted to welcome back two former IDinsight Africa Partners, and add two advisors from the private sector who will help IDinsight position itself for innovation and impact in this next phase. We look forward to working with Cassandre, Chris, Robert, and Tao, and are grateful for their commitment to IDinsight’s growth and progress.”

 

– Rebecca Gong Sharp, IDinsight CEO

About IDinsight

IDinsight is a mission-driven global advisory, data analytics, and research organization that helps global development leaders maximize their social impact. We tailor a wide range of data and evidence tools, including randomized evaluations and machine learning, to help decision-makers design effective programs and rigorously test what works to support communities. We work with governments, multilateral agencies, foundations, and innovative non-profit organizations in Asia and Africa. We work across a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, education, health, governance, sanitation, and financial inclusion. We have team members who are remote and have offices in Dakar, Lusaka, Manila, Nairobi, New Delhi, and Rabat.