CEO & Co-Founder

Christophe leads APOPO's team, with many years of management experience in East Africa. Christophe holds a Msc in Product Development & Development Sciences, and developed much of APOPO's technical apparatus.

Swiss Director

Anna has a 7 year business development background in the humanitarian/social entrepreneurship sector and is overseeing the Swiss and European development of APOPO. Anna started her career at UNIDO in operational follow-up and technical coordination of field offices, before joining Ashoka, a global network of social entrepreneurs, where she supported the development of their fledgling foundation in Switzerland, and their program to promote hybrid economic models.  In 2014, she met Ashoka fellow and APOPO founder Bart Weetjens and became passionate about the project. She joined the organization to support and promote APOPO’s detection technology, strengthen its European anchor and initiate international partnerships. Anna holds an MA in Corporate Strategy & Finance from Science Po Strasbourg (FR) and the University of Sussex (UK).

U.S. Director

Charlie is responsible for building new partnerships and projects with U.S. based organizations as well as developing APOPO's independent US based 501c3 organization.  Charlie joined the APOPO team in December 2014 and is based in Washington DC. Previously he worked in business development and project management for Gallup, a large research and consulting firm, and One Economy, an international technology NGO, both based in Washington DC.

Head of Training & Innovation

Dr. Cynthia Fast holds a Ph.D. and Master’s degree in Psychology specialising in Learning and Behaviour and Behavioural Neuroscience from UCLA. Cindy has more than ten years of experience conducting behavioural research with a variety of species including rats, mice, pigeons, hermit crabs, and horses.

MA Asia Regional Manager

Michael was appointed as Regional Manager in February 2021 and has been managing the Cambodia Mine Action Program since April 2018. APOPO's Program in Cambodia is the largest mine action program in the organization, operating in several locations in Cambodia in partnership with National and International organizations.  Prior to joining APOPO, Michael spent 10+ years leading various NTS, TS and Clearance tasks, writing standards and SOP's, building training and accreditation areas, testing equipment, machines and animals.

Program Manager MA Mozambique & Zimbabwe 

John Sörbö joined APOPO in 2022 as the Program Manager for Mine Action Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Before joining APOPO, John served as Danish Refugee Council’s Humanitarian Disarmament & Peacebuilding Head of Programme in Nigeria. Prior to this, he was the organization's Head of Programme in Yemen for 6 months. Previously, he worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as the institutions Regional Manager for Weapon Contamination in Africa. He has also worked as Head of Mission for the Norwegian Red Cross in Afghanistan and worked for Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) Mine Action and Disarmament in South Sudan, Rwanda, Georgia, Libya and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. In addition to this, he worked for Armor Group Mine Action (now G4S Ordnance Management) in Iraq. John is a former Captain from the Norwegian Army, holds a Bachelor in Social Sciences with a major in African Studies from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and a Certificate in Advanced Studies (CAS) in Humanitarian Leadership from ICRC & University of Lucerne, Switzerland. He is EOD IMAS Level 3 qualified.

Program Manager MA Angola

Manuel "Manu" Joao Agosthino with 20 years of mine action experience, joined APOPO in January 2019 as the new Mine Action Program Manager for Angola. Previously Manu worked for for mer partner Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) for 15 years where he eventually became Deputy Program Manager. He then continued on to take up a Degree in Law while also working part time for UNDP and CNIDAH on mine action related issues. On completing his studies and graduating as a lawyer, Manu worked as a liberal professional lawyer whilst also teaching law at University level in Luanda, before accepting to become our full time Program Manager in Angola. 

Head of Tuberculosis

Dr. Tefera Agizew heads APOPO's TB Department, starting April 2022. Dr. Tefera is an Ethiopian National, a medical Doctor and holds a PhD in public health. Dr. Tefera has a great ambition to take APOPO’s tuberculosis department to the next level.   Before joining APOPO, Dr. Tefera was the Tuberculosis Research Director of the KNCV in Ethiopia. He had a career of almost 2 decades in Botswana, where he held several high-level positions in the field of TB and HIV/AIDS, working, among others, with the National TB Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Program Manager TB Ethiopia

Negussie has a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry and M.Sc. in Public health with ample experience in biomedical sciences research. He served an Assistant Professor at Addis Ababa University, Head of Regional Health Research Laboratory and Lecturer of Clinical Chemistry in Ethiopia. He has conducted research in Austria, South Africa, Spain and Tanzania. Negussie managed APOPO's Tanzania TB program and chemistry laboratory for seven years. He recently assumed the Program Manager post for APOPO's TB Operation Program in Ethiopia.

Program Manager TB Mozambique

Robert Burny joined APOPO in July 2018 as Program Manager for the TB operations in Maputo, Mozambique. Robert holds a Masters degree in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation and has substantial program management experience with highlights in health and social development. In his PM capacity, Robert will contribute further to the fight against TB and make linkages between services and communities, diagnosis, treatment and cure.

Program Manager TB Tanzania

Joseph holds a degree of Doctor of Medicine and recently completed a Masters in Project Management & Monitoring and Evaluation in Health. Joseph has been with APOPO since 2014, and he has been managing the TB Dar es Salaam operations since we opened the new lab in 2016.  Joseph has established good contacts with our collaborating TB hospitals in Tanzania.

Head of IT

Nicolas holds a Masters degree in IT and Project Management, and has been working as IT manager for Hugo Boss and Uniqlo, and more recently as a Chief Technology Officer at Needen Holding in Barcelona.   Previously Nicolas worked for APOPO on a contract basis, taking on the complex job of transferring our website's content management system from Pimcore to Wordpress.  As of 2022, Nicolas will be working 4 days a week for APOPO, and we strongly believe that this new IT capacity will strengthen all departments within the organization, ranging from marketing to collaboration, data collection and processing, dashboard development and will enable several projects which have been on hold due to a lack of capacity.

Executive Secretary

Esther has a Bachelors degree in Social Work and a Masters degree in Communication. She is the Executive Secretary at the administrative headquarters of APOPO in Belgium since March 2019. Her contribution to APOPO involves a combination of communication, fundraising, HR and administration of our office in Antwerp. With her experience in the civil society sector and her track record in communications, HR and administration, she is perfectly qualified to shape the secretary position.

Head of Marketing

Javier is in charge of the Marketing Department at APOPO. He holds a degree in Communication from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MBA from ESADE Business School. As an international digital marketer, consultant, and entrepreneur, he has over 20 years of experience working for several companies in a wide variety of industries and countries.

Public Fundraising Officer

Emma has a background in fundraising and marketing management, is passionate about the natural world and human welfare. She has completed two degrees, the first in English Literature and the second in Natural Sciences. Emma was already aware of APOPO prior to starting and was very excited to join the APOPO team in January 2021 - she is hugely passionate about the work APOPO does! Emma is based in the UK and is always happy to help in regards to any donor support.

Communications Manager

Lily is in charge of overseeing both internal and external communications for APOPO across sites and to the public. She ensures messaging is consistent and engaging and supports the organisations communications strategies and marketing campaign implementations to a wide range of audiences. Other roles include coordination of a busy press outreach (online and traditional) and producing digital assets for the various programs.