In late 2008, a group of enthusiastic DESTIN alumni, fresh out of their Masters, were reflecting upon their past year at LSE. They were inspired by the fantastic and unique connections they’d made with their fellow DESTIN classmates and wanted to build upon this community, through a common passion to make a positive contribution to development. The idea of the D2D Development Fund was born and eleven months later, after a lot of hard work, the first funding award was given.
We are now into our second year of operation and are able to celebrate in the success of our first funding, whilst looking forward to our next award and to further strengthening our DESTIN community.
The Executive Committee
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Marius Keller President
Marius currently works as Project Officer at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). He has degrees in business administration and economics from the University of Bern, and an MSc in Development Management from the LSE (graduated 2008).
Marius lives in Geneva and loves travelling, cooking, music and outdoor sports such as hiking, running, cycling, swimming and alpine and cross-country skiing. We could never accuse Marius of not being active! Marius is passionate about D2D because “development graduates have fantastic ideas, but often little money and power. Helping at least some of these ideas take off is both a necessary and exciting endeavour.”
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Milan Patel IT Director
Milan currently works as an independent consultant with expertise in financial technology and capital market development. He has a BSFS International Economics degree from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and an MSc in Development Studies from the LSE (graduated 2008).
Milan currently lives in London, but is seeking his next development-related adventure and hopes to document his travels on an insightful food blog. He loves travelling, politics, reading, movies (particularly of the subtitled type), food (eating and cooking of course!) and supporting Liverpool Football Club.
Milan enjoys working for D2D because “it helps to foster a bond amongst DESTIN students and alumni, by allowing the DESTIN community to support its own innovative initiatives. These are OUR projects! You can feel a real buzz of excitement about the projects amongst Destineers; the online discussions on the merits of each project have been especially vigorous, which is great.” |
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Kim Thomond Marketing Director
Kim currently works as an Associate within the Development and Outreach team at Human Rights Watch. On a voluntary basis, she also manages a project called ‘Big Book Swap’, which supports literacy and education development in Africa. She has a BSc (Hons) in French and Business from Aston University and an MSc in Development Management from the LSE (graduated in 2008)
Kim lives in London and in her spare time she loves reading, cooking, travelling, learning new languages and running (at a slow and steady pace!). Kim really believes in D2D because “it offers a way to reward truly exciting projects and give a chance to DESTIN graduates, who may be facing some ‘brick walls’ as they start out on new ventures in the world of development. And the added beauty of it is, is that it builds on the fantastic DESTIN community, which I personally hope to always be connected to.”
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Saba Hussain Donations Officer
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We are lucky to be supported by two fellow alumni who act in advisory roles:
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Cecilia Serin Advisor
Cecilia currently works as a consultant for the United Nations Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) in Geneva. She graduated from DESTIN in Development Management in 2008. |
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Ana Maria Torres Advisor
Ana Maria currently works as a Program Coordinator for the Department of Economic Development Trade and Tourism at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington DC. She graduated from DESTIN in Development Management in 2008. |
Acknowledgements
In establishing the fund and reviewing the proposals, the Board benefits from the assistance and advice of Professor Nilima Gulrajani.
D2Development Fund logo designed by Anisha Patel.
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