About us

Our Purpose

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Pepal Advisory helps companies develop people with purpose

Pepal Advisory exists to help business develop people with purpose

We are passionate about create social value alongside shareholder value

We specialise in aligning people development practices with corporate social value priorities

We design and deliver purpose-led leadership, talent and capability programmes

We combine expertise in business, leadership and social impact

We are the social business of the international charity Pepal Foundation

Our Team

Our Team.

Jane Atkin

Finance Director

Jane is Pepal’s Finance Director, responsible for the financial management of our business. She has over 30 years experience in finance across both the commercial and non-profit sectors.

Jane’s career includes roles in companies in the retail, manufacturing and engineering sectors and she spent ten years as the Finance Director for an international education social enterprise.

Jane has also worked for the UK national charity for wheelchair sport, the UK’s largest volunteer charity and before joining Pepal Jane was the Director of Finance and Resources for a pioneering charity supporting homelessness and those leaving care.

Jane holds a BSc from Southampton University and is a qualified accountant (ACMA CGMA).

Hezron Festo

Consultant

A specialist in social business and social development in Tanzania, Festo brings over 15 years of business and social impact experience to his role as Consultant for Pepal.

Festo leads Pepal Advisory’s work in Tanzania, and brings deep expertise in healthcare, where he works closely with private sector, government and NGO partners.

He is a member of the Regional Health, Community Development and Social Empowerment board for the Kagera Region of Tanzania as well as a member of Tanzania’s National Cervical Cancer Technical Working Group.

Festo holds a BSc degree in Business Information Systems from Dodoma University, Tanzania.

Shrishti Ganguly

Principal Consultant

Shrishti brings 5 years of experience in international programme design and delivery to her role as Principal Consultant. She is responsible for designing and delivering our solutions for clients, bringing skills in results-oriented project management stakeholder management, communication and, delivering impactful programmes.

Shrishti has experience with clients in the healthcare, consumer and agriculture sectors and managed Pepal’s two most recent global programmes across Europe, Africa and Asia.

She has specialist knowledge of gender equality and gained hands-on experience with NGOs working to reduce gender-based violence in Uganda.

Shrishti holds a BA degree from Leeds University and an MA from the University of Sussex in Gender Studies.

Vikas Karlekar

Senior Advisor

Vikas serves as Treasurer of Pepal’s Board and brings over 30 years of experience in the Financial Services sector, and . He current serves as MD and Group Head of Finance for Intermediate Capital Group PLC, a FTSE 100 global asset manager specialising in private markets with over $100bn AUM.

Formerly Vikas worked for Barclays International as a Global Finance Controller - managing a significant global business, including financial reporting, key accounting decisions, valuations and leading key regulatory relationships – and for UBS and KPMG.

Vikas is a UK ICAEW qualified chartered accountant and holds a BSc degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Philip Krinks

Director

Philip leads Pepal Advisory, taking overall responsibility for our client engagements, thought leadership and team development. He specialises in analysis of complex challenges at the intersection of people development and corporate social value.

Philip brings over 25 years of experience management and advisory work. He began his career at Citibank, before joining Boston Consulting Group where he was Partner and Managing Director leading BCG’s people, organisation and HR consulting practice in the UK and serving clients in the Healthcare, Mining Consumer, Energy & Utilities and Financial Services sectors. In 2013 he founded St Martin's Partnership, a consultancy supporting social businesses, public bodies and NGOs to develop capacity.

Philip holds MA degrees from Oxford University and King’s College London, an MBA from INSEAD and a PhD in Ethics from London University.

Ed Marsh

Senior Advisor

Ed has over 30 years’ international Human Resources leadership experience in global Consumer and Technology companies and serves as the Chair of Pepal’s Board.

At Nestlé Ed served as Global Head of Talent and Organisation Development responsible for a complete approach to hiring, developing and empowering leadership talent for Nestlé’s 350,000 employees. Subsequently, he spent 5 years as Global Head of Human Resources for the $5bn global Nestlé Professional business, developing high performance leaders across Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe.

Previously, Ed worked for Hewlett Packard as HR Director and Head of Learning & Development in Europe. Ed holds a BA from Exeter University and is a Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.

Ingrid McFarlane

Consultant

Ingrid is a Consultant, supporting client programmes and projects. She has led work for Pepal Advisory in Kampala and across Uganda. She brings over 10 years of programme delivery experience, including major programmes in healthcare.

Ingrid is a specialist in social enterprise, driven by her belief in the power of these initiatives to to create positive change for vulnerable Ugandan communities. For example she has supported vulnerable families in slum areas of Kampala, and the caregivers of children with special needs, developing income generating activities and providing holistic support.

Ingrid also has expertise in communications and designed a bespoke public speaking training course to enable Ugandan social workers to support their caseload more effectively. Ingrid holds a BA degree from Makerere University.

Jane Oyugi

Senior Advisor

Jane is a certified Brain-Based Coach through the NeuroLeadership Institute. Her focus is helping leaders and teams apply neuroscience strategies to how they think, interact, communicate and work so that they can develop new mindsets, behaviours and habits to achieve their highest potential. 

Jane brings over 15 years of management consulting experience advising, collaborating and partnering with C-Suite and Senior Executives at Fortune 500 to transform their organizations.

Jane also co-founded a renewable energy start-up in Tanzania to reduce energy poverty, enable economic development and improve livelihoods and is an Executive Director of a non-profit that helps youth in underserved villages gain access to a quality education. Jane holds a BSc in Computer Engineering and an MBA from Georgetown University.

Benita Pursch

Senior Advisor

As Senior Advisor, Benita supports Pepal’s client service and leadership, bringing 8 years of experience in international development.

Benita has extensive experience in designing and delivering healthcare programs across the UK, US, and East Africa. She has worked in both private and public healthcare systems and has contributed to initiatives focused on enhancing access to and quality of healthcare services.

At Pepal, Benita has supported clients in the Consumer Agriculture and Healthcare sectors. Her previous work includes roles across the public health and international development sector, focussing on initiatives in cross-sector partnership, reproductive health, and knowledge management.

Benita holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University and an MSc from King's College London.

David Savage

Senior Advisor

David has over 30 years experience as a business consultant and development economist.

David’s expertise includes the intersection of organisation change (including business transformation, strategy development, organisation design, benefits realisation and cost reduction) with corporate purpose.

David has successfully delivered business transformation for global organisations in the Oil and Gas, Healthcare and Retail sectors, as well as for public and not-for-profit institutions from Cambodia, India and Myanmar to Uganda and Tanzania.

He has worked as independent management

consultant and for Booz Allen Hamilton.

David holds an MA degree in engineering from Cambridge, an MBA from INSEAD and an MSc in development economics from Manchester University.

Julie Saunders

Founder & Senior Advisor

Julie founded Pepal in 2009, and has over 25 years experience in both the corporate and not-for-profit sectors.

Julie began her career as an economist with the UK government and was also with DRI Inc in Paris. She worked in investment banking before becoming an economic and financial adviser to privatisation programmes in Bulgaria and Uzbekistan, managing EC funded programmes. For 10 years Julie was Director of Finance and Corporate Services at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, playing an instrumental role in the growth of the organisation from a small niche player to the largest HIV/AIDS organisation in Europe.

Julie is a qualified accountant and holds an MA in economics from Cambridge University, an MSc in economics from LSE, and an MBA with distinction from INSEAD.

Where we work

Headquartered in the UK, and with offices in Uganda, Tanzania and India, Pepal delivers global programmes to meet our clients' needs, providing business with purpose initiatives around the world.

We’ve delivered in-person leadership programming in Switzerland, Belgium, India, Myanmar, Tanzania and Uganda, and remote and hybrid initiatives for clients around the world.

Where we work