Facilitator

Max Santana

Max Santana specialises in strategic foresight, drawing on his experience in intelligence and risk consulting. Prior to joining IARAN, Max held research positions at Control Risks and the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), a public policy think tank in Mexico City.

Max also has teaching experience in strategic foresight. He has tailored strategic foresight courses for international relations students at Tec de Monterrey and shares his expertise in strategic planning with students on the Specialty for Tomorrow programme at CENTRO, a university specialising in creative industries in Mexico City.

Alexandra Biem

Alexandra holds a master of science in applied public health. Over the course of her studies, she was able to develop skills in numerous fields such as project evaluation, data management, both qualitative and quantitative data analysis in the health sector.

During her final year internship, she worked on the construction of a french public health ecosystem. Nowadays, she’s project manager for an innovative health program designed by IARAN and set up by a network of NGOs to help cancer patients to fast recover after a treatment.

By joigning IARAN, she intends to keep gaining more skills on strategic foresight while collaborating and sharing experience with the other fellows.

Luana Moussallem

Medical doctor in Brazil for 20 years, Luana is experienced in multidisciplinary teams coordination, risk management processes, continuous education and health and nutritional fields projects. Also interested in and involved with political and community related issues and grassroots movements. In Europe since 2018, Luana engaged in a new journey oriented towards humanitarian and cooperative initiatives on a global and local level, related to public health, nutrition, food security and education. For Luana the IARAN is a space of collaborative intelligence among humanitarians sharing a common vision on the transformations to come; it is a space of hope, trust and intelligence where to boost innovative projects for local leadership, multicultural cooperation and strategic thinking: "Research and collaborative networks are very important tools to construct and make happen a more developed, connected, respectful and free world".

Marie-Agnès Tur

Marie-Agnès is a humanitarian practitioner, who has been working in different post-crisis contexts, mainly as field coordinator, in charge, amongst others, of strategy development (exit strategies and long-term ones) and network facilitation. After having worked for 3 years in ex-Yugoslavia, dealing with peace-building and peace prevention issues, she decides to strengthen her theoretical background and take time to think about her experience to improve her field skills. She studies the "sociology of conflicts" and works as a researcher at the Peace Research Center of the Catholic University of Paris for 2 years. She is convinced that the research and humanitarian fields should work more closely together.

She therefore decides to go back to the field and continues ensuring that research is taken into account and used in the projects over the years she spends abroad. Back to Paris, she works as a Desk Officer, and then Director of Operations at the French Red Cross. She was then asked to facilitate the participatory development of the 10 years strategy of the international action of this organization. She identifies useful resources at the IARAN and develops her skills and the ones of her organization in prospective strategy. She is still supporting the work in this field.

Her research topics and work are focusing on enhancing the capacity and the role of national organisations in their country and towards international actors based on her long-term experience with the 2 largest international networks (Caritas and the Red Cross). She is also very much involved in change management and social impact evaluation. She has published a book on evaluating the impact of a peace-building projects.

Miguel Leroy

Miguel is local development and public affairs expert. Member of the staff of the Senate in France for many years, he is himself today a local elected representative from regional institutions (Mayor and President of a community of communes). Miguel worked as director of development in the waste, recycling and energy sector. Particularly interested to the involvement of local actors in the humanitarian aid decision making, Miguel has decided to join the IARAN because he is passionate about collaborative design, he believes in the strength of collective intelligence and because of his strong desire to contribute to the raise of a new aid paradigm.

Mariana Merelo Lobo

Mariana is a humanitarian and development practitioner with specific expertise in collaborative leadership development, action learning, coaching and facilitation of groups and individuals. An accredited Associate of the Partnership Brokers association, Mariana combines over 15 years’ experience working with international humanitarian organisations in a variety of settings. She currently lives in the Netherlands, with her husband and two children.

Mariana joined the IARAN fellowship because of a passion for humanitarian futures and a belief that the humanitarian collaborative practice needs to be ‘re-sourced’ beyond its existing paradigm. Mariana is also very keen to explore how her own experience and expertise can be put into action, together with other complementary sets of talents and passions.

Francois Bourse

François is is the Director of studies at Futuribles, a Paris based international, independent, private non-profit organization network on future studies that we have worked with in the past. He is also an Associate Professor at Cnam, a member of the innovation teaching team, the Research Chair of prospective and sustainable development.

Matt Thomas

Matt is a researcher and writer based in London. He currently works at the intersection of strategic foresight and data science for the British Red Cross, focussing on crisis-affected people in the UK. Matt also writes a column for anthropology magazine SAPIENS, exploring the human side of the so-called artificial intelligence revolution

Matt joined the IARAN for the opportunity to meet and collaborate with foresight experts from across the humanitarian ecosystem

Eilidh Kennedy

Eilidh is a strategic foresight professional, with an expertise in future studies. Former Chief Analyst at Save the Children International and at Action Against Hunger, she is Associate Research Fellow at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS). She has published numerous papers and, teaches courses on analysis, scenario development and the humanitarian system.

Having led a pool of regional analysts in Save the Children International and Action Against Hunger, Eilidh founded and directs the Interagency Research and Analysis Network consultancy branch. Today, Eilidh leads a number of foresight studies for the IARAN, and when she is not busy with research projects and strategy support, Eilidh designs ad hoc training courses for foresighters and analysts.

You can see some of Eilidh’s ideas and work on the ALNAP 2021 Annual Meeting, which explored the challenges posed by uncertainty and the ways in which humanitarians can better equip themselves to respond within this context.

Michel Maietta

Michel is a strategic foresight professional with two decades of experience in the humanitarian and development sector. With a rich background as the former Director of Strategy at Save the Children International and Action Against Hunger, he now spearheads the Inter-Agency Research and Analysis Network (IARAN).

Michel's passion for education shines through in his decade-long commitment to designing and delivering cutting-edge training courses for humanitarian and development leaders. He shares his expertise at renowned institutions such as Science Po, Paris-Saclay, Deakin, and Federico II Universities, as well as at the Futuribles and IRIS Think Tanks. In addition, Michel serves as the Chair of the Ukraine Emergency Committee at the Fondation de France.

When he's not crafting bespoke foresight projects, Michel is at the helm of strategic and transformational initiatives, driving impactful change in the sector.