Senior Leadership
Rebecca Haile, Co-Founder and Executive Director
Entrepreneur, businesswoman, mother, author, Rebecca is the driving force behind EEI and Haile-Manas Academy. Ethiopian by birth, American by life’s circumstances, she is fluent in both English and Amharic. As the overall project leader, Rebecca has been overseeing every element of this project, from campus construction and school operations at HMA, to building key relationships and leading development efforts. B.A. Williams College; J.D. Harvard Law School.
Peter Thorp, Senior Advisor
Peter was the founding Head of School of the prestigious Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology in Rwanda, where he lived for 4 1/2 years. Earlier in his career he was the founding principal of Gateway High School in San Francisco, a public charter school. Prior to that he taught and coached for over 18 years at Fountain Valley School in Colorado, and for 5 years served as the headmaster of Cate School in California. B.A., Williams College.
Justine Pak, Director of the New York Office
Justine creates and implements systems and policies for EEI and HMA, oversees HMA staff onboarding, liaises with the EEI Board, and assists with development efforts including: overseeing EEI’s social media presence, events planning, grants management, and donor outreach. BA with Honors; University of Texas - Austin. Dual Degree M.A./MSc. in International and World History; Columbia University and the London School of Economics.
Board of Directors
Mr. Jean Manas, Co-Founder
and Chairman of the Board
Founder and CEO of Foros, a premier strategic and M&A advisory firm in New York City. Formerly in senior leadership positions at Deutsche Bank and Goldman, Sachs & Co. Former Chairman, Board of Trustees of Robert College, a leading high school in Istanbul, Turkey. B.A. Princeton University; J.D. Harvard Law School.
Ms. Mimi Alemayehou
Managing Partner, Semai Ventures and Senior Advisor, Three Cairns Group. Formerly Senior Vice President for Public-Private Partnerships at MasterCard. Formerly Managing Director of the Black Rhino Group and Chair of Blackstone Africa Infrastructure LP, advancing major energy and infrastructure projects across Africa. Formerly served the U.S. government in development finance and poverty alleviation. B.A., West Texas A&M University; MALD, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Mr. Ezana Bocresion
Managing Partner, Portunus Capital Advisors, LLC. Formerly Managing Partner of Aeneas Holdings, LLC, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Copia Agribusiness, and Managing Director at Atlas Advisors. Senior financial services professional with 30+ years of experience in investment banking, private equity, fintech investing and public accounting. Board member, StoneCastle Partners, LLC. B.A., Dartmouth College; BSBA, Boston University.
Ms. Caroline Brown
Founder, Brown & Peisch, PLLC. Former co-chair, Health Care group at Covington & Burling. Former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O'Connor. Alumna and Former Trustee, Hotchkiss School, top US boarding school. B.A Harvard College; J.D. Harvard Law School.
Ms. Rebecca Haile, Co-Founder
and Executive Director
Entrepreneur, businesswoman, lawyer, author. Senior Advisor at Foros, an independent strategic and M&A advisory boutique firm she helped found in 2009. Practiced at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, and Williams & Connolly in Washington, DC. Author, “Held at a Distance: My Rediscovery of Ethiopia”. Chair of the Board, Emily’s List. Former Trustee, The Brearley School, an independent K-12 girls’ school in New York City. B.A. Williams College; J.D. Harvard Law School.
Dr. Sossina M. Haile
Leading academic scientist, winner of numerous prestigious awards. Currently Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern. Research broadly encompasses materials for energy technology innovation. American Competitiveness and Innovation Fellowship, U.S. National Science Foundation. Co-founder, Joint US-Africa Materials Institute. Fellow, African Academy of Science. Associate Fellow, Ethiopian Academy of Science. B.S. and Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, MIT.
Dr. Liben Hailu
Chief Technology Officer, Duracell, a Berkshire Hathaway Company. Previously held a variety of research and development positions at Proctor & Gamble. Played a leading role supporting the growth of the Proctor & Gamble businesses in Sub Saharan Africa. B. Eng., University of Surrey, UK; Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Cambridge, UK.
Ms. Anne T. Melvin
Senior Learning Consultant, Alumni Affairs & Development, Harvard University. Founder, Dynamic Fundraising Training, LLC, an educational resource for non-profits nationwide. Formerly practiced law at Widett, Slater & Goldman, Boston, MA. B.A. Williams College; J.D. Boston University School of Law.
Ms. Helen Mesfin
Host and Executive Producer of Amharic-language talk show, The Helen Show on EBS TV (Ethiopian Broadcasting Services) with over 30 million viewership in Ethiopia and around the world. Senior Vice President of Sales, Meet Virtuals. Formerly sales executive at tourism, destination sales, and marketing firms.
Mr. Kelley Murphy
CFO and advisor with three spouse-owned ventures. Formerly co-founder and CEO, People’s Genetics. Formerly consultant, Monitor Company and Managing Director, Parthenon Group, leading management strategy consultancies. B.A., Williams College; MBA, Dartmouth Tuck School.
Dr. Elizabeth Nega
Internist, Kaiser Permanente physician practicing hospitalist medicine at Providence Health Care (PHC), Spokane, WA. Former primary care physician at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Boston and Center Medical Director, Concentra occupational health centers in Atlanta Georgia. Former director and co-founder of Health E-Station, a telemedicine startup. M.D. from Addis Ababa University Medical Faculty in Ethiopia; internal medicine residency program, Howard University Hospital. MBA, Northeastern University Boston.
Dr. Aleesha Taylor
Founder and principal, Herald Advisors, education consulting firm. Former Deputy Director, Open Society Foundations’ Education Support Program. Former Senior Advisor to the Minister of Education in Liberia. Former Lecturer, Teachers College, Columbia University. B.A. Spelman College; Ph.D. Teachers College, Columbia University.
Mr. Benjamin Williams IV
Former Headmaster, Cate School, Carpinteria, California. Teaching and administration experience at schools in Massachusetts, Texas and California. Vice Chair of the Board for The Association of Boarding Schools; Trustee, Westminster School, top US boarding school. B.A Williams College; M.A. Brown University.
Haile-Manas Academy Leadership
Ms. Andrea Spinner, Head of School
Andrea has over 20 years of experience in education, having previously served as the Head of School at Aka Khan Academy in Mozambique, the Founding Head of Pharo School Homosha in Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia, and Head of School at Brookes Shawnigan Lake in Canada, as well as as a teacher in India, Abu Dhabi, and the United States. She brings a deep understanding of the International Baccalaureate program, inquiry-based education, and design thinking to her work as an educator. B.A., University of Toronto. M. Ed., University of Toronto. M. Ed., Interdisciplinary Studies - Design Thinking, Creativity and Leadership., University of Calgary.
Mr. Tesfaye Kifle, Deputy Head of School
Tesfaye has over two decades experience as a teacher, teaching coach and administrator in Ethiopia. He previously taught at International Community School of Addis Ababa, where his duties included teacher coaching and oversight of community service programs. Previously Deputy, then Country Representative, for Partners in the Horn of Africa, a Canadian NGO focused on education. Previously Head of Education and Training at an orphanage run by Terre des Hommes. B. Ed., from Kotebe College of Teacher Education, Ethiopia. MSc. In Multi-Disciplinary Studies, State University of New York (Buffalo).