Past Advisors

Dr. Faustine Ndugulile
Dr. Ndugulile is one of Tanzania’s foremost experts on Public Health, having worked as a doctor, a government official at the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and an advisor to the South African government. His focus has been especially on the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS: at the Ministry of Health, he increased the capacity of Tanzania’s laboratory services which were integral to the roll-out of a national programme of HIV/AIDS care. Switching to politics in 2010, Dr Ndugulile became the Member of Parliament for Tanzania’s third-largest constituency, Kigamboni in Dar es Salaam. He shares with CDI a vision of development from the grassroots and he has set up a number of community groups throughout his constituency. Dr Ndugulile has been an invaluable supporter of our work on the ground in Dar es Salaam.

Simon Anholt​
Simon Anholt is an independent policy advisor a who has counselled 50 government as well as cities and international organisations on how to maximise their global influence and reputation. Working directly with heads of state and government in the developed as well as the developing world, he advises on policy areas as diverse as cultural relations, sustainability and foreign direct investment. Simon Anholt pioneered the concepts of nation branding and competitive identity, fields in which he has researched and published extensively: his Nation Brands’ Index, which studies the reputation of 50 countries worldwide, is one of the largest surveys ever conducted. One of his books, Brand New Justice, presents the inspiring thesis that the power of brands could be redirected to spur the growth rather than the exploitation of developing economies.

Dr. Shailendra Vyakarnam
Dr. Vyakarnam’s expertise in entrepreneurship has led him to take up influential positions in both policy-making and academia. Before joining Judge Business School (JBS), he advised governments and UN agencies on the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems and entrepreneurship education. For several years, he also developed growth programmes for small and medium enterprises such as AcceleratorIndia. Since joining JBS over ten years ago, the practitioner-led entrepreneurship curriculum he developed has blossomed, leading to its adoption by universities in several countries and winning Dr. Vyakarnam the ‘Best Entrepreneurship Professor’ award in 2011. Dr Vyakarnam shares CDI’s fervent belief that ours is a generation does not just look to earn money but passionately seeks to make a difference. CDI will now be able to benefit from his unique experience in training entrepreneurship.

Dr. Solava Ibrahim
Dr Ibrahim’s research interests correspond closely to our work and focuses on the power of individual aspirations and capabilities to go beyond grassroots action and have a national impact. In addition to academic research, she has a wide range of professional experience, including a project with DfID that explored the transmission of poverty down generations, to developing indicators that measure agency, empowerment and inequality with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. Dr Ibrahim has joined CDI because she loves the prospect of giving Cambridge students high-level practical experience in development. She is excited to join us on our first volunteering trip in 2014 and to apply some of the research she has already conducted on grassroots initiatives in Uganda and Senegal in our target community of Dar es Salaam.

Francis Kuriakose
Francis Kuriakose is an academic researching on finance and development economics. His research interests include economic theory, history of finance, behavioural economics as well as institutional aspects of higher education. He has worked at General Electric and National Institute of Securities Markets, Mumbai, taught at University of Kerala and Mahatma Gandhi University and has coordinated projects for the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Finance, Government of India.