DKT Team @ ICFP

Christopher Purdy, DKT President

Chris is Chairman of the Board for DKT International and serves as its president and CEO. From 1996 to 2011, he was the country director for DKT programs in Turkey, Ethiopia and Indonesia. He is also the founder and CEO of carafem, which provides reproductive health services through clinics and telemedicine in the USA. He is the author of numerous articles on family planning, philanthropy, and social entrepreneurship. He attended Carleton College with a degree in sociology and anthropology and obtained a Masters degree in nutrition from Cornell University.

Contact info: chris@dktinternational.org

Kwesi Yawson, Country Director of DKT Anglophone West Africa (AWA)

Kwesi is the Director of DKT's Anglophone West Africa's (AWA) office, based in Ghana. He helped establish DKT Sierra Leone in 2018 and has held senior roles at DKT since 2011, as head of sales for DKT Ghana from 2011 to 2018 and then Country Manager of Sierra Leone in 2018. He has domestic and international experience in business development, sales management and multi-channel product distribution involving both start-up and growing organizations.

Contact info: kwesiyawson@dktinternational.org

Lauren Archer, Country Director of DKT Kenya/Uganda

Lauren is Country Director for DKT International's operations in Kenya and Uganda. Lauren has over 15 years of experience working in areas of sexual and reproductive health with a focus on social marketing and private sector engagement. During this time, Lauren managed large-scale social marketing operations across a wide variety of market contexts in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, with the past four years as Country Director in Kenya and Uganda. Lauren earned a BA in Political Science from Duke University and an MPH from Columbia University. .

Contact info: lauren@dktinternational.org

Lester Coutinho, Director of Innovation & Learning DKT International

Lester is DKT's Director of Innovation and Learning. He has championed sexual and reproductive health and human rights issues throughout his career and spent over two decades at philanthropic institutions including the David& Lucile Packard Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Lester has served in various capacities as a partner and advisor to governments and multilateral institutions to advance research, policy, and programmatic innovations in SRHR for sustainable impact. He is also a former journalist and academic. Lester holds master's degrees in Political Science and Anthropology.

Contact info: lester@dktinternational.org

Dr. Marianela Martínez Buezo, Regional Programs Manager of DKT Latin America North

Marianela is the Regional Programs Manager for DKT Latin America North. She is a medical doctor and sexual and reproductive health and rights activist who is passionate about human rights, science, social justice, and gender equality. A native of Honduras, she received her medical degree at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras where she became an activist as the founder of a medical student committee on SRHR issues. She is also a member of the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights and an advocate for the decriminalization of abortion and liberalization of emergency contraceptive pills. Abortion is criminalized in Honduras and EC pill sales have been banned since 2009.

Contact info: mmartinez@dkt.com.mx

Mario E. Flores Alvarez, Director of DKT Latin America North

Mario is the Director for DKT Latin American North. He is a marketing and distribution expert with 20 years of experience supporting local teams to develop consumer markets. He is knowledgeable in formulating and executing effective and efficient marketing, sales, distribution, trade marketing and behavior change strategies in Africa, Asia and Latin America for private sector companies and international development.

Contact info: mario@dktinternational.org

Nedjma Benzekri, Country Director of Francophone West and Central Africa (FWACA)

Nedjma is the Regional Director of DKT International's Francophone West and Central Africa (FWACA) office. She is based in Senegal overseeing DKT activities in 11 Francophone countries. Nedjma specializes in health and pharmaceutical organization management with a focus on developing and providing affordable women’s health products. She joined DKT International in 2016 after working for pharmaceutical companies in France and West Africa. Nedjma is focusing on strengthening women’s rights, in particular giving access to safe abortion regardless of background and location.

Contact info: nedjma@dktinternational.org

Dr. Patricio Sanhueza Smith, Medical Director, DKT Mexico

Patricio is the head of the Medical Division for DKT Mexico and joined in February 2021. He is a certified Ob-Gyn with extensive experience as a clinical researcher, focusing on maternal and neonatal health (NMS), sexual and reproductive health (SRH), preeclampsia, the use of contraceptive methods and implementation of humanized childbirth models. For 17 years, Patricio was Coordinator of Reproductive Health at the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Mexico City (SEDESA), overseeing the successful Legal Interruption of Pregnancy (ILE) program. He has also collaborated with various national and international organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Population Council, Ipas, and DKT Mexico as a consultant.

Contact info: psanhueza@dkt.com.mx

Dr. Queen Amina Biobaku, Associate Medical Director and Head of Clinical Services & Training at DKT International Nigeria.

Dr. Queen Amina is an Associate Medical Director and Head of Clinical Services & Training at DKT International Nigeria. She has over 12 years experience working in and with hospitals, HMOs and NGOs, and more than 10 years cumulative experience in a leadership/managerial capacity. Through her leadership, her team has developed the public and private hospitals sector market in Nigeria, with over 1000 public and private health institutions recruited as active DKT Partner Hospitals so far and have trained over 15,000 healthcare providers on a variety of sexual reproductive health topics including competency-based trainings on LARC, Safe Abortion and Management of Post Partum.

Contact info: amina@dktnigeria.org

Sonia Naik, Senior Manager at Woman First Digital (WFD)

Sonia is the Partnerships Coordinator for Women First Digital (WFD) and has been with WFD for four years. She is responsible for improving awareness of WFD’s platforms and products through online and offline marketing interventions. Her previous work experience includes working for Chemonics, the Society for Family Health, and the African Leaders Malaria Alliance. She holds degrees in International Relations and Public Health.

Contact info: sonia@womenfirstdigital.org

True Overholt, DKT WomanCare

True Overholt started working with DKT International in 2012. Since then, he worked at headquarters and the DKT Ghana and WomanCare programs where he has accumulated a deep understanding of contraceptive social marketing, demand creation, supply chain, and strategic partnerships. With DKT WomanCare since 2018, True is responsible for sales, donor relations, supplier engagement and management, and overall commercial strategy.

Askari Hasan, Senior Program Lead, DKT Pakistan

Askari has experience in program management, capacity building, strategic planning and implementation and has worked for the World Bank, and USAID in Karachi. His role at DKT Pakistan is to oversee implementation of programs through health services and social marketing, align activities with programmatic objectives, and to liaise with stakeholders. He has an MBA in Social Impact and Nonprofit Management from the Heller School at Brandeis University.

Daniel Marun, Global Chief Operation Officer

Dan is the Global Chief Operating Officer of DKT International. From 1997 to 2021, he served in multiple positions at DKT Brazil, becoming country director in 2007. In 2016, he became Regional Director in Latin America South (LAS), managing one of the largest operations at DKT and leading the expansion into nine Latin American countries. He graduated from the Catholic University of São Paulo and holds three master’s degrees in Public Finance, Business, and Business Economics.

Contact info: dan@dktinternational.org

Denise Van Dijk, Country Director of DKT Mozambique

Denise is half Dutch, half American, and the country director of DKT Mozambique. She specializes in public private partnerships and sustainable PPP programming. She was made president of the Global Public Sector Division of the Female Health Company at age 30, leading a team of business developers, project managers and trainers worldwide for the FC2 Female Condom. She has worked with a diverse network of partners through her career, including USAID, UNFPA, UNHCR, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, GIZ, Side, private donors and other multilateral agencies in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Denise holds a BA in Social Sciences from the University College Utrecht and an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge.

Contact info: denise@dktinternational.org

Florencia Ardis, Marketing Director, DKT WomanCare Global

Florencia is the Marketing Director of DKT WomanCare Global, a position she has held since 2021. She has more than 10 years of experience working in well-known medical device companies and is committed to improving the delivery of compassionate patient-centred care. She is a native of Argentina, but currently resides in Paris, France.

Contact info: florencia@dktwomancare.org

George Papachristou, Country Director of DKT Pakistan

George joined DKT in February of 2022. His current role includes streamlining business process, scaling sales and profits of the contraceptive brands by creating new revenue streams and representing the DKT cause in front of the government, donor organizations and key stake holders. George brings with him extensive experience of sales, marketing and leadership in multinationals across the world with 12 years in Africa, primarily with Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

Jacques-Antoine Martin, Managing Director DKT WomanCare Global

Jacques-Antoine is the Managing Director of DKT WomanCare Global, based in Paris, France. He joined DKT International in 2016 as Country Director of DKT DR Congo, which he managed for two years. He brings to DKT solid management experience, acquired during decades in Europe, Africa and internationally with leading companies in FMCG and in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Jacques-Antoine is a graduate in economics and marketing from the HES of Lausanne in Switzerland.

Contact info: jacques@dktinternational.org

Jean-Christophe Carrau, Country Director of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Jean-Christophe has been DKT’s Country Director in Democratic Republic of Congo for the past three years. He is an expert in the implementation of sustainable strategies to achieve the organization's long term objectives. His past experience includes serving as a General Manager and Corporate Affairs Manager in the FMCG sector in Africa . He has extensive experience in Risk Management Systems (Social, Reputational, Economic, Environmental) and the understanding that good governance starts with the consultation of internal and external stakeholders.

Contact info: jean-christophe@dktinternational.org

Michelle Mor, WFD Senior manager of digital strategy and innovation

Michell Mor is a Senior manager of digital strategy and innovation at WFD. In this role, she works at the intersection of technology and SRH, overseeing WFD’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Media (SM), and Content Marketing (CM) strategies to innovate digitally and diversify SRH access around the digital world.

Rodrigo Português, Country Director of DKT Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

Rodrigo has over 18 years of project management and international public health experience around the world, initially working for the Brazilian Ministry of Health and then with PSI in Mozambique. Over the past 10 years, Rodrigo held multiple roles within DKT, first as Deputy Country Director to Janani’s program in India, then co-founder and Executive Director of WomenFirst Digital, and more recently as Global Commercial Director for DKT WomanCare Global where he led sales of contraceptive and safe abortion products across more than 90 developed and developing countries. Currently, Rodrigo heads DKT operations in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, based out of Hanoi.

Contact info: rodrigo@dktinternational.org

Tisha Gopalakrishnan, Director of Women First Digital

Tisha Gopalakrishnan is the Director of Women First Digital (WFD), an eHealth social enterprise that operates HowToUseAbortionPill.org, safe2choose.org, and FindMyMethod.org. Tisha brings 14 years of experience designing and implementing sexual and reproductive health programs. At WFD, she leads a multicultural team spread across 18 countries to increase reach of safe abortion and contraceptive information and services. Prior to WFD, Tisha was the Deputy Country Director at DKT Myanmar where she created and led the clinical services and programs team and supervised supply chain and marketing teams. Tisha holds an MSPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a BSc from The University of Hong Kong.

Contact info: tisha@dktinternational.org

Vasilis Katsikakis, Country Director of DKT Nigeria

Vasilis is the Country Director of DKT Nigeria. He has had a 28-year career as a diplomatic leader and innovator working in the FMCG industry, with the majority of that time spent in Anglophone and Francophone Africa. He has a strong record of achievement developing and delivering strategic initiatives in ever-changing and customer-centric environments. He was born in Greece, raised in Germany and holds a degree in Political Science and Public Administration from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He is fluent in four different languages including English, French, Greek and German.

Contact info: vasilis@dktinternational.org