Hans has a Master’s degree in Rural Development Sociology, with minors in irrigation and non-western agricultural co-operatives and finance. His career in SNV spans 20 years.  He has held different positions including Country Director for Nepal, Bolivia and Peru, Coordinator - Amazon program, senior advisor, working on indigenous people issues, and Trajectory Leader in the SNV core team, a temporary body at corporate level that supported the SNV repositioning and change process from 2001 to 2003.  As Country Director he has taken up regional roles such as Sponsor Director - Renewable Energy (till 2010), Forest Products (till 2010) and REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, from 2010) of SNV Asia.  He was also the Corporate account manager for SNV-WWF partnership form 2006 to 2009.  

Hans’ previous posting was to Nepal where he was country director and also served as Honorary Consul of the Netherlands.

Monsiapile Kajimbwa, Portfolio Coordinator, Central Portfolio (Morogoro)

Monsiapile holds an MSc in Organizational Change and Development from the University of Manchester, a BSc in Agricultural Economics and a Certificate in Good Governance in Civil Society. He has worked extensively both on long and short term assignments in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asian countries such as India and Nepal.

He has achieved a number of results, including influencing participatory processes for improved local democracy and governance through civil society organisations in Nepal; instilling confidence through strategic thinking of CSOs in civic engagement in Zimbabwe; organisational capacity development of CSOs involved in child education in Ethiopia; establishment of participatory integrated extension teams in Kenya; a functioning World Bank funded Tanzania Social Action Fund and a vibrant body of integrated Agriculture Extension Team in Zambia.

He brings to SNV his profound knowledge and experience in strategic thinking and managing change in organizations and development, NGO development and management, local democracy and governance. He joined SNV in 2007 as Senior Education Adviser. In 2007 he was appointed Portfolio Coordinator and leads the country sector teams in Primary Education and Agriculture / Edible Oilseeds. He is also a member of the corporate taskforce on Management for Results. Kajimbwa provides strategic direction and guidance to his team and colleagues through a Management for Results framework. His passion is in unlocking peoples’ potential to achieve their own development. His vision is ‘Organisations where employees count on one another’.

Julie Adkins, Adviser Governance and PATA team leader

Julie holds a Masters Degree in Tropical Animal Production and Health from Edinburgh University. She acquired her professional experience initially as a VSO volunteer in Kenya working with Women’s Economic Development groups and from there moved to Tanzania where she has worked in various positions over the last 22 years including livestock extension (DFID), agriculture and natural resources, local government reform, public service development, civic development and programme management (Niras Finland – formerly Scanagri) in a bilateral development cooperation programme between the governments of Tanzania and Finland.

Julie began work with SNV as a Governance Adviser in December 2005. In 2007 she moved to water, sanitation and hygiene / governance, working on Integrated Water Resource Management. She also coordinated the UNDP-SNV partnership in Tanzania from June 2008 focusing on Access to Information. In August 2009, she took up the role of Coordinator for the EKN-SNV-VNG Public Accountability Tanzania (PATA) Initiative.  Currently in her work she is focusing on embedding accountability in SNV, localisation and product development (accountability).

She is driven by a passion for justice and human rights which contribute to poverty reduction, economic growth and effective communication for better understanding among peoples.

Rinus van Klinken, Portfolio Coordinator, Lake Zone (Mwanza)

Rinus has a Masters degree in Rural Development and a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering. He worked for SNV since 1979 in various capacities seconded to the Transport, Agriculture and Land ministries of the Kenyan Government. Rinus initiated joint action programmes in Tanzania and thereafter was a Portfolio Coordinator in Arusha. In 2005 Rinus moved to Tamale in northern Ghana to start up a new Portfolio. He built a team of advisers, with a strong profile both towards partners and clients. He returned to Tanzania in 2008 in the same capacity, this time in the Lake Zone.

Rinus has greatly enjoyed working at multiple levels, firstly as an adviser, both as part of and leading complex assignments, but also on various assignments with individual clients, the latter of which afforded him insight into situations on the ground and strengthened his advisory experience. As a PC, steering the Portfolio team, both in terms of creating strategic direction and coaching Advisers on how to excel in their practice and thematic expertise. He greatly values working on team dynamics, and has organized both the annual team building sessions for internal reflection and organized Learning Festivals (bringing partners and clients together) for external profiling. Rinus is leading the Pro-poor Tourism sector and has made a major contribution to setting up the Public Accountability Initiative in Tanzania.

Tom Ole Sikar   Portfolio Coordinator, Northern Portfolio (Arusha)

Tom holds a Masters Degree in Regional Planning and Development from Madras University, India. He also holds other academic qualifications in International Trade and Development from ESAMI and Energy and Environment from Oslo University. He has more than 17 years of professional experience with different international development organizations including Swedish Orgut Consulting firm, Lutheran World Federation, SNV and CUSO. He was involved in many consulting activities with organizations such as DANIDA (Tourism), Africa Development Fund (Carpentry SMEs development), Africa Wildlife Foundation (Tourism enterprises development), Hakikazi catalyst and working with various pastoralists’ organizations in Tanzania.

He rejoined SNV in April 2009 as a Livestock Adviser working with stakeholders to improve red and dairy value chains in order to increase production, income and employment.

Tom was recently promoted to become a Portfolio Coordinator for the Northern Portfolio effectively from 1st of August 2010. A post which he takes on with a lot of energy and enthusiasm and says will propel him to addressing unique and exciting challenges as a Team Leader at same time provide the needed fuel to motivate team members.

Salome Hellar, Country Controller

Salome holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance and Accounting. She joined SNV in mid 2004.  Prior to joining SNV spent a significant length of time in the banking sector with one of the major banks in the country, facilitating client portfolio and loan services.

Upon her entry in SNV Tanzania, she worked as an Administrative Accountant at the Country Office then expanded her range of duties and responsibilities to Timetel Administration and Internal Controls eventually attaining the position of Country Controller position and a place on the Management team.

Salome coordinates the Portfolio teams’ General Support Officers who oversee both the Finance and Administrative services. Similarly she handles the country budgets and asset management in co-ordination with the Country Director and Portfolio Coordinators.

Vivi-Lillian Nasieku Mollel, Country Human Resource Officer

Vivi-Lillian joined SNV Tanzania in March 2010 as a Human Resources Officer. Vivian is quite versatile in her skills and knowledge. She holds various HR qualifications from the Tanzania Occupational Health Institute and the Association of Tanzania Employers as well as a Certificate in Computer Programming and Software Packages.

She has over three years experience in Human Resources having worked at Africa Online Tanzania and a logistics company in Tanzania, Kuehne + Nagel. She is a member of the Human Resource Society of Tanzania (HRSTA) and actively participates in its Corporate Social Responsibilities activities, a platform that provides a strong database for networking with various large and small Corporate, Government and Non Government organisations. At the moment Vivian is undertaking the ABE Business Executives course in HRM at the Financial Training Centre.

Vivian is determined to actively support the Tanzania team by recruiting the best candidates the job market has to offer, continuously monitoring staff satisfaction, their health and safety, closely following up on performance management and career development. Above all, she strives to learn as much as she can about the core business to be able to significantly contribute to poverty reduction in Tanzania.