Who's who

Asia Regional Director - Mark T. Pierce

Mark joined Plan Asia Regional Office in April 2011 as the Regional Director after almost 3 years working with Plan in Vietnam as the Country Director.
Before joining Plan in Vietnam in June 2008, Mark had worked for over 25 years with a non-governmental organisation in the United States. Previously, he spent over 18 years working in Asia, most notably in Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, India as well as serving as the Regional Director for Plan Southeast Asia and the Pacific. 
 
Mark has vast experience working in development programmes, particularly in the areas of livelihood, maternal and child health, emergency relief and rehabilitation, peace building and sustainable agriculture. 
 
He has technical expertise in the area of microfinance and has served on the boards or governing bodies of 6 microfinance institutions in the region.
 
“I am extremely passionate about having a positive impact on the lives of poor families,” says Mark. “In Plan that translates into a particular focus on children who are poor or come from marginalised groups. I think that is why all of us have joined Plan.”
 
As the Asia Regional Director Mark now leads 13 Plan programme countries in the region.

Asia Deputy Regional Director (Operations) - Alex Gray

 
Hailing from sunny Scotland, Alex Gray arrived at Plan’s Asia Regional Office in June 2011 to take up the role of Deputy Regional Director (Operations) and offer his experience as a driven management consultant and operating systems specialist. 
 
Before joining Plan, Alex spent 5 years as Regional Director of Global Assurance and Risk at Save the Children International where he managed and led teams on reviews with the purpose of providing assurances to the Board on the design and effectiveness of controls in place to manage key risks impacting global programmes and operations. 
 
A fully qualified Chartered Accountant and holding a postgrad certificate in executive leadership from Cornell University, Alex has more than 10 years experience in analysing, diagnosing and strengthening strategic, operational and financial management systems and he was recently seconded to Haiti to advise on optimal sub-office structure and set-up and oversee the design and development of robust financial and operations management and control systems.

Asia Deputy Regional Director (Programmes) - Haider Yaqub

Haider Yaqub joined the Asia Regional Office in October 2011 as the Deputy Regional Director (Programmes) after an illustrious 13 years with Plan, most recently with Plan Pakistan where he served as country director since July 2008. Haider has also worked with Plan in Bangladesh as Programme Support Manager and Acting Country Director.
 
Haider is a seasoned development professional with 27 years’ experience in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating integrated rights-based poverty-alleviation programmes in developing countries focusing on children.
 
He comes with a veritable arsenal of strengths, including working with children, strategic planning, institutional development, policy and financial analysis, budgeting, working in partnerships and alliance building, scaling up of innovative programs, as well as managing teams of multi-sectoral experts in a variety of areas.
 
At the operational level Haider has been extensively involved in providing programmatic support, as well as  monitoring, researching and evaluating programmes such as primary health care, water and sanitation, adolescent reproductive health, early childcare and primary education, flexible microfinance, sustainable livelihood interventions, child protection, national park management, human settlement planning, and land use management.
 
“I look forward to working with Plan Asia for developing quality programmes with their monitoring and evaluation frameworks, enabling us to record their impact for undertaking policy advocacy. This will help to bring a broader change for making the excluded become part of mainstream development.”

Other members of Plan's Asia Regional Office

• Dena Allen, Regional Communications Manager
• Max Baldwin, Humanitarian Grants Advisor
• Gareth Crawford, Regional Resource Mobilization Manager
• Nono Felix, Regional CPME Manager
• Jorgen Haldorsen, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator
• Avianto Amri, Disaster Risk Management Specialist for SE Asia
• Muhammad Awais, Regional MicroFinance Advisor
• Carol Boender, Head of M&E
• Matt Crook, Web and Social Media Editor
• Sandy Fortuna, Regional CCCD Program Specialist
• Ludemer Guevara, Regional ICT Manager
• Patrick Kirwan, Regional Risk Management Advisor
• Aumnakpat Pornprapunt, HR Assistant
• Terry Sherwood, Regional Security Specialist
• Rino Sudibyo, Regional Logistics Specialist
• Dusnee Tantijindaporn, Administrative Assistant
• Nopporn Wong-Anan, Regional Media Specialist