Team

We are a small team based in Washington, D.C. and in many of the regions we work in that is excited about open contracting. Meet us here and get in touch.

Gavin Hayman

Executive Director

Gavin is honored to be the Executive Director of Open Contracting Partnership, a silo-busting collaboration across government, business and civil society to open up and transform public contracting and procurement. Gavin plans to reinvent one of the largest markets in the world – covering 1 in every 3 dollars spent by government – as a smart, user-centered digital service, improving trust, inclusion and sustainability.

Before joining the Open Contracting Partnership, Gavin was Director of Campaigns and then Executive Director of Global Witness. He oversaw the organization’s groundbreaking and award-winning investigative, campaigning and advocacy work uncovering secret deals, corruption and conflict around the world. He helped create the international Publish What You Pay campaign and negotiated the intergovernmental Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative to improve disclosure and oversight of over trillion dollars of oil and mining money paid around the world.

He is also an expert on illicit financial flows and helped lead global efforts to end the abuse of anonymous shell companies for money laundering and financial crime, including at the G8 and Open Government Partnership.

He has a Doctorate from the University of Reading and has worked with Chatham House in London and the United National Environmental Programme in the past on analyzing and investigating global environmental crime. Gavin is a 2021 Fellow of World Commerce & Contracting for his work on improving trust and the emergency response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kathrin Frauscher

Deputy Executive Director

Kathrin is the Deputy Executive Director and Gavin’s co-pilot in leading the Open Contracting Partnership. Kathrin’s journey as a social entrepreneur started in an unlikely place – the World Bank Institute, the incubation lab of the World Bank. Kathrin worked in countries such as Nigeria, Uganda, and Mongolia on challenging but potentially transformative sectors including mining, construction, and service delivery. Once she realized the potentially massive impact that more accountable procurement processes could have, there was no turning back. While still at the World Bank, Kathrin and her team there began a user-centered iterative process to create a global organization that was better equipped than the World Bank to work across stakeholder groups in developed and developing countries to open up government contracting. Kathrin now co-manages the Partnership with Gavin where she is still thrilled by the daily opportunity to change how contracting can deliver value for everyone. Before working at the World Bank for ten years, she got a Masters in Advanced International Relations from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University and a BA in Economics from the University of Vienna. Kathrin is a 2021 Fellow of World Commerce & Contracting for making significant contributions to the development of commercial and contract management.

Lindsey Marchessault

Director for Data and Engagement

Lindsey is OCP’s Director for Data and Engagement. As part of the senior management team, she helps to direct OCP’s strategy and organizational stewardship. Lindsey leads OCP’s engagement with country implementers and international institutions, oversees our technical assistance to partners, and manages our data team. She also oversees our research & guidance portfolio and is responsible for the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) and its related tools.

In her work, Lindsey advises on legal and policy reform to implement open contracting and supports the co-creation of tools, methodologies, and feedback loops to ensure that open contracting delivers impact. 

Lindsey is a lawyer who previously worked with the World Bank, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, and in private practice in Canada.

In her spare time, Lindsey enjoys hiking, paddling, biking, camping, and skiing with her children.

Andrii Hazin

Senior Data Support Manager

Andrii is our Senior Data Support Manager and is responsible for helping our partners in Europe and Central Asia to take a data-driven approach to improve public procurement outcomes. He offers guidance on how to collect, structure, and use data to make better decisions and create a better user experience for procurement systems. In addition, Andrii advises our partners on data digitization and publication.

Before joining OCP, Andrii was a data visualization officer at UNDP Ukraine helping the decision support unit to manage, organize, summarize and visualize all incoming data. He has worked as a data journalist, open data and data visualization trainer, and data journalism mentor.

Andrii holds a Bachelor’s degree in History of Philosophy. He is interested in creative coding and digital humanities. He teaches data visualization at Ukrainian Catholic University and Generative Art at Lviv National Academy of Arts.

Bernadine Fernz

Head of Sustainability, Infrastructure and Asia

Before joining the Open Contracting Partnership, Bernadine was Associate Director and Regional Manager for Latin America and Southeast Asia at CoST International, the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative. She led on concept design as well as the practical implementation of complex multi-stakeholder programmes aimed at improving the business environment, fighting corruption, and delivering value for money from infrastructure investments.

Before CoST, Bernadine worked with the Overseas Development Institute, where she was responsible for the Climate Funds Update, a climate finance transparency initiative. She began her development career at Deloitte & Touché working on Iskandar Malaysia, a regional mega-infrastructure and economic development initiative. Since then, she has worked extensively in renewable and conventional energy technologies and infrastructure.

She is a barrister by trade, with 20 years of experience across the legal, consulting and international development sectors. She graduated with Distinction from the London School of Economics with an MSc in Environment and Development.

Boonyarat Kittivorawut

Senior Manager for Asia

Boonyarat is our Senior Manager for Asia, leading on driving impactful change across Asia and the Pacific through the implementation, advocacy, stakeholder engagement and partnership building for open contracting. She is in charge of executing regional strategies and utilizing the transformative power of open data and inclusive approaches to catalyze public sector reforms regionally.

Before joining OCP, Boonyarat worked with the UK Government as Country Director for Economics and Sustainable Development, Thailand. She led the UK’s economic partnerships with Thailand and oversaw a team implementing the UK’s sustainable development technical assistance portfolio. This included UK policy and regulatory programs on economic, digital, data, emerging technologies, financial services and smart cities. Boonyarat also worked with UNICEF and the Asian Development Bank on various technical assistance projects, including capital market development, financial inclusion, and financial literacy.

Boonyarat has over 15 years of experience in government policy, regulatory reform, and delivering impactful policy programs. She has a BA in Political Science from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and a Masters in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Cambridge scholar.

Camila Salazar

Head of Data Analytics and Learning

Camila Salazar is our Head of Data Analytics and Learning, working with partners globally to take a data-driven approach to improve public procurement outcomes. She leads OCP’s data use support to partners, developing methodologies on how to use open contracting data and advising on how to improve data quality to achieve specific goals, reforms, research, monitoring, and advocacy. In addition, Camila performs internal data analysis to better track and measure the progress and impact of key OCP interventions and demonstrate the usefulness of procurement datasets to local users and local objectives. She also supports OCP’s capacity-building activities.
 
Before joining OCP, Camila worked as an open data analyst and consultant in Latin America, working on research projects and training public servants, journalists, university students and civil society in open government, open data, data analysis and data journalism. She also worked as a data and investigative reporter in Costa Rica.
 
Camila holds an MSc in Applied Social Data Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science as a UK Foreign Office Chevening Scholar and holds a BA degree in Economics, a BA and a Licentiate degree in Journalism and Communications from the University of Costa Rica.

Carey Kluttz

Head of Partnerships

Carey Kluttz leads our country engagement strategy and supports open contracting implementation around the world. She also directly oversees our projects in Africa, the Middle East, and France.
 
Before joining OCP, Carey served as a Fulbright-Clinton Fellow with the national mining company of Côte d’Ivoire, where she also supported the Open Government Partnership process. Prior to her Fellowship, Carey was with the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice where she focused on open contracting as well as governance of the extractive industries, and previously served as Executive Director of the Bridges of Understanding Foundation, dedicated to fostering understanding between the United States and the Arab world.
 
Carey holds an MA from the American University of Paris and a BA from the University of Virginia. She has studied Arabic and is fluent in French. Carey is based in Washington, DC.

Cindy Cervantes

Finance and Operations Officer

Cindy is our Finance and Operations Officer, She helps manage and align the day-to-day and strategic organizational course while keeping a finger on the pulse of its financial wellness. Cindy believes that the pillars of any great organization are dynamic, happy humans and simple, effective systems, and she supports our talented, global team to be just that.
 
Cindy’s focus is on the way we work together as a team and how we can work better and smarter to support our partners around the world. She helps implement and manage our organizational processes to ensure we deliver the outcome of our organization, our programs, and our mission in championing and rethinking public contracting.
 
Before joining OCP, Cindy worked in the Biotech, Government Contracting, Non-Profit, and IT sectors, where she helped develop and execute administrative and operational processes from the ground up. She graduated with distinction and honors from Texas A&M University – San Antonio and holds a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology. Cindy currently enjoys a tiny home lifestyle in New Braunfels, Texas.

Edwin Muhumuza

Head of Africa

Edwin Muhumuza is the Head of Africa at OCP where he leads the portfolio to open up and transform public procurement across the continent. He works closely with frontline government teams in several African countries to respond, recover and rebuild together by reforming procurement systems for better contracting outcomes. Edwin works with teams of reformers in government to redesign government processes and systems through open data, better civic and business engagement, monitoring and research. Through engagements with senior decision makers at country, regional and global levels, he advocates for changes in how procurement and procurement systems serve African governments and their citizens, turning procurement from a compliance driven, complex, paper-based process into an open, results-driven digital service that delivers value for money, as well as value for many.

Before joining OCP, Edwin worked as Director Corporate Affairs at the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA ), the public procurement regulator in Uganda. He was responsible for strategy, partnerships and performance monitoring and was at the forefront of some key reform initiatives such as e-procurement, open contracting and promotion of partnerships with non-state actors in contract monitoring.

Edwin holds a MSc in Procurement from Makerere University and a Masters in Public Administration (International Development) from the University of York (UK). He has attended several post graduate courses in areas such as public policy, monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning to mention but a few. Edwin lives in Kampala, Uganda with his wife and three sons.

Félix Penna

Senior Data Support Manager

Félix is our Senior Data Support Manager and is responsible for helping our partners to take a data-driven approach to improve public procurement outcomes. He offers guidance on how to collect, structure, and use data to make better decisions and create a better user experience for procurement systems. In addition, Félix advises our partners on data digitization and publication.

Before joining OCP, Félix worked as a data science manager helping governments to design and evaluate evidence-based public policies. He has experience in research initiatives, implementing quantitative and statistical models in organizations, and has participated in open data initiatives in the public sector. He also was in charge of the designing and teaching of data science courses.

Félix holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with honors and a Specialization in Quantitative Methods for Data Analysis from Universidad de Buenos Aires. He is interested in evidence-based decision making, the use of data and technology for social good, and advocates for more efficient public procurement systems that allow the implementation of more and better public policies.

Gawesh Jawaheer

Senior Manager for Africa

Gawesh is our Senior Manager for Africa. He specializes in e-Government Procurement (e-GP) and supports various stakeholders in Africa to conceptualize, implement or improve their e-GP systems.

Before joining OCP, Gawesh worked as e-Procurement System Project Manager for the Government of Mauritius. Working with the World Bank, he also developed the e-GP Strategy and Roadmap for Madagascar and Iraq, and started a similar initiative in Burundi. He also worked in academic research at Imperial College London and City University London in the fields of autonomic computing, e-Health and Recommender Systems.

Gawesh holds an MBA in Innovation & Leadership, MSc in Information Systems & Technology, and BEng(Hons.) in Electrical & Electronic Engineering. He also holds various professional qualifications in Project Management, IT Service Management, Data Science and Cybersecurity.

Gawesh is based in Mauritius. If he is not working, reading, tinkering with a Raspberry Pi, coding, analyzing and visualizing data, socializing with friends/family, working out in the gym, walking on the beach or in the park, taking pictures with his D3200, or sightseeing … he’s probably swimming in the sea!

Georg Neumann

Head of Communications

Open contracting is collaborating, communicating and using technology for innovating development – all of which have been a focus of Georg’s professional career prior to joining the Open Contracting Partnership where he manages communication and advocacy. At the Inter-American Development Bank, Georg has led the Digital Strategy of the Multilateral Investment Fund focussed on supporting micro, small and medium businesses and entrepreneurs in Latin America. He also co-initiated the organisation’s portfolio of projects testing social innovations such as crowdfunding. The nexus to transparency and anticorruption originated at Transparency International where he managed online and internal communications of the global movement and led the discussion of solutions to use technology to fight corruption. He has worked in development projects in Mexico and Morocco and holds a Masters in Strategic Economic and Social Communications from the University of Fine Arts in Berlin.

Guillermo Burr

Senior Program Manager for Latin America

Guillermo is Senior Program Manager for Latin America helping governments and civil society to get the most of open contracting in order to boost efficiency and regain trust in the public sector.

Before joining OCP, Guillermo worked as Head of Research and Business Intelligence at Chile’s central procurement agency, ChileCompra, where he contributed to innovations such as the implementation of open data and the definition and introduction of new procurement methods. He also served as part of the OECD peer reviewer’s team for the procurement systems of Colombia and Mexico. Before that, he worked in the private sector as Research Manager for the industrial markets of Construction and Agro Chemicals, among others.

Guillermo holds a title of Sociology from Universidad of Chile, a Masters degree in Public Policy from UDD and Diplomas of Business Intelligence and Consumer Behaviour at UAI and Defense and Internal Security from Chile’s Ministry of Defense. Before that he pursued (but not finished) studies in Music and Mathematics, which helps him to interact in groups with diversity.

James McKinney

Head of Technology

James is Head of Technology at OCP. He guides the development and governance of the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS), and supports governments, businesses and civil society to publish, use and build tools with open contracting data.

James regularly contributes to civil society initiatives relating to government, legislative and corporate transparency and accountability. He has worked with governments in Canada and internationally to improve the data and information they publish, through mechanisms like the Open Government Partnership and the Open Data Charter. He has authored, edited and contributed to standards used by dozens of governments, from the local to national levels, in Canada and around the world. He previously founded Open North, a Canadian nonprofit that drives research, capacity-building and network collaboration across and within sectors to advance the responsible and effective use of data and technology. He also organized the Canadian Open Government Civil Society Network, which successfully convinced Canada to commit to establishing a multistakeholder forum on open government.

James is based in Merrickville, Canada.

Karolis Granickas

Head of Europe

Karolis is OCP’s Head of Europe working with the European institutions, country governments and civil society to improve public spending in the region. Driven by impact and that alone, he focuses on strengthening institutions and their public spending using openness principles. He is interested in how open contracting can help power sustainable transition in Europe. Karolis is a member of the European Commission Multi-Stakeholder Expert Group on eProcurement (EXEP) and he also co-leads the Open Spending EU Coalition – a community of open spending champions in the EU.

Before joining the Open Contracting Partnership, Karolis worked with Transparency International Lithuania, focusing on citizen engagement using ICT. He also contributed to global open data advocacy efforts, together with the Epsi platform, Open Knowledge International, Open Data Institute and others. From 2014 to 2016, he was a national researcher within the Open Government Partnership Independent Review Mechanism.

Karolis earned his bachelor’s degree in international law from the University of Westminster, UK and Master’s degree in European Union law from the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Kaye Sklar

Senior Program Manager, Lift

Kaye is the Senior Program Manager of Lift, Open Contracting Partnership’s impact program that provides technical support to teams of procurement reformers and assists them in applying new approaches and skills to more effectively plan for, introduce, and sustain contracting reforms.

Before joining Open Contracting Partnership, Kaye conducted research on municipal innovation and provided programmatic support to Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Government Innovation Team. Kaye has also provided strategic planning, research and communications assistance on issues pertaining to the future of work and technology policy to nonprofits and foundations, including the Ford Foundation and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Global Philanthropy.

A Fulbright scholar, Kaye earned her (very useful) Bachelors degree in Philosophy with Honors, Cum Laude, from Scripps College, and her Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Ljubljana. Kaye is based in Seattle, Washington. 

Kristen Robinson

Head of Advocacy

Kristen leads Open Contracting Partnership’s advocacy, building on her 15 years’ experience in policy advocacy, strategic communications and campaigning. She is passionate about all things open government, open tech and open data, having previously served as Communications and Campaigns Director at the Web Foundation and in public communications before that.

At the Web Foundation, she drove multi-stakeholder coalition building, policy advocacy campaigns and media relations work with a focus on normative and narrative change. She managed external communications for web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee in his capacity as founding executive director.

She has consulted and advised a number of NGOs, multilateral organizations, governments and businesses on their public reputation and external affairs, including during high stakes crises in the areas of peace and security, financial crime and corruption. Her consultancy clients have included: Kofi Annan Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Africa Progress Panel, Google, Orange, The Elders, Omidyar Network, Millicom, UN Women, UN Population Fund and a number of governments in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.

Kristen began her career with roles for the US and German governments in investment and trade promotion, with stints in Mexico City and Shanghai. She graduated from the London School of Economics with an MSc in International Political Economy with merit, and speaks Spanish, French and German proficiently.

Lame Dilotsotlhe

Digital Strategist & Content Fellow

Lame is currently our Atlas Corp Digital Strategist and Content Fellow. He is a Social Impact Communications Consultant with six years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned an honors degree in Professional Design (Visual Communication), and a diploma in Graphic design from Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, in Botswana.

Most recently, Lame worked with Our Solid Roots Association, as a communications consultant, managing the nonprofits internal creative projects including its branding, illustrations and publications. In 2019, he worked with (LEGABIBO) Lesbians Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana as a communications specialist, and designed the Visual brand identity, and the marketing materials for an LGBTQI+ advocacy campaign dubbed “beyond the rainbow.” The campaign was a first of its kind in the country, and its events lead to the government’s decision to decriminalize same sex relationships in Botswana. As the Founder of (WAW) “Who Are We Organization”, a youth arts and sports nonprofit, he developed and led an adolescent-youth sexual, and reproductive health rights workshop to bridge the gap between parent–child communication on issues of Sex and Sexual reproductive health which led to the setup of a youth friendly clinic, improving access to Sexual Reproductive Health services for youth in the community. Lame is passionate about using visual storytelling to advocate and create visibility for marginalized communities, and also hosts an indigenous language promotion podcast called “Ipelele Ngwao”, which focuses on preserving the diverse intangible heritage in Botswana. Through these experiences, Lame has gained strong project planning, storytelling, and campaign management skills.

Mariana López Fernández

Senior Program Manager for Latin America

Mariana is our Senior Program Manager for Latin America working to strengthen public procurement systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has worked on projects including applied research, facilitating South-South cooperation and knowledge transfer through regional networking, assessing procurement country systems, and leading procurement strategies for regional development banks.
 
She worked for the Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), FONPLATA (a sub-regional development bank), and collaborated with the Organization of American States (OAS) and on projects funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC -CANADA).
 
Mariana earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics at USAL, Argentina, and a Master’s degree in Applied Economics from Paris I – Pantheon Sorbonne, France, thanks to a Directorate’s scholarship on Research, Innovation and Higher Education of the Regional Council of Ile-Region. Mariana also has a Master’s degree in Public Policy Evaluation from the University of Seville in Spain. She is based in Santiago, Chile.

Mariana San Martín

Senior Infrastructure Manager

Mariana is our Senior Infrastructure Manager working globally with governments and other stakeholders to design and implement strategies to move forward the open contracting agenda through the lens of infrastructure’s projects and contracts specific opportunities and challenges. Driven by impact, she focuses on how these transformations can lead to real change, including improvement in people’s lives, access to services or the relevance of sustainable infrastructure for the planet.

Before joining the Open Contracting Partnership, Mariana worked on open government and infrastructure for more than 10 years, including regional and local governments in Argentina, where she was in charge of the open government agenda developing key tools for infrastructure disclosure; the World Bank and as a Country Manager for CoST – the Infrastructure Sector Transparency Initiative.

Mariana graduated with honors as Sociologist and has a MA in International Relations. She is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Nanda Sihombing

Senior Program Manager for Asia

Nanda is our Senior Program Manager for Asia in charge of the implementation, advocacy, network & community building, and the regional strategy of open contracting in Asia & the Pacific. Leading the regional work to deepen OCP’s footprint in Asia Pacific, Nanda advocates for enhancing the understanding and visibility of open contracting norms and pushing for the acceleration of open contracting implementation for reformers in the region. She also aims to expand collaboration and build an active regional open contracting community.
 
Before joining OCP, Nanda was a program manager in Hivos South East Asia and advocated for an inclusive approach working with civil societies, journalists and national as well as local governments to engage with historically marginalized and vulnerable groups to be a part of the voices that changed public procurement processes. Prior to that, she was the regional coordinator for South East Asia in the United Cities and Local Governments Asia Pacific advocating for an inclusive and sustainable urban agenda.
 
Nanda is an advocate for freedom of information, inclusive and good governance, and holds a multi-disciplinary background in transparency, anti-corruption, local governance, and urban development. She currently lives in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Oscar Hernández

Head of Latin America

Oscar is the Head of Latin America, responsible for directing OCP’s strategy and operations in the region. Together with government and civil society partners, he designs and implements strategies to create procurement systems that deliver better social outcomes and address the region’s toughest public challenges.
 
Oscar is an expert in using evidence-based approaches to increase the efficacy of public policies. Prior to joining OCP, he was an Innovation Fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab, where he led multiple projects with US and Latin American cities implementing results-driven contracting strategies to improve human services and core government operations. He was the team leader of Colombia’s Ministry of Defense Strategic Analysis Group and has worked with the Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in India and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
 
Oscar is based out of Bogotá, Colombia. He holds an M.P.A. in International Development from Princeton University and a B.Sc. in Economics and a B.A. in Philosophy from Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.

Sebastián Barrera

UX Research & Design Manager

Sebastian is the senior UX Research & Design Manager for OCP. He supports organizations in creating user research and product design strategies to inform and designing procurement systems with a customer-centric lens.

Before OCP, Sebastian worked in the Latam and East African regions in the fintech and digital financial inclusion spaces, with vc-backed startups, non-profit organizations and multilateral agencies, where he led multiple projects related to product design optimization and consumer research to better understand and serve the needs and preferences of their consumers to inform effective product strategies.

Sebastian holds a BA in Industrial Design and an MFA in Design for Social Innovation from the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he lived for 5 years before returning to Latin America. He currently lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Sophie Abache

Digital Strategist and Content Manager

Sophie is the Digital Strategist and Content Manager at OCP. She works with the Head of Communications to help define and maintain OCP’s brand across digital platforms, as well as reach new audiences using multimedia, marketing, and technology approaches and tools. Sophie supports regional and program teams with developing and executing communications strategies that increase the visibility of our work.

Sophie has experience working with private, government, and non-profit sectors. Before joining OCP, she was the Communications Coordinator at eHealth Africa where she developed and implemented communication and digital strategies for public health impact.

With a background in Computer Science and a Masters degree in Cybersecurity, Sophie has a good understanding of the digital space and uses her communication experience to ensure that our work and impact are conveyed appropriately to our audiences. She is creative, curious, loves to learn, and is passionate about empowering young girls. She is based in Bristol, UK.

Smita Shah

Senior Finance Manager

Smita is the Senior Finance Manager at OCP. She leads and supports the organization’s activities in financial management, grant management, budgeting, and financial reporting.

Smita is a seasoned finance and accounting professional with proven success at maintaining financial records integrity at non-profit and for-profit organizations. She has a master’s degree in International Development and a bachelor’s degree in Accounting. She lives in Maryland.

Steve Chaplain

Head of Finance

Steve is the Head of Finance at OCP where he oversees the financial, budgetary, and administrative strategies, processes, and policies that ensure OCP’s fiscal health. He supports the wider team to ensure fiscal stewardship, compliance, and controls are front and center in regard to grants management and financial reporting. In addition, Steve oversees the HR function as it relates to payroll, benefits and taxes.
Before joining the Open Contracting Partnership, Steve was Chief Financial Officer at Voto Latino where he led all the finance, budget, HR, and operations. Steve was responsible for building the team, processes, and infrastructural systems for the not-for-profit to effectively register 500k Latinx voters in preparation for the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Steve has an MBA in Organization Development from Johns Hopkins University and an MA from the School for International Training. With his 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, Steve gets excited about opportunities to help nonprofit organizations at local, national, and international levels achieve audacious goals.
Steve lives in Washington, DC with his son and in his free time loves mountain biking and playing Ultimate Frisbee and water polo.

Tony Herrera

Senior Program Manager for Latin America

Tony is our Senior Program Manager for Latin America. He leads our open contracting strategy in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, which includes support for governments, civic monitoring, electronic government procurement, and sustainable public procuerment. He is also responsible for strengthening bonds between our community and sharing knowledge, experience, and impact stories.

Before joining the Open Contracting Partnership, Tony was Director of Innovation in Contracting Policy and Technology at the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit in Mexico. There, he led different strategic projects to modernize CompraNet and make it fully transactional, interoperable, easy to use, and transparent. Between 2016-2021 he led the Open Contracting initiative in the national body responsible for transparency in Mexico (INAI) and co-created the open contracting platform Infraestructura Abierta with the State of Nuevo Leon, making it the first global publisher of the Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard along with the OCDS.

Tony is based in Mexico City and he has a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy from the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), and is passionate about openness, fairness, and anti-corruption strategies in contracting to improve people’s lives.

Umrbek Allakulov

Senior Data Support Manager

Umrbek is our Senior Data Support Manager and is responsible for helping our partners to take a data-driven approach to improve public procurement outcomes. He offers guidance on how to collect, structure, and use data to make better decisions and create a better user experience for procurement systems. In addition, Umrbek advises our partners on data digitization and publication.

Before joining OCP, Umrbek coordinated the research and evidence program of the Water Integrity Network with a focus on corruption, its impacts, and the efficacy of integrity programs in the global water sector. He has previously worked with the World Bank in Washington DC and GIZ in Uzbekistan. He also has experience in supporting a tech-startup in data science and machine learning applications.

Umrbek is Certified Fraud Examiner and holds a Master’s degree in International and Development Economics from the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. He is currently studying towards a degree in Computer Science. Umrbek is a recipient of numerous scholarships, including a Carlo Schmid Fellowship and a DAAD Scholarship for Development-Related Postgraduate Studies in Germany. He is passionate about innovative use of data science and AI to improve public sector governance.

Viktor Nestulia

Head of Ukraine Support

Viktor is leading our support to Ukraine to reconstruct and modernize the country after Russia’s illegal invasion, leveraging the transformational open contracting reforms in Ukraine since 2014 to help the country build back better. He also chairs Ukraine’s Reconstruction Integrity, Sustainability and Efficiency (RISE) Coalition, a group of 35+ organizations focusing on embedding open contracting principles and approaches into the recovery program. Viktor works closely with government, business, and civil society to make sure that Ukraine’s reconstruction is a role-model of open government and open contracting for the world. He is also an advisor to Nadiia Bigun, Deputy Minster of Economy responsible for public procurement.

Before joining the Open Contracting Partnership, Viktor was acting CEO at SOE Medical Procurement of Ukraine – the central purchasing body set up by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for medical public procurement.

Between 2015 and 2018 he was a Program Director at Transparency International Ukraine. His portfolio included five significant initiatives – ProZorro, ProZorro.Sale systems development, DOZORRO community building, e-Health system development, and Construction Sector Transparency Initiative implementation.  He has experience in the private sector and in government. He headed the procurement risk assessment division in one of the biggest agro-holdings of Ukraine and worked in the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.

Viktor has a Master’s degree in International Economy from Kyiv National Economic University in Ukraine and studied Organizational Behavior and Intercultural Marketing at the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien in Austria.

Volodymyr Tarnay

Senior Manager for Eastern Europe & Central Asia and the Balkans

Volodymyr is our Senior Manager for Eastern Europe & Central Asia and the Balkans. His ambition is to boost data-driven decision-making in the region and beyond, proving that governments can get great value out of contracting data.
 
Volodymyr has experience developing solutions and tools aimed at boosting the accountability of public spending, becoming a finalist of hackathons & fellowships such as the EU Eastern Partnership Hackathon, Open Data Challenge, Taiwan Presidential Hackathon, and DataFest Tbilisi, Alliance for Democracies.
 
Before joining the Open Contracting Partnership, Volodymyr was head of the Budget Policy Department at the Ukrainian NGO Center Eidos, focusing on budget transparency, good governance, and public finance management at the national and municipal levels.
 
He has advocated for open data as a member of working groups under Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance and the state agency of e-governance, Open Government Partnership, International Budget Partnership, CoST Ukraine, and the Reanimation Package of Reform Initiative.
 
Volodymyr has a Master’s degree in state finance from Kyiv National Economic University and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Academy of Public Administration Office of the President of Ukraine.

Yohanna Lisnichuk

Head of Data Support

Yohanna is OCP’s Head of Data Support. She helps partners worldwide with publishing and using open contracting data, and works with the data team to make the OCDS and our software data tools better to fulfill the partners’ use cases needs and help them achieve impact.
 
Before joining OCP, Yohanna supported open contracting implementers in Latin America as a member of the Latin America technical helpdesk. Prior to that, she worked for Centro de Desarrollo Sostenible S.A., where she supported the National Directorate of Public Procurement in Paraguay as a consultant gaining practical knowledge in using open contracting data.
 
Yohanna is based in Asunción, Paraguay, and is a Computer Science Engineer with Honours from the Universidad Nacional de Asunción. Yohanna is passionate about using her technical skills to help solve real problems to improve people’s lives.