Director, Signpost/IRC – Unlocking Community Knowledge

With a background in the social sciences, André first started working in the aid sector with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in 2006 where he dedicated 12 years in both field and headquarter leadership roles, and went on to serve 5 years on MSF’s Board of Directors.

He was Country Director in a broad range of contexts including Syria, South Sudan, Yemen, Haiti, and the Central African Republic, and played a key role in the West Africa Ebola response.

After serving as MSF’s Head of Programs, based in London, he worked with a number of early stage start-ups in the private sector.

André first worked with the IRC as Emergency Field Director of the IRC's Ebola response in Eastern DR Congo in late 2019 and was appointed Director of the Signpost Project in early 2020 to lead its evolution and growth. 

Since joining Signpost, the program has grown from a proof of concept, operating in 2 countries, to an award winning global program spanning 30 countries on five continents.

Signpost has registered over 17 million users of its platforms and averages 500,000 new users per month.  Signpost was a graduate of Google’s first ever Generative AI for social impact accelerator, and is currently piloting its AI tools in 4 countries, with scope to scale them worldwide. 

Signpost was the 1st place winner of the EU’s first ever Humanitarian Innovation Prize and winner of the UN’s SDG Action Impact Award.