GISF’s Board of Directors

Jane is a senior operational and thought leader in the humanitarian and development sector with over 30 years of experience. Her career has taken her from Somalia to Ukraine and includes close involvement in multiple humanitarian responses to both conflict and natural disaster.

Jane was Humanitarian Director at Oxfam from 2008 to 2016 and CEO at the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) from 2017 to 2020. She has been at the heart of many changes in the humanitarian sector as a whole.

Jane was awarded an OBE in 2011.

Gurpreet is a dedicated professional with 16 years of international risk management experience in the health, safety & security sector and an extensive international risk management knowledge and expertise. He has held senior security positions in international organisations of varying size, including humanitarian, development, child protection, think tanks, conservation and faith-based organisations.

Gurpreet has a long history of partnership and engagement with GISF, acting as a member of the Steering Group from 2012 to 2015, leading sessions at the organisation’s biannual Forums, and contributing to GISF publications including the flagship guide on Managing Sexual Violence Against Aid Workers.

Mark brings 25 years of diverse experience to the GISF Board of Directors, spanning the military, the United Nations, and various international organizations. He currently works at the Asian Development Bank as Director, Organizational Resilience and Security, and has previously held roles at the International Monetary Fund, UNRWA and UNHCR.

Mark holds a BA in Politics, Philosophy & Economics from the University of Stirling; an MA in Public Policy & Public Administration from Concordia University; and an Executive MBA in Business Administration from Lancaster University.

In her position as Treasurer on the GISF Board of Directors, Keeley plays a vital role in overseeing the organisation’s financial operations. She brings a wealth of experience to the role, including senior positions at international charities, such as Fight for Peace and Invest in Africa. Keeley also holds trustee positions at the Essex Wildlife Trust and Scotland’s International Development Alliance.

Keeley has been a Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants since 1997, with a practicing certificate.

Colin brings over 25 years of experience to the GISF Board of Directors, encompassing operations and security management, as well as organizational policy and strategy evaluation for humanitarian and development programmes at field, headquarter and board levels.

During 20 years at Médecins Sans Frontières, Colin headed missions in Burundi, Somalia and Iraq. He later served as Director of Global Security at Democracy International and has been in his current role as Chief Safety and Security Officer at the International Rescue Committee since 2019.

Colin contributed to Module A6 in GISF’s series of guides on Keeping Up with Covid-19.

As Executive Director of GISF, Jon plays a key role on the Board of Directors, representing the GISF Secretariat.

Jon started his career in government in Australia before moving into overseas development. In almost 10 years in the aid sector, he has been involved in security risk management within local and international NGOs, and private consultancy. At Mercy Corps, he was Global Manager of Crisis Analytics and also ran the Syria and Nigeria teams. He has spent significant time in Afghanistan and Timor Leste, and is now based in Scotland.

Jon joined the GISF Secretariat as Executive Director in March 2023.

Adrian Powell has extensive experience of providing a broad range of commercial, corporate, criminal and regulatory legal advice in both the UK and high risk and complex jurisdictions around the world.

Adrian’s experience is to the full scope of commercial and international organisations in the defence, security, international development, extractives, insurance and legal industries.

He qualified as a Solicitor in 2004 following 11 years in the British Army. After several years in general legal practice, from 2006 to 2013 Adrian Powell spent the majority of his time in Iraq and Afghanistan and from 2013 to 2015 worked on a significant legal project focusing on Syria. Adrian has a masters in terrorism and political violence from St Andrews University.

Throughout her 29-year career, Anissa Toscano has filled senior roles with a range of organisations, providing strategic support, humanitarian leadership, crisis management and direct training across the public, not for profit, as well as private sector. Most recently, she was Mercy Corps’ Vice President, Humanitarian Leadership and Response, managing Mercy Corps’ emergency capacity, emergency response and crisis analytics teams as well as their global safety and security team.

Her experiences have taken her to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Haiti, Ukraine, Nepal, Pakistan, and beyond.

With two decades of security risk management experience, Toby has worked across multiple sectors and at the country, regional and global level. He joined Amnesty International in 2017, and is currently their Director of Global Security & Workplace. It was at Amnesty that Toby was first introduced to the work of GISF, and he has been actively involved ever since, helping to integrate human rights-focussed INGOs into the membership group.

Toby also serves on GISF’s Steering Group. His Board position focuses on ensuring the Steering Group’s perspective is represented at the highest levels of GISF’s governance.