Laurie Lee
Team: Chief Executive
Profile:
I joined CARE in August 2014, because I believe strongly in our focus on economic development, gender equality and people holding governments accountable. My focus at CARE is on ensuring we have the best people to do the job we do, to support our teams on the ground in over 70 developing countries, and to ensure we continuously improve our ability to monitor the impact of our work, and learn how to do it even better.
Prior to CARE I worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for seven years, advising them on development policy issues in Europe and Africa. Before that I worked for the British government. I managed British development programmes in South Africa and Afghanistan. He worked in 10 Downing Street to prepare the G8 Gleneagles Summit on Africa in 2005. And I ran the DFID Trade Policy Unit until 2008.
One good thing I've read
One of CARE’s goals is to help the 2 billion people – including 1.1 billion women – without access to financial services, to get them. This great and easy book, Portfolios of the poor: How the world's poor live on $2 a day, by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, explains why there’s no such thing as living 'hand to mouth'. The poorer you are, the more you need financial management tools.
Email: Lee@careinternational.org
Twitter: @lauriejlee
Blog posts
Humanitarian team
CARE International UK’s humanitarian team supports CARE’s humanitarian work by accessing funding, and by providing project management and technical advice and capacity to CARE’s country offices and CARE’s emergency responses. CARE has a strong focus on ensuring that all our humanitarian programming responds meaningfully to the needs and capacities of different people, whatever their gender, identity or particular circumstances. CARE’s emergency shelter team is also based at CARE International UK.
Suzy Madigan
Senior Humanitarian Advisor specialising in Gender and Protection
Suzy Madigan is CARE International UK’s Senior Humanitarian Advisor specialising in Gender and Protection and regularly deploys to emergencies worldwide…
Step Haiselden
Global Emergency Shelter Team Leader
I joined CARE International UK in 2017 to lead the Emergency Shelter Team, which provides technical support to CARE country…
Inclusive Governance team
Poverty and social injustice are caused and maintained by unequal power relations that result in the inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities – between women and men, between power-holders and marginalised communities, and between countries. CARE believes poor governance is a key cause of poverty and social injustice. Our Inclusive Governance team promotes inclusive and accountable governance systems so that poor and marginalised people have influence over decisions that affect their lives. We help communities get organised and get their priorities included in development planning. We work to increase women’s voice and leadership in public life. We support service users to hold service providers to account. We work with public authorities and service providers to help them become more transparent and responsive to poor and marginalised people.
Rebecca Haines
Senior Governance Advisor – Asia and MENA
As a member of CARE International’s global Inclusive Governance technical team, currently based in Myanmar, I provide technical assistance to…
Gaia Gozzo
Head of Governance
I joined CARE International UK in 2006, with 15 years experience working in the NGO development sector. I have extensive…
Programmes and Policy team
The Programmes and Policy team is responsible for overseeing programme quality and multiplying the impact of our programming by encouraging governments, business and donors – based on the evidence we witness on the ground – to adopt policy reforms that support the world’s poorest people and communities. Working in partnership with our country programmes, women’s rights organisations and civil society, we put forward the views of the most marginalised to governments, including the UK government, multinational businesses and global institutions and press the case for change. In short, our goal is to change the rules of the game that keep people poor.
Sascha Lavin
Policy and Advocacy Assistant
I see my role as a bridge between those who deserve change and those who have the power to make…
Francesca Rhodes
Senior Advocacy and Policy Adviser
I work in CARE International UK’s Advocacy and Policy team. I focus on gender and climate change, women’s leadership in…
Strategic Partnerships team
Strategic partnerships are a key way for CARE to increase and widen our impact. Our Private Sector Engagement team partners with national and multinational companies to co-create innovative 'inclusive business' approaches that drive new opportunities for poor people as producers, workers, entrepreneurs, and consumers. We – and our partners – believe this makes good business sense: helping to generate efficiency, securing supply chains, accessing new markets and products, and improving credibility with consumers who increasingly expect companies to behave responsibly. Our Institutional Partnerships team connects the vision and commitment of our funding partners with poverty-fighting programmes throughout the world.
Joanna Carson
Senior Corporate Partnerships Executive
I manage CARE’s Cocoa Life partnership with Mondelez in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, working to create a vibrant, strong cocoa…
Kirsten McWilliams
Senior Corporate Partnerships Executive
Within my role, I manage corporate partner funding and the relationship with corporate partners, as well as working with teams…
Women’s Economic Empowerment team
Our Women’s Economic Empowerment team leads CARE’s work globally to ensure women have greater access to and control over economic resources, assets and opportunities. We focus on four inter-related pathways to economic empowerment, based on a combination of women’s core economic roles as producers, workers, entrepreneurs and consumers: financial inclusion, women and value chains, dignified work, and entrepreneurship. We also focus on supporting the involvement of women in creating resilient markets in fragile and humanitarian contexts.
Nilufar Verjee
Director Women’s Economic Empowerment
I joined CARE International UK in September 2016 as global Director for Women’s Economic Empowerment. Women's Economic Empowerment is one…
Joe Sutcliffe
Advisor – Dignified Work
I provide technical expertise for CARE globally on Dignified Work – CARE’s strategy for promoting access to gender-equitable, economically empowering…
Laurie Lee
I joined CARE in August 2014, because I believe strongly in our focus on economic development, gender equality and people…
CARE International alumni
Many CARE staff who have written Insights blogs have since moved on to other roles. Your blogs are still part of the CARE story – and we welcome any future contributions you may make to Insights and to our shared learning on what works in humanitarian response and international development.
Miski Abdi
Miski Abdi was formerly a Policy and Advocacy intern at CARE International UK. She worked on CARE’s Financial Inclusion and…
Katherine Hughes
Katherine was formerly the Financial Inclusion Advisor for Asia at CARE International UK, providing technical advice, project management support, and…