AidEx Geneva 2026

<p>Elise Lesieur has over 15 years of experience in international solidarity. After working for several INGOs in the field and at headquarters, she joined M&eacute;decins du Monde, where she was head of the Europe-Asia division. She currently serves as <strong>interim Director of International Operations at M&eacute;decins du Monde</strong>. A specialist in program management and strategic development, she has led multidisciplinary teams and coordinated interventions in many regions around the world. Her career has been marked by a strong commitment to public health.</p>

<p>Florian Kemmerich is a seasoned expert in impact investing, capital advisory, and innovative finance solutions. With over two decades of experience, Florian has a proven track record in driving growth, structuring high-impact finance strategies, and scaling businesses globally. His expertise spans leadership roles in impact investing and the healthcare sector, with a particular focus on blended finance, growth-stage investments, and capital mobilization to drive sustainable outcomes.</p> <p>Prior to joining KOIS, Florian held key leadership positions where he successfully mobilized capital to address some of the world&rsquo;s most pressing challenges. His deep understanding of global markets and commitment to leveraging finance as a tool for positive change aligns with KOIS&rsquo; mission to scale impact through collaboration between the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.</p>

<p>Monica is a humanitarian specialist with a strong background in medical response, complex humanitarian settings, global health policy and advocacy. Former Medical Director of MSF Switzerland, she has extensive expertise in leading aid programs in complex and low-resource contexts, strategy development, innovation management and advocacy, with a strong focus on neglected populations. She is currently the Deputy Executive Director at M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF) Switzerland.</p>

Lucia supports international NGOs with cross-border payments, foreign exchange, and treasury solutions, specialising in emerging markets. She has nearly a decade of experience in financial services, with a focus on payments to high risk regions. For the past 3 years Lucia has led Ebury&rsquo;s dedicated INGO team, working with some of the world&rsquo;s largest humanitarian and development organisations. She is passionate about helping INGOs navigate financial barriers to deliver aid more efficiently. Her work focuses on bridging the knowledge gap between the third sector and the financial sector to meet the practical needs of humanitarian aid delivery.

<p>Justin is an impact investment specialist with over 20 years experience in supporting the design and deployment of private capital to create better opportunities for vulnerable communities. These investments have positively impacted hundreds of thousands of lives across a diverse range of countries globally, with an emphasis on emerging markets. His wide-spanning career history has included working for a range of impact asset allocators including international non-for-profits, the United Nations and a major private foundation.&nbsp;As well as founding and running Innovest, Justin serves as a non-executive director on a number of impact investment funds and investment vehicles focused on enhancing human development and addressing climate change.&nbsp;Justin has BA Hons in History from the University of Birmingham and a MSc in Sustainable Development from&nbsp;the London School of Economics.</p>

<p>Hovig Etyemezian currently heads the Innovation Service at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. He has previously served in and led various complex humanitarian emergencies across Lebanon, DR Congo, Algeria, Mauritania, Iraq, Jordan, and Tunisia. Hovig has worked closely with refugees and forcibly displaced people, focusing on community engagement and empowerment, diplomacy with host governments, and optimizing humanitarian responses. Prior to his humanitarian career, he worked in human rights, peacebuilding, and journalism.</p>

<p>Erin leads Cisco&rsquo;s Crisis Response (CCR) and Strategic Partnerships within Cisco&rsquo;s Social Impact and Inclusion office. She oversees cash and product grant portfolios for nonprofit organizations that leverage technology to provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Additionally, she manages a team of technical experts and emergency responders who deliver technical assistance, consulting, training, deployment support, and Cisco technology to ensure secure connectivity for agencies and communities affected by crises.</p> <p>Erin also oversees Cisco&rsquo;s strategic partnerships, including multi-year programs with Destination: Home, Mercy Corps, NetHope, the UN Refugee Agency and Emergency Telecommunications Cluster.</p> <p>With over 20 years of experience in the social impact sector, Erin has worked across both corporate and nonprofit environments. She has a proven track record in developing and executing organizational strategies for new markets, establishing programs, and building teams. Before joining Cisco, Erin spent over a decade in the NGO sector, launching and expanding offices in Indonesia and Kenya, and managing post-disaster, financial inclusion, and technology-for-development programs throughout Asia and East Africa.</p> <p>Erin holds a B.A. with High Distinction from the University of Michigan and an M.A. in International Development from American University.</p>

<p>Carmen Hett, UNHCR's Corporate Treasurer, is a seasoned corporate finance professional with over 25 years of experience in both the private and public sectors at director and board levels. She specializes in capital structures and global financial market access to support organizational strategies. She is leading the expansion of the Digital Hub of Treasury Solutions (DHoTS), which powers the UN Financial Gateway, enabling seamless financial access globally. Hett is at the forefront of integrating next-generation financial technologies with AI to facilitate digital value transfers and real-time emergency assistance, promoting economic and financial empowerment.</p>

Celestine Kroesschell is (co-) Director of the department of International Programmes together with Barbara Dietrich. She has more than 28 years of experience in development cooperation and lived many years abroad. After working for FAO (UN) in Nepal, Senegal and Bolivia, in watershed management, community forestry, post-harvest and gender, she moved to Mozambique to work for SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation), where she closely collaborated with Helvetas on local governance and civil society. She then joined Helvetas in Zurich as Thematic Coordinator Civil Society &amp; State and Gender. After the merger, she became Head of Governance and Peace in Advisory Services. Celestine moved back to the field to become Country Director for Laos, then Bangladesh, followed by Kosovo. Her last position was Continental Coordinator Asia and Regional Coordinator Bangladesh and Laos, based in Zurich. Celestine has a Master in Development Studies, a Master in Communication Science, and a postgraduate in Agro-processing.

Fabien joined the CyberPeace Institute in 2020, where he works to strengthen the cyber resilience of public interest organizations and leads the development of the CyberPeace Builders&rsquo; network. He brings extensive experience across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, having managed the Cyber Threat Intelligence Unit at Kudelski Security before serving as Information Security Awareness Adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Fabien holds a Master&rsquo;s degree in Law, specializing in Criminality and Information Security, from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Rabih Yazbeck, with over twenty-five years of experience in international development across Africa and the Middle East, specializes in inclusive economic recovery and growth, as well as alternative and innovative finance. He works with institutional funders, development finance institutions (DFIs), financing intermediaries, and private investors and institutions to develop scalable and sustainable models that support inclusive economic growth, access to finance, and enterprise development in complex environments affected by fragility, conflict, and displacement. His work includes the first Refugee Livelihoods Impact Bond, the Blended Financing Facility for Enterprise Support in Syria, and other innovative finance mechanisms currently in the structuring phase in Sudan, South Sudan, Iraq, and Morocco. Yazbeck advocates for bridging the gap between innovative finance and the localization agenda by emphasizing the role of micro and small enterprises, as well as community-centred civil society actors, as key partners, investees, and stakeholders&mdash;while addressing perceived risks through evidence generation.

<p>Zineb Bhaby is the AI Lead at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), spearheading NRC&rsquo;s AI initiatives to harness emerging technologies to better serve refugees and displaced populations across the globe. She is a humanitarian data specialist with over a decade of experience applying data science and machine learning to complex humanitarian challenges, including leadership roles in major international responses. Zineb has held various data and AI roles in several humanitarian agencies, including serving as Chief Technology Officer at IMMAP. A passionate advocate for open, collaborative, and responsible technological innovation in humanitarian action, she is driven by the transformative potential of AI to address persistent data gaps in the sector.</p>