Officers and Staff
WCF officers and staff provide leadership for the organization and are based in North America, Europe, and West Africa.
Officers
Nicko Debenham, WCF Chairman
Director – Head of Cocoa, Armajaro Trading Ltd.
Gary Guittard, WCF Vice Chairman
President and CEO, Guittard Chocolate Company
Jeff Morgan, WCF Vice Chairman
Director of Global Programs, Mars, Incorporated
Michiel Hendriksz, WCF Secretary/Treasurer
Director of Sustainability, ADM Cocoa
Staff
Senior Management
Bill Guyton, President
Bill Guyton, the President of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), is an internationally recognized expert with nearly 25 years of experience in sustainable development. He acts as a primary spokesman for the international chocolate industry on issues related to a sustainable cocoa economy and quality of life of independent family cocoa farmers. Download bio
Holly Houston, Director of Operations and Finance
Holly Houston is the Director of Operations and Finance for the World Cocoa Foundation. She has worked with WCF for over four years in the areas of accounting, operations, financial & grant management. She has also been part of the program management team since the inception of the Cocoa Livelihoods Program. She worked in the non-profit healthcare investment banking sector at Citigroup in New York for over three years prior to joining the Foundation. Download bio
Timothy S. McCoy, Senior Advisor, Outreach
Tim McCoy serves as senior advisor for outreach at the World Cocoa Foundation, where he manages WCF’s strategic outreach to the public and private sector. He brings nearly 20 years’ experience in international affairs and political and economic development programs, primarily in Africa. Download bio
Finance & Operations
Valerie Beard, Office Coordinator
Valerie Beard is the Office Coordinator for the World Cocoa Foundation. Prior to joining the World Cocoa Foundation, Valerie developed her passion for sustainability and the environment through media and research internships at organizations including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, McGraw-Hill Companies, National Geographic Magazine, World Resources Institute and Discovery Communications. Download bio
Preeti Parulekar, Accounting & Financial Analyst
Preeti Parulekar is the Accounting and Financial Analyst for the World Cocoa Foundation. She provides financial & grant management support across WCF programs and tracks cocoa futures market statistics and economic benchmarks. Prior to joining WCF, she worked in non-profit financial & grant management and developed her interest in market and trading statistics as a data intern at NASDAQ. Download bio
WCF Cocoa Livelihoods Program (WCF CLP)
Mbalo Ndiaye, Director for Ghana Office and Program Director, WCF Cocoa Livelihoods Program
Mbalo Ndiaye is the Director for the Ghana Office and the Program Director for the Cocoa Livelihoods Program of the World Cocoa Foundation. Prior to joining the WCF Cocoa Livelihoods Program, he served as Senior Advisor to FAS/USDA Agricultural Attaché in Francophone West Africa, especially in the areas of agricultural economy, trade and food security. Download bio
Chantal Amissah, Administrative Assistant, WCF Cocoa Livelihoods Program
Chantal Amissah is the Assistant Administrator for the World Cocoa Foundation’s Cocoa Livelihoods Program (WCF/CLP). Download bio
Ethan Budiansky, Program Manager, WCF Cocoa Livelihoods Program
Ethan Budiansky is a development professional with experience in natural resource management, international development and program management, specializing in agroforestry, sustainable agriculture, and agribusiness development. Download bio
Mina Lassey, Program Associate, WCF Cocoa Livelihoods Program
Mina H. Lassey is a Program Associate for the WCF Cocoa Livelihoods Program (WCF/CLP). Prior to working with CLP, she worked as the monitoring and evaluation specialist for Conservation International’s Cocoa Agro-forestry Program supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Download bio
Josephson Odamtten, Database Manager, WCF Cocoa Livelihoods Program
Josephson Odamtten is the Database Manager for the World Cocoa Foundation’s Cocoa Livelihoods Program (WCF/CLP). Josephson joined the WCF/CLP monitoring & evaluation team in Accra, Ghana in June 2010. Download bio
WCF ECHOES
Charlie Feezel, Education Program Director, WCF ECHOES
Charlie Feezel has worked in international development, primarily in Africa, since he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burundi in 1983. He worked in more than a dozen African countries and trained over 3,000 volunteers in education, business development and culture crossing skills. He has experience in program design and management, monitoring and evaluation, workforce development, education and economic growth. Download bio
Josephine Dadzie, Administrative Assistant, WCF ECHOES
Josephine Dadzie works on the day-to-day administrative work for WCF/ECHOES and other WCF education projects as well as assists in their implementation. She brings over 7 years experience of office and project administration having worked for Tieso Ghana Ltd, Constructs llc and Knutsford University College, Ghana. Complementing her administrative experience are over 5 years of youth development work as a part-time volunteer Director for event management for The HuD Group, an international youth development organization. Download bio
Aisha Hassan, Education Program Coordinator, WCF ECHOES
Aisha joined WCF in August of 2011 to aide in the day-to-day management and execution of the Empowering Cocoa Households with Opportunities and Education Solutions (WCF/ECHOES) programs within Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. Focusing on relationship stewardship and program implementation, she supports a diverse portfolio of contracts, grants, and agreements with funding and implementing partners. Download bio
Kodzo (Korch) Korkortsi, Education Specialist
Kodzo M. Korkortsi is the Education Specialist for WCF ECHOES Program (WCF-ECHOES). He coordinates and supports the implementation WCF’s ECHOES Program activities. He is based in WCF West Africa Office in Accra, Ghana. Download bio
Laura Ostenso, Leland International Hunger Fellow
Laura Ostenso is a Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellow at the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF). She works with the W. African Programs to support program development and outreach and communications. Laura also focuses on overall organizational M&E for WCF’s various programs and activities. Download bio
WCF African Cocoa Initiative (WCF ACI)
H. Sona Ebai, Chief of Party, WCF African Cocoa Initiative
Sona Ebai has spent the last 25 years in integrated Rural Regional Development Planning and Commodities be it in policy design and implementation or outreach and governance. He comes with impeccable credentials that have made him, in addition to hard work and a solid academic background, almost a household name in the world cocoa economy. Download bio
Nene Akwetey-Kodjo, Project Coordinator, WCF African Cocoa Initiative
Nene Akwetey-Kodjoe is the WCF/ACI Project Coordinator. He manages all technical reporting and for the project and provides project management backstopping support to the Chief of Party. Prior to joining WCF Nene worked for almost 8 years on development projects for USAID’s West Africa Trade Hub as Technical Coordinator for Export Business Development, Finance Program Coordinator and Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist and for JICA’s West African Centre for International Parasite Control as Senior Research Assistant. Download bio
Akua Amoah-Boateng, Finance Manager, WCF African Cocoa Initiative
Akua Amoah-Boateng is the Finance Manager for WCF's African Cocoa Initiative and manages Administration in the Accra Office. Download bio
Takyi Sraha, Technical Advisor, WCF African Cocoa Initiative
Mr. Takyi Sraha is a Technical Advisor with WCF/ACI for Cocoa Value Chain Strengthening and managing all aspects of the project that seeks to improve the sub-regional and national systems that supply agricultural inputs to cocoa farming systems. Takyi holds an M.Sc in Agroforestry and B.Sc (Hons) in Biological Sciences all from University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. Download bio
Baaba Wood, Administrative Assistant, WCF African Cocoa Initiative
Baaba Wood is the administrative Assistant for the WCF’s African Cocoa Initiative
Project. She provides administrative support to the Chief of Party and other
members of the team. Her expertise in office administration, information and records management and customer service comes from years of experience with institutions such as North Ridge Lyceum, the Buyasoul Foundation and the Information Services Department,
Ministry of Information. Download bio
WCF Fellowships, Programs, Research
Jean-Yves Couloud, Program Coordinator / Coordonnateur de Programmes
Jean – Yves Couloud has spent the last 21 years in Rural Development through various projects funded by World Bank, FIDA, WFP, USAID, WCF, etc. As the World Cocoa Foundation Program Coordinator in Cote d’Ivoire, he facilitate the relationship between
the Côte d’Ivoire government & the organization based in this country, provide backstopping to the implementation of all WCF programs in Cote d’Ivoire. Download bio
Tehua Koffi, Grants Manager, Cocoa Community Development Fund
Prior to joining the WCF Cocoa Community Development Fund he worked in Côte d’Ivoire for Cargill, Armajaro ADM and Fairtrade. Download bio
Virginia Sopyla, Associate Director of Southeast Asia, Latin America & Research Virginia Sopyla is WCF Program Manager responsible for Southeast Asia, research, and fellowship programs. Southeast Asia programs primarily focus on Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Research and fellowship programs include countries from all three major growing regions – Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia. Download bio
Communications & Outreach
Geert Waelkens, EU Liaison
Jackie Marks, Communications & Marketing Manager
Jackie Marks is the Communications & Marketing Manager for the World Cocoa Foundation, overseeing media outreach, social media and branding. She is based in WCF’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Monitoring & Evaluation
Edwin Afari, WCF Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator, West Africa
Mr. Edwin Afari is an Agricultural Economist and a Specialist in
Monitoring and Evaluation, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with 12 years’ experience in research, teaching, project analysis & management. He has additional experience in data analysis & management. Download bio
