We are very pleased to announce the appointment of Michel Farkas as the new Chief Operations Officer of Hivos. Michel’s appointment follows the departure of Sanne Nolst Trenité as Director of Operations, and he will take up his position as COO on January 1, 2019.

Over the last 15 years, Michel has built up extensive experience in the aid and development sector at several international organizations, with a strong focus on change and transition processes.

He started his career in the commercial sector, in human resources and management positions at KPN (Royal Dutch Telecom). In 2002, he moved to the humanitarian sector, working for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as Head of Human Resources and later as Director of Resources. In 2011, SNV appointed Michel as Managing Director of Global Support Services/CFO, responsible for Finance, HR, ICT and Project Support. In this position he was one of the driving forces in the transition SNV has made from an organization subsidized by the Dutch foreign ministry into an entirely project-financed international NGO with more than seventy donors.

Michel has university degrees in Law and History from the University of Utrecht and lives in Amsterdam.

We welcome him to Hivos and look forward to our collaboration.