LINGOs represents Eric’s third career. He began in social work and remedial education with the NJ Department of Community Affairs and the YMCA. He worked in the Street Academy Program in Harlem and Newark and with rural youth in Maine. He then took a turn to “the dark side” and began a 25 year career in the private sector which began with the founding of a training and development firm that was recognized as an INC 500 company. After selling that company, Eric became an officer and Group VP for a NYSE company. The attraction of high tech and the West Coast brought a move to Seattle where he became a principal and CEO of a software and computer interface company which was eventually sold to a division of General Electric.

After a brief break to travel, he then began his third career initially by volunteering in the non-profit sector with Social Venture Partners, The Rensselaerville Institute and Mercy Corps and eventually as the first Executive Director of LINGOs. On the personal side, he is married with two grown children and three grandchildren and he competes in Senior Tennis Tournaments – though generally unsuccessfully.

Marie-Laure (ML) has worked in the field of international development for 15 years. She first started at the World Bank Institute, organizing training events on reproductive health and infrastructure finance for World Bank stakeholders. She then joined PSI as a program manager in 2000. Over the 10 years she spent at PSI, she managed programs in Uganda, Madagascar, Senegal, Morocco, Russia, Georgia, Romania, Nicaragua, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Burundi and Haiti. She then took the responsibility of running the newly-created central training department and is now serving as Manager for PSI's Global Capacity Building Department. ML is comfortable working in English, French and Spanish. She also would love to practice her Japanese more often in order not to forget it (her first job which she had for 5 years, was with the Japan External Trade Organization). She holds a French business degree which is equivalent to an MBA and a degree in statistics. She lives in Washington, DC and has two young kids.

Ms Dibba-Wadda is a specialist in gender equality in international policy and programming in multicultural and multidisciplinary environments. She has held a number of regional coordination and country management roles in gender- and education-related organisations and projects operating in Africa and Asia.

David Holcombe has been focused on learning and performance improvement for his entire professional career. Over the last 25 years, he has organized hundreds of events across North America and Europe that have collectively provided tens of thousands of participants with information, ideas, and knowledge to enable them to leverage various information technologies to improve knowledge and performance. These events have addressed topics such as e-Learning, computer training, technical support, information design & development, knowledge management, and user assistance and Help design. In addition to his role at the Guild, David also serves on the Advisory Board of the eLearning for Kids Foundation.

David's career has focused on alleviating poverty and building capacity in Africa, impoverished parts of the US and globally in a variety of roles and locations, in large part with Catholic Relief Services. Membership in LINGOs, since its founding in 2005, been beneficial to the growth of CRS organizational learning systems. David has mobilized LINGOs resources to provide the programming staff of CRS and its partners access to and use of first rate learning and project management tools to serve better the poor and marginalized. David brings keen strategic insight and a depth of experience in the field of international development to the LINGOs Board.

David holds a bachelor's degree from Columbia College, and a Master's in Public Policy from the University of Michigan. In addition to serving on LINGOs' Board of Directors, David actively serves his community in Maryland as a coach for various athletic teams, a Boy Scout troop committee chair, and adult leader for volunteers who participate in the Appalachian Service Project. David, his wife and three children live in Maryland, USA.

Alison has taken InsideNGO from a volunteer support group for operations professionals to a respected and well known training, resource sharing, advocacy and networking organization with a focus on Human Resources, Finance, Grants, Contracts, Legal and Tech issues within the international relief and development sector.

Prior to InsideNGO, Alison served as CFO and Director of Training at PACT. While CFO at PACT, Alison helped found the Association of PVO Financial Managers and of The Personnel Co-op. Prior to PACT, Alison served as Events Coordinator, CFO and Acting Executive Director at Oxfam-America.

Alison serves on the Board of Directors of InterAction, ASAE’s Content Action Committee, and Independent Sector Advisory Group on Nonprofit Effectiveness. She and her husband live in Westport, CT.