Global Citizen Leadership Team

Hugh Evans is an internationally renowned humanitarian, one of the most recognized leaders in international development and the CEO and Co-Founder of Global Citizen, the world’s largest movement of citizens taking action to end extreme poverty now. Over the course of a decade, Global Citizen has grown to be a movement of tens of millions of people around the world working to defend the planet, defeat poverty and tackle inequality.

Hugh’s passion for poverty eradication was sparked at the age of 14, when he spent the night in a slum in the Philippines, built on top of a garbage dump. This later led him to co-found the Oaktree Foundation, Australia’s first youth-run aid organization. The foundation focuses on creating education opportunities to countries in need across Asia Pacific and African regions, and is still run today by people 16 to 26. In 2006, Evans coordinated the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign in Australia, culminating with a concert on the eve of the G20 meeting. With support from Bono and Pearl Jam, the Australian Government agreed to double its investment in international development. Immediately following, with a grant from the United Nations, Global Citizen was born with the mission of building an unstoppable movement toward eradicating extreme poverty.

The Global Citizen model rewards people for taking action - through acts of service, citizens earn their way in experiences, like the Global Citizen Festival. The festival takes place on the Great Lawn in Central Park, where it annually coincides with the UN General Assembly. Since 2012, the festival has gone on to take place in London, Paris, Lagos, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Hamburg, Toronto, Berlin, and Johannesburg. In 2021, Global Citizen hosted ‘Global Citizen Live’, a 24-hour global broadcast filmed across 6 continents. This once in a generation campaign secured over 60M COVID-19 vaccines, 157M trees planted, and over $1.1B USD committed to climate, famine, and COVID response efforts.

Over the last 10 years, Global Citizens have taken over 30.7 million actions. Today, these actions, in combination with high-level advocacy work, have secured over $41.4 billion being distributed to our partners around the world, impacting 1.15 billion lives in the fight to defeat poverty and defend the planet.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Global Citizen produced ‘One World: Together at Home’ alongside Lady Gaga and the World Health Organization - a global broadcast special that raised $127M to purchase and provide PPE to frontline healthcare workers.

Recently, Global Citizen coordinated ‘Stand Up For Ukraine’, a global social media rally - with support from Billie Eilish, Oprah, Pharrell, Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, Jonas Brothers, Elton John, Metallica, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lopez, U2, and more - that culminated with a pledging summit hosted by European Commission President von der Leyen and Prime Minister Trudeau, raising $10.1 billion for refugees and internally displaced people of Ukraine.

For his efforts, Hugh has been named Young Australian of the Year, featured on Forbes 30 Under 30 (2012), and in 2021 was honored in Town & Country’s Philanthropy Summit. Hugh has also been honored as Billboard magazine’s Humanitarian of the Year (2015). Global Citizen currently owns two Guinness Book of World Records, has won multiple Webby awards, and was named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Businesses in 2021.

Hugh earned his Bachelor Degree in Law and Science from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), as well as completing his Master of Philosophy in International Relations from the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, England). Hugh’s also received two Honorary Doctorates from Utah State University and St. John’s University.

In her new role as the organization’s first President, Henshaw is responsible for leading the mission, vision, values, and strategy of the organization across four continents, along with overseeing expansion plans in key global markets, and leading revenue-generation programs, including corporate partnerships, foundations and individual giving. She joined Global Citizen in 2016 as the organization’s first Chief Operating Officer, where she has been instrumental to building a world-class executive leadership team, identifying areas of expansion and diversifying funding opportunities to achieve record growth. Henshaw previously served for over 13 years in leadership positions at the Environmental Defense Fund, including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Development Officer and Chief Information Officer.

Simon is a campaigning and community education expert who is obsessed with creating ways for global citizens to contribute to ending extreme poverty by 2030. As a Co-Founder of Global Citizen, he has aided the creation and development of the Global Citizen platform and Festival, and overseen the more than 100 campaign victories that the organisation has been a part of.

He holds a Master of Development Studies from the University of Melbourne, lives in New York with his wife Rachel.

Michael Sheldrick is a Co-Founder and Chief Policy, Impact and Government Relations Officer at Global Citizen. Over the past decade, Global Citizen’s campaigns have led to over $35 billion distributed to anti-poverty efforts around the world.

Michael leads Global Citizen’s campaigns to rally support from governments, businesses and foundations to get the world on track to end extreme poverty. Michael has worked on campaigns globally with artists including Beyoncé, Coldplay, Idris and Sabrina Elba, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Priyanka Chopra, Rihanna, Usher, and world leaders including Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and former Australian Prime Ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.

Michael was one of the four Co-Founders who spearheaded the first major Global Citizen advocacy campaign - The End the Polio - in 2011 which raised $118 million with the support of John Legend and then Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Most recently, Michael served as an Executive Producer of Vax Live, co-chaired by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan. The campaign focused on vaccine equity and acceptance, which resulted in 26 million vaccines committed for developing countries.

Michael has written on development issues in Forbes, the Guardian, Huffington Post, The Diplomatic Courier, The Diplomat Magazine, The South China Morning Post, The West Australian, and Fairfax Media. He has been interviewed by ABC, BBC, The New Yorker, Forbes Magazine, VICE Impact and Sky News among others. Michael’s efforts, and those of the team he leads, was profiled in National Geographic’s Activate series aired in 2019. He was named by the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth as a finalist for 2017 Young Commonwealth Person of the Year. He is also a board member for the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens and the Advisory Board of Parliamentarians for the Global Goals. Michael holds degrees in law and political science from the University of Western Australia, and was 2013 Young Western Australian of the Year.

Caralene is a marketer and content creator with a passion for shedding light on underserved and marginalized communities. Prior work experiences include Coca-Cola, Sprint and Viacom, where she was most recently EVP and CMO of VH1 and Logo. As a content creator, she has amassed an award winning body of work highlighting a range of subjects including mental health, gender equity, domestic violence and the LGBTQ+ experience.

Caralene has a BBA in Marketing from Howard University, and an MBA in Marketing/Finance from New York University.

Blaec von Kalweit is a career humanitarian having spent more than a decade working with several United Nations agencies. He began his career with the UN’s Migration Agency where he worked for the agency in New York, then later as a Public Information Officer for its Mission to Moldova, where he oversaw the agency’s communication efforts to combat human trafficking and irregular migration.

Blaec has also consulted for UNHCR, Rotary International, Red Nose Day/Comic Relief, and the International Rescue Committee. He joins Global Citizen after most recently working with the UN’s World Food Programme, where he helped the agency establish a global brand marketing team in its headquarters in Rome. 

Blaec has a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from the UC Riverside, and an M.A. in business communication and marketing from NYU. He's a long-time vegetarian and can be found on the soccer pitch. He speaks Russian, Italian, Romanian, and is working on Spanish and French.

Liz is passionate about social impact, global health, international development, and philanthropy. She’s had a unique blend of experiences; spanning from working with vulnerable populations in NYC to developing and implementing cross-sectoral programs globally. 

Liz has over 18 years of healthcare, public health/ policy, international development, urban resilience, experience across the United States, Africa, Latin America and Asia. She’s adept at developing and implementing programs in resource constrained environments and managing complex stakeholder relationships. She’s known for being a strategic thinker with tactical creativity and flair, and for approaching her work with empathy, humility, and cultural awareness.

David oversees all major events for the Global Citizen brand including event and broadcast production of the Global Citizen Festival. The festival is broadcast live on MSNBC and YouTube with highlight programs distributed throughout the world. Past performers include Pearl Jam, Beyonce, JAY-Z, Coldplay, Stevie Wonder, No Doubt, Ed Sheeran, Neil Young, and Foo Fighters along with celebrities such as Hugh Jackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Olivia Wilde, Kerry Washington, and Stephen Colbert, and dignitaries including Vice President Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and Prime Minister Modi of India.

In addition to his role with Global Citizen, David is also a partner at the entertainment law firm of Beame & Mencher LLP. He has negotiated and structured millions of dollars of entertainment related transactions for clients including international platinum recording artists and songwriters/producers, talent and creators of television programs and motion pictures, and pioneering new media and cutting-edge tech companies.

David is a graduate of New World School of the Arts and received two bachelor of arts degrees from Boston University and his Juris Doctor from the University of Miami School of Law.

Chebet Chikumbu is Global Citizen’s Regional Director for Southern and East Africa. Chebet joined the team in 2018 for the execution and delivery of Mandela 100 - our inaugural festival on the African continent and is currently responsible for leading the Joburg-based office and setting its organisational strategy, providing oversight of staff and major activities as well as managing key partnerships within the region. 

With over a decade of experience in strategy development, youth leadership and public-private partnership delivery, Chebet is passionate about empowering marginalised communities and providing enabling environments for minorities to improve their welfare. Prior to Global Citizen, Chebet co-founded a boutique consultancy to strengthen agricultural value chain financing mechanisms to smallholder farmers and provide capacity building consultation to development organisations. Chebet has also served at Praekelt Foundation and Mandela Institute of Development Studies where she dedicated her energy towards designing programs underpinned in indigenous knowledge systems, youth advocacy and information dissemination as a basic human right for young people on the African continent while harnessing the power of technology to solve social issues.

Chebet obtained a Master of Commerce in Development Economics at the University of Cape Town. She loves road running, has finished the Cape Town marathon and enjoys watching tennis.

Isha is an enthusiastic and innovative professional with over 10 years experience within HR. She has a strong command of Employee Relations, Employee Development & Training, Employee Engagement, Performance Management, Building Relationships, and Team Building. After an alarming experience with a former HR team, Isha made it her life's passion to bring the “Human” back into HR. She has worked primarily in the private and for-profit space for over 20 years. As she matured in her professional career her passion grew deeper and she wanted to discover how she could positively impact more “Humans” in the world. By supporting, coaching and developing new leaders her impact goes beyond the office.

Isha was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, by her Jamaican-born parents. Isha is a first-generation American and the second oldest child out of a combined 20 children. Isha currently lives in Valley Stream, NY, with her four children. When Isha isn't working she traveling the world with her traveling group or her family. In the last five years Isha has visited 15 countries, with Jamaica being her all time favorite, Bali and Thailand are tied for second place. It has never been about seeing the counties for her it's all about truly embracing the culture of the country and meeting new people in the world.

Mabelly Guerrero serves as the Vice President of Operations and Finance at Global Citizen. Since joining Global Citizen in 2016, she has helped drive the organization's success by operationalizing strategic initiatives and building efficient processes. In her current position Mabelly oversees the daily function of the finance team, leads on strategic systems across the organization, and works with the executive team to operationalize projects across the globe. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College.

In her free time Mabelly enjoys performing music, expanding her culinary skills, and cheering on the New York Yankees.

Katie oversees artist and talent relations at Global Citizen as well as talent booking for GC’s events and programs including the annual Global Citizen Festival in Central Park. Since joining the team in 2014, Katie has engaged artists and talent not only to perform at GC events, but also to support the organization's advocacy efforts by campaigning world leaders as well as activating their fans to encourage governments to commit funding to help the world’s poorest people. Increased levels of engagement from Rihanna, Usher, Beyonce, Chris Martin, Chelsea Handler, Priyanka Chopra, Pete Wentz and more have helped make a tremendous impact in the movement to end extreme poverty.

Katie has booked artists and hosts for the 2015 & 2016 Global Citizen Festivals as well as Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day. The lineups have included Pearl Jam, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Tori Kelly, Common, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Demi Lovato, Major Lazer, Metallica, Chris Martin, Eddie Vedder, Usher, Ellie Goulding, Yandel, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, No Doubt, Fall Out Boy, Mary J Blige, Train and My Morning Jacket. Lead hosts have included Stephen Colbert, Salma Hayek Pinault, Deborra-lee & Hugh Jackman, Kerry Washington, Olivia Wilde, Chelsea Handler, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra and will.i.am.

Katie studied psychology at the University of Minnesota and fashion merchandising management at FIT and holds a bachelor of science degree. Katie worked in the fashion industry for 7 years before moving into event management and talent relations.

Nikola Ivezaj was a career diplomat from Montenegro’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he spent 10 years as the First Secretary in the Foreign Ministry in Montenegro, and later, in the Permanent Mission of Montenegro to the United Nations. Subsequently, he became an Advisor to the 72nd President of the United Nations General Assembly. During his time in the Mission, Nikola was also part of the campaign team of H.E. Prof. Dr. Igor Lukšić, Montenegro’s candidate for the position of United Nations Secretary-General in 2016 and has briefly served as the Vice-Consul of Montenegro in New York.

Nikola also worked for a number of United Nations funds and programs. He was as a Partnership Advisor at the United Nations Office for Project Services; Program Consultant for the United Nations Development Programme; and a representative of the Easter European Group in the Executive Board of the UNDP, UNOPS and UNFPA.

Nikola has a Bachelor’s in Legal Sciences, a postgraduate specialized degree in International Law, a Master’s degree in Legal Sciences, as well as a certificate from the Fordham Law Summer Institute in New York.

He loves sports, specifically football (or as we call it soccer) and is a big AC Milan fan. He is fluent in Montenegrin, Albanian and English, and proficient in Italian.

Mark Lehmann serves as CTO at Global Citizen and leads the technology initiatives that enable the Global Citizen core mission to end extreme poverty. He is a global technology executive with an extensive advisory background in the software engineering, business transformation/consolidation and process re-engineering space. He has worked with both large organizations and startups advising from seed through merger/acquisition challenges across Europe, Africa and the Americas. Over the years his professional career has taken him through consulting stints with Wells Fargo, Norfolk Southern, Lowe's, IBM, Mutual of Omaha, Serono Biotech, Manitoba Public Insurance (Canada), SalusAnsvar AB (Sweden), Friends First (Ireland), JPMorgan Chase, RBC (Canada), Marsh McLennan and Barclays (London) among others. He is passionate about using technology to even the playing fields across gender, education and income inequalities.

Maimuna is an Environmentalist with triple-bottom-line operations experience specializing in waste management and environmental strategy. As a competent and driven professional with work experience across private and public sectors, Maimuna has robust knowledge of community relations, global sustainability strategy and operations, partnership management and resource recovery. As the Country Director for Nigeria, she is responsible for Global Citizen’s advocacy and campaigning within the Nigerian market.

Maimuna has a BSc in Public Health from Coventry University, UK, MSc in Corporate Environmental Management from the University of Surrey, UK and a Diploma in Waste to Energy Technologies from Queensland University of Technology, Australia. She is also an active member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) UK, African Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ARSCP) and African Renewable Energy Alliance (AREA).

Kweku was born in transfer in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Spending his childhood in the United States, it would be upon his return to his native home of South Africa that Mandela would begin his entertainment career. He credits his early experience working closely on the production of his friends stand up comedy shows as building his foundation for creating content. His first production company Mannequin productions produced the debut stand up show of Trevor Noah “Daywalker”.

He would go on to produce the feature adaptation of The Bang Bang Club sparking his interest in bringing true stories to the screen. Mandela’s current focus centers on furthering the aims of his NY based production company, Based on a True Story. The focus of the shingle centers around developing a slate of content for domestic and international consumption based largely true stories. This is furthered by his involvment with his families Media company “Mandela Media” which he serves as it’s president and has entered into a co-venture deal with Bron Media Corp as 2021.

A founding member and Ambassador for GenEndIt a collective of HIV/AIDS organisation committed to seeing the end of AIDS in our lifetime, Mandela also sits on the board of Pioneer Works, NABU and Charlize Theron’s Africa Outreach Project. Mandela’s latest credits include the feature Gully with longtime collaborator Nabil Elderkin as well Sundance 2021 official selection El-Planeta along with the Paramount Pictures features Dreamland and Georgetown.

Molly is an Emmy Award-winning producer with over 20 years of experience in broadcast production.  She joined Global Citizen in 2018 and oversees run-of-show for the Global Citizen Festival as well as numerous specials and live events.  In 2019, she spearheaded the creation of the Global Citizen Prize program.

She began her career at The Late Show with David Letterman in 2002 and went on to produce for various talk shows and series including The Martha Stewart Show and Katie, before joining Yahoo News to produce Katie Couric’s feature interview series, docu-series, and live event specials.

Molly was born and raised in New Hampshire and is a graduate of Boston University.  She lives in New York where she enjoys cooking and spending time with her husband and son.

Brian S. Mencher serves as General Counsel at Global Citizen. In this role, Brian oversees all legal, compliance, and business affairs needs of the organization, and supports Global Citizen's international offices throughout the world. He has worked with the organization in some capacity since 2011. And in 2018, Brian played a prominent role in helping bring the Global Citizen Festival to Johannesburg, South Africa.

Prior to joining Global Citizen, Brian practiced entertainment and intellectual property law, representing clients in the music industry and the creative arts.

Brian has a Juris Doctor from the University of Florida Levin College of Law where he served as Articles Editor for the Florida Law Review and graduated in the top 3% of his class. He is a published author and has participated as an expert panelist at various music industry conferences throughout the United States. A lifetime ago, but while a licensed attorney, Brian worked on the line at Bouley, a then-2 star Michelin restaurant in Tribeca.

In his spare time, Brian enjoys spending time with his wife and two sons, cooking, and performing with the local improv comedy troupe in his town.

Born and raised in Mexico, Prisca is a multicultural marketer and storyteller with experience in traditional and digital marketing, consumer insights, and partnerships, across verticals. Prior to joining Global Citizen, she headed up the Global Marketing team at NYC Tourism for 5 years.

Before moving to NYC 10 years ago, Prisca lived in Spain for six years, earning a Master’s in Corporate Communications at the Complutense University of Madrid. Having lived and worked in three different countries, she has led marketing engagements in the USA, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.

Prisca loves to travel and has visited 39 countries with more to come.

Friederike has 20 years of experience in international development and advocacy. At Global Citizen, she leads on the global advocacy strategy, driving new commitments from leaders across the world. She also directly manages government relations across Europe and a number of G20 countries, and oversees the organization’s policy work on financing for sustainable development and on climate.

Her past assignments included the ONE Campaign, the OECD, the African Union, the German International Cooperation and the Arab Reform Initiative, being based out of Europe and South Africa. She is also passionate about yoga, teaching it on the side after trainings  in India, Berlin and Paris. She holds a master in political science and international affairs from Sciences Po Paris and from the Freie Universität Berlin.

Lee Rolontz is Global Citizen’s SVP of Broadcast and Events. She is responsible for securing the widest possible worldwide distribution of Global Citizen’s live major events. Lee brings over two decades of network television executive producing credits to her position.

Before joining Global Citizen, Lee was the EVP of TV Production at iHeartMedia, where she oversaw and produced all long-form content development and production. Prior to iHeartMedia, Lee held senior management positions at Viacom’s VH1, most recently, as Executive Vice President of Original Music Production and Development. Lee began her career as a freelance music video and commercial producer and is a graduate of Brown University.

Eduard joined Global Citizen as the Director of Finance and Administration in 2014 where he oversees finance, HR, IT, office administration and relative reporting to all stakeholders. He has played a key role in implementing the processes necessary to ensure Global Citizen is in compliance with legal requirements as well as innovative best business practices. Eduard has over 10 years of experience in all areas of non-profit operations. Prior to joining Global Citizen, he managed the accounting department for a micro-finance focused non-profit called Women's World Banking. He holds a dual major bachelor degree in Finance and Accounting from Brooklyn College.