New Regional Director for Rikolto East Africa

New Regional Director for Rikolto East Africa

05/09/2019
in News

David brings to Rikolto over 10 years’ experience in ICT, partnership liaising in both Africa and Europe, E-waste management and corporate social responsibility.

For 7 years, David worked at Close the Gap, initially as a Project Manager for quality IT solutions to partner organisations in developing countries before rising through the ranks to become the overall Head of Projects. In the latter role, he was responsible for all projects and programs that aimed at offering quality IT-solutions to budget-limited organisations and was also in charge of the E-waste Management programme in the East-African Community.

In 2011, David started working for KAURI, a Belgian multistakeholder, on Corporate Social Responsibility and NGO Accountability, and remained its director until its merge into The Shift. At KAURI he promoted dialogue between different Belgian companies and NGOs through the organisation of more than 30 stakeholder dialogues.

Since 2014 David Leyssens became the Belgian contact person for the United Nations Global Compact Network. This network supports companies to align their strategy and operations with the 10 UN Principles and encourages them to take action to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Before joining Rikolto, David worked at The Shift, first as Co-Executive Director (Jun 2015 – Jun 2017) and thereafter as Network Director (Jun 2017 – Aug 2019). The Shift is a Belgian meeting point for people and organisations wanting to realize the transition to a more sustainable society and economy. This stakeholder coalition meeting point for sustainability, brings together over 400 entities ranging from private companies, NGOs, academic institutions, governmental bodies and other key actors in society. It encourages companies, civil society organisations, academic institutions and governments to collaborate on tackling societal challenges and create shared values.

We are delighted to have him working with us at Rikolto. Karibu sana David.