Patrick
Higdon
Patrick Higdon is the UK Executive Director and Director of Programs at World Connect. In this role he is responsible for overall program quality and integrity and guides our program strategy, team, and key partnerships. He is also World Connect's representative in the United Kingdom. Prior to becoming UK Executive Director and Director of Programs, Patrick was Program Manager for 7 years and spent 2+ years as the Program Coordinator for World Connect's education program.
Board of Directors
Hafsat
Abiola
Hafsat Abiola is the President of Women in Africa, the first international platform dedicated to the economic development and support of leading and high potential African women. She served as a member of the Ogun State cabinet where she pioneered the use of mobile phones to deliver cash grants to poor pregnant women to ensure their access to health centres for antenatal to post-natal care and worked on programmes to ensure inclusive growth to address high youth unemployment. Through her non-profit, the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND), she has worked to promote a groundswell of exemplary women leaders and build pathways to public service for them. Motivated by women’s strength, Hafsat believes that the challenges facing the continent of Africa offer opportunities for women’s leadership to emerge. She is one global councillors of the World Future Council; a recipient of several international awards, including the Vital Voices’ Public Service Award, Goi Peace Foundation Award, and the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leadership community, her work is a tribute to her parents who lost their lives while leading the democracy movement that brought an end to military rule in Nigeria in the ‘90s.
Andrew
Bedford
Andrew Bedford is the 15th Duke of Bedford. He has been a supporter of World Connect's work since its founding in 2005. Andrew has run Bedford Estates since 1988 and Woburn Abbey since 2000. Andrew serves as Director of Tattersalls Limited, Woburn Estate Companies Limited, Woburn Enterprises Limited, and Jockey Club Estates. Andrew was educated at Heatherdown, Harrow, and Harvard, class of '84.
Glenda
Burkhart
Glenda is a skilled professional in the area of large-scale organisational change and brings a wealth of experience from the not-for-profit and commercial sectors. She brings substantial board experience as the co-chair of the International Rescue Committee Overseers, where she served on the board for 12 years; co-chair emerita of the Women’s Refugee Commission, and US co-chair and board member of Tusk USA, which supports innovation in conservation in Africa. She also chaired the Board of Directors for the Northwest Connecticut Centre for Family Service and Mental Health. Glenda has worked in corporate executive roles for several large companies, including Millipore, and Reader’s Digest and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which seeks to strengthen and defend the humanities and arts as central to the well-being of diverse, fair and democratic societies. Glenda’s consulting experience includes the restructuring of British Airways North America Sales and Marketing; the restructuring of the Human Capital organisation at the NY City Department of Education; and the roll-out of and related advocacy of research regarding race-sensitive admissions policies in colleges and universities.
Christopher
Cabot
Chris Cabot is President of Value Retail Plc. Value Retail specialises in the creation and operation of luxury outlet shopping Villages in Europe and China, including Bicester Village outside of London and Suzhou Village outside Shanghai. He joined Value Retail in 2001 and has held a variety of positions including Chief Operating Officer of Value Retail Management, and President of Value Retail China, where he led the company’s China expansion.
Prior to joining Value Retail he was Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer of PipingHot Networks, a broadband point-to-multi point fixed wireless business that was sold to Motorola.
He also worked in investment banking in the Media, Telecom and Technology corporate finance teams at Lehman Brothers, Alex. Brown and Bankers Trust in New York and London.
He served on the board of Camaieu (a French retailer). He is currently on the board of P.W Productions, the development board of the Royal Court Theatre, and is a member of advisory committees for HarvardX and the Harvard Program for Integrated Knowledge.
Mr Cabot holds an A.B. with honours from Harvard College and an M.B.A from the Yale School of Management.
Sarah
Caplin
Sarah is a qualified solicitor and former TV executive having worked for both the BBC and ITV in senior production and management roles, responsible for creating and producing a wide range of factual programmes. She joined the BBC as a graduate trainee after completing her legal training and became editor of BBC’s Watchdog programme (a popular consumer investigation series) for 6 years.
She was Deputy Secretary of the BBC from 1995 - 1997 and then moved to ITV where she became Head of Features for ITV Studios.
She was producer of the BBC’s Childwatch programme which launched the national charity ChildLine and became a founder trustee, serving on its Board of Trustees for 17 years. ChildLine is now one of the key services provided by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
She was also the trustee of a grant-making charity, Jewels For Children, which ran until its founder’s death in 2000.
She left full-time TV production in 2011, and in 2012 she renewed her professional collaboration with Dame Esther Rantzen CBE, accepting the role of Director of Development and Communications at The Silver Line Helpline – a new, free, 24-hour helpline for older people. She played a key role in developing the charity, raising funds and awareness for the national launch of The Silver Line in November 2013 and worked for 3 years in a pro bono capacity, raising substantial funds and awareness. The Silver Line is now an important AgeUK service, and part of that major national charitable organisation.
She is also a trustee of The Alfred Caplin Family Charitable Trust, a grant-making body.
She became a Trustee of the Migration Museum in 2018 and is the board member with special responsibility for development and fundraising.
She studied for an MSc in Crime Science at University College London and achieved a merit award in 2019. She continues to work on various crime-related broadcasting projects.
She lives in London and is married to the broadcaster and author Nick Ross. They have three sons.
Esme Lovell
Smith
Esme Lovell Smith is Senior Business Planning Manager at Value Retail PLC
Ilia
Tchelikidi
From 2005 to the present time Ilia Tchelikidi founded and runs investment company United Capital Group. The company focuses on private equity investments and turn-around management of companies in economic and financial distress in Mongolia, Russia and Ukraine.
Prior to that, Ilia led corporate finance and private equity for Uralsib Bank in Moscow, Russia from 2002 to 2005. Prior to that Ilia was a Vice President in Equity Research at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. in New York City from 2001 to 2002 and a Principal at Oliver Wyman in New York City from 1994 to 2001.
Ilia is a board member of IDS Borjomi, a mineral water producer in Georgia.
Ilia Tchelikidi received his MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 and undergraduate degree in in Mathematical Economics from Moscow State University in 1986.