Meet the team
Dinesh Bandela
Project Manager (India)
Trudi Field
Office Manager
Luther Hinga
Project Officer
Irene Inan
Project Manager (South Africa)
David Leeke
IT Consultant
Zoë Lenkiewicz
Senior Technical Advisor & Head of Communications
Angela McDermott
Head of Programmes & Impact
Tram Nguyen
Project Manager (Vietnam)
Megan Senior
Partnerships & Engagement Manager
Sally Thompson
Head of Finance & Compliance
Ceris Turner-Bailes
Chief Executive Officer
Michelle Wilson
Network Director
Dinesh Raj Bandela – Project Manager (India)
Dinesh is a waste manager and brings 10 years of sustainable waste management experience from India. He believes in research-based environmental activism, Dinesh contributed towards defining single use plastic in India and developing an extended producer responsibility (EPR) strategic framework for sustainable plastic waste management.
Prior to joining WasteAid in October 2020, Dinesh was with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a top-rated environmental think tank in the Asian region. Driven by research, policy interventions and advocacy, his publication on plastic waste management is a guiding document to understand the status of plastic waste handling in different states of India. Dissemination of research through capacity building with public, private and non-profit waste management entities is one of his areas of interest.
Starting his career with public awareness activities for sustainable waste management, Dinesh comes with diversified experience of centralised waste management for urban local bodies, waste-to-energy operations and the co-creation of social and business value through community-based composting units.
His work for integrating women ragpickers into mainstream waste collection in the Delhi region has received acknowledgment from the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India.
Dinesh has a post graduate diploma in environment and sustainable development, an MBA specialising in rural marketing, and an engineering background in computer programming.
Trudi Field – Office Manager
Trudi Field has been the part time office manager at WasteAid since 2018. As well as general administrative duties, Trudi assists the Head of Finance and Compliance, and also helps with a variety of other tasks such as the aiding the busy recruitment processes. She is also responsible for managing the online shop.
Trudi enjoys giving talks and workshops on WasteAid’s work and ethos to schools and businesses, as well as representing the charity at events.
Luther Hinga – Project Officer
Luther Hinga joined the WasteAid team in February 2020, bringing waste management expertise from the UK and business experience from Nairobi, Kenya. Luther is an Associate Member at the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management and is passionate about finding a long-term solution to the global waste infrastructure and collection system crisis.
Luther holds a BEng (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from Aston University, including sustainable waste and renewable technologies, which sparked Luther’s interest in pursuing an impactful career in the global waste sector.
Luther’s main focus at WasteAid is to project manage the UKAid Match plastics recycling training programme in Douala, Cameroon, as well as providing support across other WasteAid initiatives.
Irene Inan – Project Manager (South Africa)
Irene Inan has over 14 years of experience in environmental engineering and project management in South Africa and other African countries.
Before joining WasteAid in 2020, she worked both in the private sector (mining companies, consultants) and public sector (local municipalities, or metropolitans) specifically in the waste management sector. She has worked as an environmental engineer, technical adviser and waste consultant on a number of hazardous and general landfill sites, working with municipalities and communities on the upgrading and rehabilitation of numerous waste sites.
David Leeke – IT Consultant
David Leeke is WasteAid’s web and data specialist. He built and maintains the WasteAid website and provides data management and analysis support for projects and campaigns.
David’s 30 years’ experience in database design and online data collection, manipulation and analysis adds value to the work of WasteAid in the monitoring and evaluation of projects.
David has supported WasteAid since its inception and is responsible for the design, implementation and smooth running of all the organisation’s communication and data management systems.
Besides his IT activities, he has also worked on two WasteAid projects in The Gambia, and regularly shares community waste management knowledge and skills with partners in India and Indonesia.
Zoë Lenkiewicz – Senior Technical Advisor & Head of Communications
Growing WasteAid from the ground up, Zoë combines technical and creative skills with strategic waste management expertise.
A professional waste manager since 2002, Zoë has led municipal waste and recycling programmes, research studies, campaigns and consultations, workshops and training courses for government, practitioners, and community groups in the UK and in lower-income countries. Prior to her work developing WasteAid, Zoë was a successful independent consultant, supporting smart-material start-ups, government agencies and major waste management companies.
At WasteAid, Zoë is a driving force in the movement to attract international attention to the power of waste management for global development. Her cross-sector experience enables diverse stakeholders to make progress towards common goals. Zoë has project managed the UK Aid funded plastics recycling programme in The Gambia, a community waste management initiative in Indonesia, and multi-stakeholder waste management training in Ghana and Tanzania. Zoë was the chief author of the award-winning WasteAid toolkit Making Waste Work, and works with communities worldwide to deliver genuinely sustainable waste management.
Zoë has a BSc in Environmental Biology (focused on ecotoxicology) and an MSc in Environment and Development (focused on waste management and environmental challenges in lower-income countries). She is a CSC Commonwealth Leader alumni, has been recognised as a Woman of Influence by the Planner and among the 100 Women Creating a Better Africa, and is an approved trainer on the International Solid Waste Association’s Clean Oceans through Clean Communities framework programme.
Angela McDermott – Head of Programmes & Impact
Angela McDermott joined WasteAid in May 2020, initially to provide additional support to the team on programme management and partnership development. In October she took up a role as Global Advisor on Programmes.
Angela has over 15 years’ experience in humanitarian and development programme leadership, management and creating strategic partnerships. About half of this has been managing community-based programmes in conflict/post-conflict contexts and half in advancing policy and practice on accountability towards affected people, communication and community engagement, and emergency preparedness. Before WasteAid she worked for the Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities Network, CARE International, Merlin, Right To Play and Queen Mary, University of London. She brings a range of skills, from project design and management, fundraising and portfolio development to programme quality and effectiveness. Angela was drawn to WasteAid because of the opportunity to tackle a major issue of our generation and work closely with different communities around the world in order to do so, thereby harnessing and scaling different solutions to a common problem.
Angela is a trustee of the London National Park City Foundation, the charity behind a movement to make London and other cities around the world greener, healthier and wilder. Prior to this she was a trustee and instrumental in setting up the Remakery, a not-for-profit maker-space run by and for a community of makers, artists, local residents and enterprises that breathe new life and creativity into things otherwise destined for landfill.
Angela holds a Bachelor’s degrees in Biology from the University of Bristol and a MSc in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Tram Nguyen – Project Manager (Vietnam)
Tram Nguyen from Vietnam is an Environment Manager with a background in sanitary engineering and environmental management. Her study and career pathway has focused on waste water and solid waste management, in different research institutions and the private sector.
Before joining WasteAid in November 2020, her latest positions were at various resorts on remote islands in Vietnam as Environment Manager, where she spent most of the time dealing with solid waste management because of the lack of waste management facilities there. She has a keen interest in inspiring people to act locally on environmental problems and to lead by example, which plays an important role in raising awareness. Tram is also a fan of communicating sustainability through facts and figures, and has organised successful workshops to show practical examples on how people can do more to “lengthen the time a certain object is used” in a fun and quirky way.
Tram has a BSc in Biotechnology and an MSc in Environmental Management. She believes the transition to WasteAid is a further step for her to be more creative in addressing environmental problems which in turn could be of greater assistance to people who don’t have access to this basic right of hygiene and sanitation.
Megan Senior – Partnerships & Engagement Manager
Megan Senior joined the WasteAid team in late 2020 to support WasteAid’s corporate partners and more broadly to drive fundraising for the organisation. Megan has ten years’ experience in the charity sector, raising money for national, regional and local organisations in the UK. She is excited about WasteAid’s international projects which help both people and planet, and tackle inequality and climate change, the most urgent needs of our time.
Megan is motivated by the passion and generosity that individuals and companies show when they fundraise for WasteAid. The best bit of her job is getting to say thank you to the awesome WasteAid supporters, and helping them see the incredible impact of their gifts.
Sally Thompson – Head of Finance & Compliance
Sally Thompson joined WasteAid in August 2020 and was recruited to fill the newly created role of Head of Finance and Compliance. The role was required due to the increase in the scale of the programme work and in particular the Circular Economy Network Project funded by Huhtamaki.
Before joining WasteAid, Sally worked in the international development sector for over 15 years where she worked on large institutional projects funded by donors such as FCDO (formerly DfID), European Commission and Comic Relief in Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Senegal) and Asia (India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam). Projects were implemented alongside in-country offices and partners so Sally has spent time visiting projects and partners, building capacity and doing internal audits.
More recently, Sally has also been working with local charities to improve systems, controls and reporting at management and Board level. Sally qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2004 and holds a Masters in Managerial Economics and a BSc in Geography.
Ceris Turner-Bailes – Chief Executive Officer
Ceris joined award-winning charity WasteAid as Chief Executive in 2020.
Throughout her career, Ceris has worked internationally leading programmes, research, and advocacy initiatives for governments, NGOs and the private sector. She has worked extensively in community-based programming, as well as in the policy environment, and her work has always had a strong focus on partnership, quality and impact.
Ceris has worked across a number of development sectors including poverty alleviation, health and water and sanitation. She has delivered complex programmes on the ground in challenging contexts as well as strategically developing global programmes and international organisations.
Ceris was drawn to WasteAid for its potential to positively impact the lives of so many. Tackling the complex issue of waste management can help deliver many development goals – human and environmental. WasteAid’s work with vulnerable communities developing income-generating activities from recycling is both innovative and necessary. WasteAid is a charity that has the potential to do so much and Ceris is committed to further developing its work in terms of depth, scale and reach.
Before embarking upon her career in the international development sector, Ceris served as a Royal Air Force Officer and briefly as a member of HM Diplomatic Service in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Her overseas experience includes extensive work across Sub Saharan Africa, MENA region, Central Asia, the Americas and Caribbean, as well as Eastern Europe and The Balkans. Ceris holds two Bachelors degrees, including a BA (Hons) in History from King’s College, London and a postgraduate qualification in International Development.
Michelle Wilson – Network Director
Michelle Wilson joined WasteAid in August 2020 to head up a two-year Circular Economy Network Project funded by global food packaging leader Huhtamaki.
Michelle is a development specialist with over 15 years of experience living and working in developing countries (Chad, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Tanzania). Prior to joining WasteAid Michelle was working as a freelance consultant developing an Impact Management Framework for a clothing Social Enterprise Arakele and a Life Skills Curriculum as part of a World Bank funded Livelihoods Project for adolescent girls in Tigray, Ethiopia. Prior to this she was Director of Programmes for Farm Africa with oversight of a £12m portfolio of development projects in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
Michelle has extensive experience of project cycle management from original design through to monitoring, evaluation and learning. She has worked with the leading institutional donors including EU, UK Aid, NORAD, SIDA, Irish Aid, Comic Relief as well as corporate donors such as Waitrose. She has on the ground experience in community resilience, value chain analysis, market development, climate change, environment, agriculture, education and particular expertise in gender analysis. Michelle has a Masters in Conflict Violence and Development from School of African and Oriental Studies and a Masters in French and Business Studies from St Andrews University.
