Lyra in Africa Boards
The governance structure overseeing Lyra in Africa are made up of three different boards: UK Board, Tanzania Board and Finland Board.
Whilst each board has its own set of governance responsibilities, the three boards work jointly to ensure seamless strategic direction and oversight. Here is a snapshot of each of our current board members across the three boards.
Fares Tarimo - Tanzania Board Chair
Architect Fares Tarimo has been working as a Public servant for over 33 years. He retired as TBA Regional Manager for Iringa in 2019. A graduate of Architecture at Liverpool University, he has an MBA in Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI). He has travelled extensively across the country and abroad. Currently practicing partner at NTM Architects & Planners, he is also the founder of Elite Realtors, Eribeat Blocks Manufacturing and Noble Furnishers Companies. He strongly believes that we were brought into this world so as to leave it a better place for others.
Maria Spink - UK, Tanzania & Finland Boards
After 17 years in senior positions in international banking, Maria joined the Executive Board of Green Resources - a tree planting and renewables company, active in East Africa. Working with local labourers and village elders in the Iringa Region, Maria learnt about the acute vulnerability of girls attending schools without safe accommodation. Maria founded Lyra in 2011 in recognition of the huge potential for impact, especially when investing in girls' and young women's education and entrepreneurship. Maria holds an MSc in Economics and MSc in African Politics. Maria is also Lyra’s Founder and Executive Director.
Annika Hilli – Finland Board Chair
Annika Hilli is a lawyer working in the financial sector as legal counsel and Head of Compliance at WIP Asset Management Oy, an asset management company offering wealth management. Annika consults both the company and its clients in a wide range of legal matters. She is interested in promoting women’s and children’s rights.
Roselyne Mariki - Tanzania Board
Roselyne Mariki is a Chemical and Process Engineer with a strong track record of business leadership, climate change initiatives, and community development in Tanzania. She has founded several successful companies, including coffee estates in Kilimanjaro, Great African Safaris, and Green Growth Ltd, which was awarded 'the best African Portal' by UNESCO. As Managing Director of Green Resources, the leading private forest company in Tanzania, employing at least 1,000 staff and working with rural communities, Roselyne led the company's community outreach programmes. She is a founder of her own philanthropic organisation, Upendo Trust.
Dana Freling - Vice Chair of the Finland Board
Dana Freling is a committed social entrepreneur with a broad range of both international experience and local engagement. After completing degrees at Smith College and Stanford University in Social Anthropology, she has held diverse leadership roles in environment and sustainability, community development, and education. Dana has worked the bulk of her career in the environmental sector, across countries in East and South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Europe.
She was Co-Founder and Executive Director of a Finnish non-profit which provided curriculum for integrated climate change/SDG education for schools across India and is the founding Chair of Democrats Abroad Finland.
Dayani Mbowe - Tanzania Board
Dayani Mbowe is an IT expert with a strong background in technology adoption, technical support and IT projects implementation. Currently, he is the country manager for Camara Education Tanzania, an NGO working to improve education outcomes using technology.
Over the past five years, Dayani has been working to design, test and implement the social enterprise model for Camara to ensure sustainable delivery of Camara’s EduTech programmes.
Humphrey Kalanje - Finland Board
Humphrey Kalanje is a Tanzanian architect who currently lives in Finland. He worked for over 30 years for the Tanzania Ministry of Works until his retirement in 2017. Humphrey has studied in Tanzania, India, Norway, Sweden and Finland and is now pursuing his Doctorate at the Aalto University in Finland. He has also taught and lectured at Aalto University. He is passionate about the potential of architecture and planning in improving the lives of those who are socially and economically vulnerable in our societies. He is a Board Member of the Suomi Tansania Seura.
Helena Nahi - Finland Board
Helena is an experienced and passionate advocate for children’s rights, child protection, equality in education and global health. She has been working as a philanthropist for more than 15 years and joined Scope Impact, as a Co-Founder and Board Member in 2022. Helena is also a co-founder of the Eva Ahlström Foundation where she was a board member for 13 years. She is also a board member of Kauppias K.P. She has lived in 4 different countries, speaks 6 languages and has majored in Japanese Studies. Additionally she has studies in international Marketing and English Philology.
Loulou Shah - UK Board
Loulou has over 15 years of experience in the international development and humanitarian sector. Her previous field-based roles include Head of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Sri Lanka; Technical Lead for Handicap International in Palestine (Gaza and Jerusalem based); and both Programme Manager of a large girls’ education programme as well as Gender and Protection Advisor (earthquake response) in Nepal. More recently, she has held regional and global roles with CARE and Right To Play, overseeing education programming mainly in Asia, the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. She is currently Safeguarding Technical Expert at SDDirect, and Senior Technical Advisor to the Resource and Support Hub, an FCDO funded global safeguarding initiative for which SDDirect is the technical lead on the consortium.
Irine Madeje Mlola - Tanzania Board
Irene is a trailblazing, award-winning, industry leader with over 22 years’ experience driving innovation, transformation, and growth in Tanzania’s financial, telecommunications, digital, and development sectors. A masterful strategist and implementor, Irene is sought-after for her ability to lead, scale, and sustain largescale organizational change for growth and impact.
She has designed, structured, deployed, and successfully transferred departmental, and organization-wide initiatives, involving over 500 employees and over 15 million clients and beneficiaries for respected organizations such as Barclays Bank, Vodacom, Airtel, and Financial Sector Deepening Trust. Irene has also successfully facilitated the design and launch of the National Financial Inclusion Framework 2018/2022 and the Financial Sector Development Master Plan for Tanzania (2020-2030).
Irene is a graduate of the world-class Strathmore School of Business and CEO Roundtable Tanzania Apprenticeship Program, Harvard School of Business Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance, and Maastricht School of Management and ESAMI Executive MBA Program as well as Dalhousie University Bachelor of Commerce.
Irene is a certified Board Director and currently serves as a Board Director of Exim Bank where she chairs the Board Credit Committee. She is also a member of the Women Affairs Committee of the Tanzanian National Council for Financial Inclusion (Chaired by the Governor of the Bank of Tanzania). Recently Irene has been appointed a Chairperson for the Board of Redefine Africa which is a research and innovation company. In the past, Irene has served as a Member of the Branch Advisory Committee for CRDB as well as an Advisor for the Jacob Flemming Group of South Africa
Wende Luvinga - Finland Board
Wende Luvinga is an international development and sustainability professional with over 10 years of proven experience in leading projects and developing business for various donors including the World Bank, European Commission, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, USAID, Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), and several others including the private sector and national ministries in several countries. Her other area of key competence includes Business and Human Rights, Environmental Social and Governance(ESG).
Wende Luvinga works for NIRAS International Consulting in Finland, Before that, she worked as a country Manager of NIRAS Tanzania, as well as, worked as a legal Officer at a Telecommunication company in Tanzania. Outside her working life, she is enthusiastic about promoting the reading culture and diverse literature for children. Wende Luvinga is an author of children's books. Her book Hamisi the Complaining Lizard has been sold widely. She is a founder of the Swahili for Kids group in Finland, to promote the Kiswahili language through stories. In addition, Wende Luvinga is a current Chairperson of the Finnish- Tanzania Friendship Association whose goal is to promote interaction between Finland and Tanzania in various fields. Wende Luvinga holds a Master’s degree in Development Cooperation from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, a degree in International Relations from the University of Tampere in Finland, and a Bachelor's Degree in Laws (LLB) from the University of Dar Es Salaam.
Joy Aladekomo - UK Board
Joy Aladekomo is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years combined experience in Investment Funds Management Operations, Accounting and Auditing.
Joy possesses expertise in operational oversight of Investment Funds, implementation of regulatory changes, strategic management of outsourced functions, project management, and auditing, including financial statements reviews.
Currently, Joy works in Investment Management in the United Kingdom, responsible for the oversight of Investment Funds in different jurisdictions.
She is passionate about issues concerning poverty alleviation, accessibility to quality education and youth empowerment especially in underserved communities.
Honorary Board Members
Dr. Maria Kamm - Honorary Board Member on the Tanzania Board
As a mother, teacher, politician, businesswoman and philanthropist, Mama Maria Kamm is an icon in the education sector in Tanzania and beyond. She started teaching in 1965 at a number of Secondary Schools and later at Weruweru Girls (Tanzania's top school for girls under her 22-year leadership) where she inspired and motivated thousands of girls who have later become very successful women in different fields. Mama Kamm has a record of breaking down barriers so that girls, especially those less-privileged, get a useful education. Mama Kamm is the founder of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, and a beneficiary to many awards both in and outside the borders of Tanzania.