About Veridicor
For more than 25 years, members of this team have led trade, energy, agribusiness, infrastructure and investment initiatives across Africa, Asia and Latin America — inside governments, development institutions, capital markets and mining companies. Veridicor exists because stakeholder alignment is a core business function, not a public-relations exercise, and because it can be financed like one.
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Loren Stoddard is a senior diplomat and economic development leader with over 20 years driving public-private partnerships across emerging markets. As a former USAID senior advisor he led energy, trade and agribusiness initiatives across Africa, Latin America and conflict-affected regions, including Power Africa’s clean energy rollout and Afghanistan’s rural trade development. He holds an MBA and a Master of International Management from Arizona State University and the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Advisor — Capital Markets
Ann Rutledge is a capital markets expert with over four decades applying systems thinking to global finance. Founder and Managing Principal of her firm, she co-developed patented intellectual property modelling how credit-risk decay affects bond valuation, is published with Oxford University Press, and advises the UNDP Africa Concilium on sovereign credit ratings. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA from Wellesley College.
Advisor — Diplomacy & Infrastructure
Christopher Dell is a former U.S. diplomat whose 32-year Foreign Service career included ambassadorial posts in Angola, Zimbabwe and Kosovo, Deputy Ambassador in Afghanistan, and Deputy Commander of U.S. Africa Command. Since retiring he has led Bechtel’s operations in Mozambique and advised on African infrastructure. He holds a BA from Columbia University and an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford.
Advisor — Foreign Policy
Sarah-Ann Lynch is a former Career Minister with more than 34 years advancing U.S. foreign policy across South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean. She served as U.S. Ambassador to Guyana and as Civilian Deputy to the Commander and Senior Foreign Policy Advisor at U.S. Southern Command, and concurrently as the Secretary of State’s Representative to CARICOM.
Advisor — Leadership & Resilience
Justin Stoddard is a leadership expert and executive coach with over 20 years shaped by service as an Army combat medic, infantry officer and intelligence officer. Founder of Climbing the Mountain, LLC, he holds a PhD in education focused on resilience and character development and consults across sectors on cultures of trust and accountability.
Advisor — International Development
Ken Yamashita brings over four decades of international development and public health experience, including USAID Mission Director roles in Afghanistan, Colombia and South Africa and Director for Global Operations at the Peace Corps. He was recently inducted into the American Academy of Diplomacy.
Board Member · Director, V-Prosper
Rob Karpati is a former corporate controller at DuPont and finance executive with over 35 years of global experience in strategic transformation and business process optimization. A Partner at The Blended Capital Group, he is focused on transforming the global artisanal mining sector to realize its financial, social and environmental potential — insight he brings directly to the design of V-Prosper and its financing ecosystem.
Advisor — Legal & Governance
Nenad Janicevic is a legal expert with over 30 years in corporate law, governance and international legal affairs. Managing Partner of a leading law firm in North Macedonia, he served as President of the Macedonian Bar Association for over a decade, counsels the President of the International Association of Lawyers (UIA), and is Honorary Consul of Peru in North Macedonia.
Advisor — Resource Sector & Capital
Scott North is the co-founder of Kamoa Capital, an advisory and capital-raising firm for resource and junior mining companies. Specializing in commercial strategy, investor relations, and exploration economics, he regularly consults on major mineral discoveries and publishes industry insights regarding the copper and PGM markets.
Scott combines deep sector insight with his passion for the industry to accelerate growth and optimise shareholder outcomes for resource companies.
Prior to launching Kamoa Capital in July 2025, Scott served as the Corporate Development Manager at Kingsrose Mining, where he focused on operational strategy and shareholder value optimization. He is well-known in the Australian and global resource sectors for advising junior explorers on optimizing their capital allocation and bridging the gap between exploration economics and investor expectations.
John McNamara has over 45 years of Federal Service – between military and diplomatic careers – with extensive expertise in Latin America and the Caribbean. A West Point graduate with an MA in Latin America studies, John served in numerous leadership positions in the United States Army Special Forces (Green Berets), most notably, on the Joint Staff (Pentagon) and as a Battalion Commander in the 7th Special Forces Group. As a diplomat, he served extensively in Latin America, the Caribbean, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He led U.S. Diplomatic Missions in Peru, the Dutch Caribbean, Colombia, and Venezuela and retired in February 2026 at the grade of Minister Counselor.
Alfred has had a decades-long career in international development, focusing on sustainable natural resources management across the forestry, marine, energy, fresh water resources and minerals sectors. His experience includes field implementation, policy, strategy, political economy analysis and stakeholder engagement for numerous Latin American and Asian countries. Robust participation and benefit sharing for indigenous populations has been a focus and priority in all his work.
During his career, he received numerous awards from the US and foreign governments, foundations and NGOs for his contributions and achievements. He has held university teaching and lecturing positions in international development, and retired from the US Senior Foreign Service as USAID Diplomat in Residence for California and Hawaii. Since retiring, he has held consulting positions as a senior advisor to the US government, the private sector and non-profit organizations.
Mr. Samir Giha serves as the Chairman of the International Cocoa Organization’s (ICCO) Working Group for Generic Promotion of Cacao, a role he has held since 2022. Appointed to lead this international initiative, Mr. Giha drives the global promotion of cacao by emphasizing its cultural, economic, and social significance. His leadership focuses on fostering equitable trade practices, amplifying origin-based storytelling, and expanding cacao’s presence in both emerging and mature markets.
Under Mr. Giha’s direction, the Working Group has prioritized transformative initiatives to elevate cacao’s global profile. He spearheads efforts to deepen consumer and industry awareness of cacao’s rich heritage and economic value, particularly for origin countries. By championing sustainable and fair trade practices, Mr. Giha ensures that cacao-producing nations are at the forefront of international policy and promotion. His strategic vision integrates origin-maker perspectives, bridging local expertise with global market demands.
A skilled convener, Mr. Giha excels in stakeholder engagement, forging impactful collaborations across public and private sectors. His work unites diverse voices—from farmers and producers to policymakers and industry leaders—to create a cohesive, inclusive approach to cacao promotion. Through his leadership, the ICCO’s Working Group continues to shape the future of cacao as a culturally vital and economically sustainable global commodity.
Chief Business Architect
Maria Pascual is an international development specialist with over 30 years in organizational engineering, capacity building and institutional development across public, private and nonprofit sectors. At Veridicor she makes business architecture the connective tissue between strategy, operations, services, data and partnerships.
Chief Operating Officer
Slavka Stojanovska brings over 18 years across the security sector, international development and private enterprise, working with WHO, OSCE and USAID on high-impact partnerships in complex regulatory environments. She leads Veridicor’s operations and cross-regional delivery.
Vice President, Business Development
Noah Flessel is a stabilization and conflict-mitigation expert with 16 years in fragile, violence-affected and low-trust operating environments across Africa and the Middle East. He leads Veridicor’s global business development function, its directors and advisors, and its regional pipeline.
Regional Director, Latin America
Oscar Lancho is a strategic finance and corporate structuring expert with more than 20 years leading financial operations, valuation and governance across Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, including over two decades supporting USAID programs. He is Founder and Financial Director of Metta Finance.
Regional Director, Africa
Kristina Kempkey advises governments, investors and private-sector clients on political risk, stakeholder dynamics, governance frameworks and license-to-operate strategy across Africa’s extractive sector. She previously spent more than two decades in senior roles at USAID, the U.S. Department of Defense and the United Nations, managing governance and conflict-mitigation portfolios across more than 20 countries. She holds a Master’s in International Security Studies from Columbia University (SIPA) and a BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley.
Senior Director, Peru
John Youle is a senior international advisor with more than four decades across diplomacy, mining-sector leadership and strategic advisory in Latin America, including as Vice President of Southern Peru Copper and Vice President of ConsultAndes. At Veridicor he strengthens strategic partnerships and guides stakeholder engagement across Peru.
Senior Advisor, Bolivia
Peter Natiello is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Career Minister and more than 35 years in development, stabilization and civilian-military coordination, including USAID Mission Director roles in Afghanistan, El Salvador, Colombia and Bolivia.
Sustainable Agriculture & Land Use
Luis Flores designs and implements sustainable agriculture projects from site selection through market linkage, with 25 years of international development experience at the intersection of land and water use, stakeholder participation, and the evolving needs of the mining and energy sectors.
Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning
Nasrullah Ahmadzai is a monitoring, evaluation and learning specialist with over 18 years across South and Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa, leading large-scale evaluations for USAID, the World Bank and Oxfam. At Veridicor he combines field-tested stakeholder analysis with NLP and sentiment-analysis tooling to power diagnostics and verification.
Monitoring & Evaluation Practice Lead
Donato Peña is an international development expert with nearly three decades across Latin America and South Asia. At Veridicor he leads the monitoring and evaluation practice and curates the News of the Week platform on global license-to-operate trends. He holds advanced degrees in economics and social management.
Economic Growth & Inclusion
Liliana Gil is a development specialist in economic growth, social inclusion and entrepreneurial ecosystems, designing high-impact programs that empower women and youth and building alliances with governments, multilaterals and private-sector leaders including Starbucks, Walmart, Cisco and Microsoft.
Engr. Clever Sithole, MSc, BEng, is a distinguished mining strategist, gemologist, and mineral evaluator with extensive experience in gemstone formalization, ethical sourcing, and value chain integration. He serves as Chairperson of the African Gemstones and Jewellery Committee under the African Minerals Development Centre of the African Union. He holds a Master’s degree in Applied Entrepreneurship and Business Management and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mining and Mineral Processing Engineering, and is currently pursuing a DPhil in Mineral Economics. His career includes serving as Head Gemologist for the USAID/DAI Invest project in Afghanistan and as a Mineral Evaluator in Zimbabwe. His work continues to advance sustainable mineral governance and regional beneficiation across Africa.
Business Development Advisor
Leo Watts is a private-sector and stakeholder engagement specialist supporting Veridicor’s origination and technical integration work, with donor-program experience spanning U.S. Government, GIZ and Swiss development cooperation portfolios and responsible-sourcing work with the Alliance for Responsible Mining. He works in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
Business Development Advisor
Jared Batzel is an international development and humanitarian specialist with extensive experience leading strategy and operations in complex crisis environments. A former U.S. Foreign Service Officer with USAID and Major in the United States Marine Corps, he has managed large-scale humanitarian programmes, advised governments and multilateral partners, and supported disaster response and resilience initiatives across Africa, the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East. Jared combines expertise in humanitarian assistance, strategic planning, risk analysis and international partnerships to help organisations navigate complex challenges and deliver sustainable impact. At Veridicor, he provides strategic advisory support on international development and business growth.
Executive and Outreach Coordinator
Madlina Elbahar is an experienced executive support and operations professional with over 15 years of expertise in administration, coordination and stakeholder engagement across international development, diplomacy and humanitarian organisations. She has held key roles with USAID, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the U.S. Embassy in Sudan, supporting senior leadership, managing complex logistics and coordinating high-level events and travel. At Veridicor, Madlina serves as Executive and Outreach Coordinator, bringing exceptional organisational skills, discretion and a commitment to operational excellence that enables teams and partnerships to thrive.
Mahesh Kanjee is a seasoned procurement, contracts and business operations specialist. Having held senior leadership roles with USAID, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of State, Old Mutual and Vodacom, he brings deep expertise in business analysis, procurement strategy and operational performance. At Veridicor, Mahesh provides strategic analytical support for business development across Africa, helping identify opportunities, strengthen decision-making and support sustainable growth.
Mónica Tuesta is a project management, monitoring and evaluation, and geographic information systems (GIS) specialist with more than 20 years of experience supporting international development programmes. Having spent over two decades in international development in Peru, she has led monitoring and evaluation for multimillion-dollar initiatives, developed geospatial analyses to inform strategic decision-making, and strengthened collaboration between government, donor and implementing partners. At Veridicor, Mónica brings deep expertise in data analysis, GIS, project oversight and performance management, helping organisations turn complex information into practical insights that improve programme delivery and impact.
Mahmuda Rahman Khan received the 2022 Laura W. Bush Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Global Women’s Equality. A development professional and gender integration expert, she has worked with BRAC, UNFPA, DFID, and USAID. She holds graduate degrees in Economics and Gender and Development and has taught gender-focused courses at KIT Royal Tropical Institute. Her expertise spans gender equality, leadership, training, and organizational capacity building. A skilled facilitator and team leader, Mahmuda brings diverse stakeholders together and builds strategic partnerships with governments, donors, and development organizations to design and deliver impactful programs across sectors and emerging markets.
Saurabh has 20 years of experience working on private sector development, governance and institutional strengthening. He has served in various lead and technical roles for the World Bank Group and UN agencies in low-capacity, post-conflict environments including Afghanistan, Sudan, South Sudan and Rwanda. He most recently served as the Private Sector Engagement Advisor at USAID Egypt between 2021 to 2025, establishing partnerships that mobilize private investments for community and development solutions. Saurabh is based in Cairo, Egypt, and covers the Middle East/North Africa region for business development while also serving as the Director of Veridicor University.