People

Carlito is the official driver at our Timor-Leste office in Dili. When he’s not driving people and materials around town so we can deliver our projects, he’s busy using his quick thinking and life skills to deal with our mechanical messes. Just ask Minerva, who has had Carlito save her when her car broke down. She even got him to check her new car before she bought it, because he is the real deal when it comes to cars.

Along with Tetun, his native language, he is fluent in Bahasa and can hold a basic conversation in English. Especially if it is about cars.

David Roach is the Director and Co-Founder of Catalpa, an international development organisation that helps public systems work better for people. He leads Catalpa’s strategy and growth, shaping where the organisation focuses, how it partners, and how it builds the teams needed to tackle complex delivery challenges across the Asia-Pacific.

For more than 20 years, David has worked at the intersection of international development, digital innovation, and human-centred design. He brings a practical, systems-minded approach to change, beginning with the lived realities of the people who use and deliver services, then working back through the policies, processes, incentives, and tools that shape how those services function.

Under his leadership, Catalpa has grown from a small start-up into an organisation operating across 11 countries, with work spanning education, health, social protection, governance, and infrastructure. Across these sectors, Catalpa focuses on service delivery and system strengthening, helping partners improve decision-making, accountability, and access, particularly in remote and low-resource settings.

David is known for connecting worlds that do not always speak the same language: human-centred insight and government constraints, strategy and delivery, service design and digital technology. He brings strong digital fluency and digital service design experience to multidisciplinary teams, helping turn user needs into practical, resilient initiatives that strengthen public service delivery.

He holds a BA in Political Science and History from the University of Notre Dame and postgraduate qualifications in international development theory and practice from Murdoch University. He also has hands-on experience in interaction design and front-end engineering.

Sharon supports the ongoing development and strengthening of our programs with a focus on improved quality systems and processes for program management.

She brings 15+ years experience in international development and humanitarian aid across a wide range of contexts, predominantly related to protracted displacement in the Middle East and Africa, and the agriculture sector in Papua New Guinea.

Impressively, she has worked in Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, the Atacama desert in Chile, Papua New Guinea, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sri Lanka and Tamil-Nadu in India, Thai-Myanmar border, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Sierra Leone.

She loves fostering cats and dogs and finding new homes for them, and spent the COVID years renovating a 100+ year old apartment in the Republic of Georgia.

A qualified accountant, Sara plays the important role of managing finances at Catalpa both internally and for our programs across the Asia Pacific region.

She has worked within the development sector for over 5 years, and prior worked for Deloitte, one of the world’s largest accounting firms.

Sara speaks native Tetun and English, and is a talented home baker (to which those in the Timor -Leste office can attest). She enjoys staying active with regular Zumba classes.

As Operations Manager for the Pacific eLearning Program, Ruwel drives operational performance while maintaining a diligent overview of the programs’ finances.

He has 14 years experience in accounting and finance, managing grants, financial reporting and working with international institutions including United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and SPC. He has supported operations and finance for initiatives in Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), The Federated States of Micronesia, Vanuatu and Kiribati.

Ruwel speaks English, Hindi and Fijian. He loves travelling and exploring new places to engage with different people. His sense of curiosity, adventure and connection makes him a great fit for Catalpa’s diverse and dynamic team.

17 years ago, a young Anders mused about the possibilities of digital technologies for improving lives. From a two-person start-up, he has overseen Catalpa’s expansion across the Asia Pacific, working on programs that aim to create positive change through health, education, aid transparency, social protection and infrastructure project management.

Anders is a skilled software developer, leading agile teams with a commitment to putting people at the centre of technology design.

Affectionately known for his loud, distinctive laugh, Anders can be heard in the background of video calls across the Asia Pacific.

Grasinda is the administrative maestro of our Dili office, and has a special place in the Timor-Leste teams’ hearts for always ensuring an ample supply of coffee is on hand.

When she’s not working, Grasinda can be found with a book in hand and has become known for her deep love of reading. Among the many things she picks up from her books, she is using her passion for the written word to help her learn English. This will become her fourth spoken language, after Tetun, Bahasa and Mambae, the language spoken by the second largest ethnic group in Timor-Leste.

Known for her outstanding communications skills, Isabel is an experienced project coordinator and professional translator.

In her first program at Catalpa, she supported the delivery of a social protection program that delivered >$62million within 30 days, to more than 312,000 Timor-Leste households. She facilitated collaboration and effective ways of working between the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Inclusion and our product team as we worked together to develop a payment tracking system.

Outside of work Isabel has a penchant for good food and drink (in particular Manadonese cuisine, Argentinian wine and Timor-Leste’s finest coffee).

Mário joined Catalpa as a junior developer intern in 2015. He now provides critical tech support on the Liga Inan program, which connects pregnant women with health professionals for safer births in Timor-Leste.

He is involved in the development and testing of technology, training and capacity building of partner organisations and health providers, as well as monitoring and evaluation.

Mário speaks Tetun, Bahasa and English. He likes to balance learning and the lighter side of life, spending his spare time listening to motivational talks or chilling with a good comedy film.

Peter leads all things engineering and software development at Catalpa. He has over 15 years experience in global organisations including Microsoft and Lionhead Studios, and wrote much of the original code for Openly, Catalpa’s powerful information management system.

Peter sets the standard for how we build technology solutions for social good. He works across all programs managing and mentoring our diverse software development team spread across a number of continents.

Peter is now based in Timor-Leste, and has also worked in Myanmar, Uzbekistan and the UK. He speaks English and Tetun.

Keren is a highly experienced HR leader who has worked across the Pacific region including New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

She works closely with Catalpians to provide development opportunities, as well as attract and engage new colleagues for our passionate, kind, skilled team.

As Catalpa continues to grow, Keren will support the scaling of our great culture. She’s driven by the opportunity to make people's working life better, even in small ways.

Outside of work, she’s an enthusiastic All Blacks supporter with a green thumb. In between ferrying kids to extracurricular activities she helps coordinate a community food co-op.

Bringing more than 10 years experience in software development, Joshua is an expert in designing and building platforms to manage and visualise complex data. He has been key to the development of Openly - Catalpa’s Aid Information Management System - which has been used to improve transparency and monitoring of the aid sector in Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, and Uzbekistan (so far).

Joshua has implemented geographic information systems in New Zealand and Bougainville, and has developed staff training for databases, desktop applications and data collection methods.

He speaks English, Tetun, SQL, Python, and Javascript (though admittedly, some of these only computers will respond to).

Ona brings more than 15 years of experience in marketing, communication and knowledge management across the ICT, road infrastructure and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sectors.

She has worked for large organisations including Fiji Roads Authority and the Australia Pacific Training Coalition and oversees Catalpa’s business development pipeline, seeking and facilitating opportunities to deliver positive impact through thoughtful, digitally-enabled programs.

Outside of work, Ona takes pleasure in the simple life and finds joy in reading, cooking, and spending time with her family. She speaks English, Fijian and Fiji Hindi, and is based in Suva.

Pauna is a project officer with a demonstrated history of working in the civic and social organisation sectors.

As project officer on the DIRD program, Pauna works closely with our GoPNG partners to introduce, manage and administer the Service Improvement Program Management System and a District Information Management System (SIPMS & DIMS).

Pauna has a Bachelor of Sustainable Development and is driven by a desire to contribute to meaningful, long term nation building. He is based in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

Pauna is also a talented singer, songwriter and musician!

Noah works collaboratively to support the implementation and ongoing development of the Bilum Program and platform, a SIP-MS & DIMS in Papua New Guinea.

With a background in monitoring and evaluation and capacity development, he supports the Department of Implementation and Rural Development (DIRD) through the development of competency frameworks and regular capacity building and skills development workshops.

M&E and capacity building are priority areas for the Bilum program as the program expands. It will eventually capture project and service data across all 118 electorates (22 provinces and 96 districts), totalling an estimated A$650 million per year.

Noah has worked with a range of sectors across international non-government organisations, UN agencies and government partners.

Outside of work, Noah enjoys going on hiking adventures with his family.

Before moving into the development sector in 2021, Christine held senior PNG Government roles with the Department of Provincial and Local Government Affairs under the Provincial & Local Level Services Monitoring Authority (PLLSMA) Secretariat.

This experience with coordination and oversight of service delivery to various levels of government equips her for her role overseeing the delivery of the DIRD program throughout Papua New Guinea’s 118 electorates.

She’s passionate about translating government policies and strategies into programs and projects with targeted tangible results. 

A keen gardener and mother of four, Christine has a future dream of developing a children’s holiday program that combines farm life with early childhood learning to assist young children to learn good principles, morals and values.

Kara’s career has centred around technology in education with a particular focus on inequitable access to education and the gender gap in digital skills.

Before joining Catalpa, she was a senior director at the New York City Department of Education where she led work with teacher training providers, universities, industry, and the community to achieve the ambitious goal of scaling computer science education to all 1.1 million NYC students by training 5,000 teachers.

Kara’s is known for her open and empathetic leadership style, and for placing focus on individualised professional and personal development for her team.

Pedro is a specialist in production workflows with extensive experience in management, start-ups and technology. He works across all programs to ensure we are delivering our work efficiently.

He brings a wealth of knowledge having co-founded music platform Musikki in Portugal, as well as working across industries and challenging contexts including low-bandwidth environments.

Pedro is often found creating hype about our all team learning and sharing sessions. He fosters collaboration and cross-sharing of knowledge across teams.

He is a certified ScrumMaster, and a Divemaster too. What will he master next? Only time will tell.

Juliana oversees Catalpa’s tech products used for programs, ensuring iterative improvements are filtered across projects, and that innovation remains a constant.

Before Catalpa, she co-founded a music platform Musikki where she managed a creative team and honed her skills in product development, human centred design, and operations.

After working in Spain and Portugal, Juliana moved to Timor to volunteer with a local NGO that supports entrepreneurship for women in remote areas. She loves to work in multicultural, challenging environments where she can learn from others.

When she’s not thinking tech, she’s admiring the underwater world (she’s a divemaster), driving a boat (also a boat skipper), or getting creative (...and has illustrated several children’s books).

A woman of many talents, Rebekah has held roles ranging from environmental advisor to edtech start-up co-founder, to now Catalpa’s elearning and country advisor in Papua New Guinea.

She is passionate about education for practical purposes and career building, especially for young people.

In her spare time she coaches women-led small businesses in PNG. She gets great satisfaction from seeing talented women succeed and provide more admirable examples for young girls in the country.

She speaks English and Tok Pisin.

Vanessa is an experienced project officer supporting health and gender-based violence (GBV) programs in Timor-Leste.

As part of her role, she coordinates GBV training for health professionals. This training equips frontline workers to support and refer patients to the appropriate services in a timely and appropriate manner.

Vanessa has a naturally curious mind and enjoys sharing experiences and learning about others - which is probably what makes her so good at her job!

She has worked in Indonesia and Timor-Leste, where she is currently based. She speaks Tetum, English, and Indonesian.

Niko joined Catalpa in 2015 as a junior developer intern. Two years on, he joined our Timor-Leste team full time and since then has supported programs spanning education, health, cash transfer and roads management.

In addition to his coding skills, Niko has developed user manuals, training materials and provided training for our programs, all of which contribute to the ongoing sustainability and maintenance of programs.

Niko speaks Tetun, English, Bahasa, and a number of programming languages. He loves to stay fit and active, and often heads away for weekends with friends.

Ony joined Catalpa as a web development intern back in 2015 and, as they say, the rest is history. He joined the team full time in 2017 and now provides technical support on the Hamutuk program which coordinates diverse partners in a collaborative effort to fight malnutrition in Timorese children.

Ony works on many of the tasks that ensure programs can be sustainably implemented and properly maintained. This includes producing and delivering training programs, user manuals and other support materials.

Ony speaks Kemak, Tetun, Bahasa and English. He loves to listen to music and jam on the guitar (reggae and slow rock are his specialties).

Paula coordinates Liga Inan, a program connecting women with health professionals for safer childbirth in Timor-Leste. Hers is a multifaceted role which involves maintaining close partnerships with government and health organisations, as well as program planning, management, training and reporting.

She is qualified in computer science, has worked in telecommunications and as a lecturer in multimedia and graphic design.

She speaks English, Tetun, Bahasa, and Fataluku, which is a language spoken by the Fataluku ethnic group in the eastern areas of Timor-Leste. On top of all that, she’s a dedicated mum to three young kids.

Jerome works where partnerships meet practice, connecting Catalpa with government partners to turn local insight into practical, lasting solutions. With a background in higher education and information systems in Papua New Guinea, he’s led e-learning implementation, application development, systems administration, and capacity strengthening — helping institutions make digital systems work in the real world. He’s worked across Papua New Guinea and Australia, speaks English and Tok Pisin, and brings a culturally grounded perspective to everything he does. Outside of work, you’ll find him enjoying sport, music, and keeping an eye on the latest in tech.

Meggan is a front-end engineer, working on Catalpa’s learning management system, Bero. Together with the wider team, she designs and builds beautiful, intuitive learning experiences suited to remote areas with limited connectivity, for people with varying digital literacy.

She has 4 years experience as a software engineer in the music industry, and before learning to code, worked in project management and customer experience at an education startup.

When Meggan’s not coding herself, she’s teaching others to code. Failing that, she’ll be found swimming, sewing or practising her Spanish and Mandarin.

Kate is a seasoned leader with over 15 years experience implementing, designing and evaluating large international development programs in the Asia Pacific region - including senior management roles on the A$60 million Solomon Islands Resource Facility (SIRF), A$60 million Cambodia Australia Agricultural Value Chain Program and A$96 Million RAMSI Governance Support Facility.

As Catalpa's Program Manager she supports implementing program teams, as well as  supporting effective program management, continuous improvement and standardisation across our portfolio of projects.

Kate has worked in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Cambodia, Vanuatu, Timor Leste, Myanmar, Mongolia, Vietnam and Australia. These days she's based in Perth, Western Australia where she spends her down time in and around the ocean.

Ano joined Catalpa as an junior developer intern back in 2015, and is now an important technology support to our partner organisations.

During the first COVID-19 lockdown in Timor-Leste, he closely supported the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Inclusion in the roll out of the Cash Transfer Program which distributed more than $62million across 452 villages..

He is a qualified electrical engineer, and speaks Tetun, English, (pretty good) Bahasa and (slightly less good) Portuguese. He is learning to speak Python, SQL, Javascript, CSS and HTML.

Juliet is an edtech professional, who previously worked as webmaster and moodle administrator for Solomon Islands National University.

Her skills, together with a passion for the development of her Solomon Islands home, make her one of our outstanding eLearning Specialists on the Pacific eLearning Program, a project aimed at changing the way science is taught in the Pacific.

Juliet loves her family and describes her favourite pastime as having a good laugh! If you need her, you’ll find her hanging out with friends cracking jokes. She speaks English, Solomon Islands Pidgin and Cheke Holo, her mother tongue.

As Product Lead, Junior drives best practice processes in tech product design, development and management. He coordinates our engineers, designers, project staff and external partners in the product development process.

He is an experienced software engineer skilled in software architecture, management, databases, server administration and configuration and web technologies.

Originating from Brazil, Junior moved to Timor-Leste in 2003 where he is now based. Though, true to his roots, his favourite food is still churrasco (Brazilian barbecue).

Ligia is a long standing Catalpian and has been integral to the smooth running of a number of our Timor-Leste based programs including Hamutuk and Eskola.

Her background is in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and environmental management, though these days she’s focused on the power of technology to make an impact in education and schools.

She speaks native Tetun and Bahasa, as well as English and (almost fluent) Portuguese. In addition to improving education using innovation, she is passionate about reading, travelling, and providing a great life to her three children.

Andy works closely with our product and program teams through the whole product lifecycle - from ideation, to prototyping, high fidelity design and iterative improvements. He is a creative, talented and passionate multidisciplinary designer, specialising in interactive and user experience design across digital platforms and channels.

With experience in the UK and Australia, designing for almost every industry, he says he is happiest at work when he is able to deliver products that make a tangible, positive impact in people’s lives. In his spare time, Andy loves making music, camping, and exploring nature with his young family.

Sonia leads the Hamahon project which helps victims of gender-based violence access support services in Timor-Leste.

She has extensive experience working on international development programs and in 2019 completed her Masters in Education and International Development, for which she received the Chevening scholarship.

Outside of work, she volunteers as the President of the Korean Government Scholarship Alumni Association, and supports the community where needed. In fact, Sonia and two colleagues raised $52,000 USD to support families during the 2021 floods in Timor-Leste.

She speaks Tetun, English, Bahasa Indonesia, Portuguese and Korean.

Roberto has over 30 years experience in information technology. This wealth of experience means he has seen more than most, which might also be why he is so passionate about inbuilding robust software development lifecycle practises and contingency planning for when unexpected things happen.

He currently works primarily on Catalpa’s Liga Inan mHealth project, which connects pregnant women with health professionals for safer births.

When he’s not coding, he likes to explore and build machine learning tools (sounds relaxing, doesn’t it!). He speaks Italian, English and is learning Japanese.

As a dedicated project officer within the Bilum Project, I am committed to accurately capturing high-quality data information in the DIRD Bilum management system. Through ongoing dialogue, I cultivate and maintain positive relationships with our Department of Implementation and  Rural Development counterparts, encouraging collaboration and effective communication. 

Rapha is passionate about how technology can assist governments to improve governance, and in turn, deliver better services to their citizens through enhanced accountability.

He leads Catalpa’s governance and transparency projects and his background in software development means he is well placed to translate program aspirations into built-for-purpose technology solutions.

He speaks French, English and Tetun, as well as varying levels of Bahasa, German and Spanish. In his spare time, he built an English-Tetun translation app now used by over 15,000 people.