Who we are

Amos is PEAS’ School Network Senior Manager in Zambia and joined PEAS in 2021.

Amos’s role is to deliver performance improvements in Access, Quality and Sustainability across the PEAS Zambia School Network. He is responsible for designing and implementing an exciting PEAS Zambia System strengthening programme that is aimed at improving school management practices in Government primary and secondary schools. Additionally, Amos oversees PEAS Zambia’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning and Safeguarding functions.

Before joining PEAS Zambia in 2021, Amos successfully managed over forty primary schools at Impact Network International where he established a team of vibrant education leaders that were able to support improved education outcomes in a low-resource setting. Since 2021, Amos has demonstrated a high level of professionalism and leadership abilities which is evidenced by PEAS Zambia’s great grade 9 and 12 examination results and high enrolment numbers achieved across the school network. Additionally, he successfully managed to support the System Strengthening Pilot project which evidenced positive outcomes.

Amos is a team player and believes in hard work. He is both a ‘great leader’ and a ‘great doer’. As a lifelong learner, he believes that to be effective in his role is to adopt a growth mindset and continuously learn new ways of doing things through self-study, learning from team members and work experience.

Amos is interested in solving one of the world’s biggest challenges, ensuring access to quality education for all and he envisions a world where young people do not only access quality education but live a transformed meaningful life after school.

Beatrice is PEAS’ Country Director in Zambia and joined PEAS in 2022. As Country Director, Beatrice  will lead PEAS Zambia to deliver on its ambitious 5-year strategy – including strengthening the girls’ education programming, growing the PEAS school network, and sharing PEAS’ approaches with the government to positively impact all secondary schools in Zambia.

Beatrice has worked in the NGO sector in Zambia for over 20 years, including acting as Chief of Party for the Zambia Family Activity at Expanded Church Response (ECR). With her strong project management skills and leadership, Beatrice led the team at ECR to deliver education, health, nutrition, and psychosocial support to over 100,000 orphans and vulnerable children in selected parts of Zambia. Over 10,000 of the children were living with HIV. Recently, as Director of Programmes at Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ), she provided technical oversight and leadership to numerous large programmes focusing on education, health, and maternal, child and adolescent health funded by agencies such as FCDO, Global Fund for HIV/TB/Malaria, Global Affairs of Canada.

Beatrice is passionate about the rights and welfare of young people and women as they are often affected by socio-economic and cultural factors in many societies globally. As a female leader, Beatrice believes she has an opportunity to be a role model to many girls in Zambia. Beatrice values education because it opens doors to many opportunities.

Daniel is PEAS’ Head of Quality Assurance and system strengthening in Uganda and joined PEAS in 2012.

He has experience of over 20 years in education administration and management systems. Daniel is responsible for ensuring that all network schools and staff comply with set quality standards to support PEAS’ vision of unlocking the potential of every child to fulfil their life’s dream.

His work focuses on creating safe learning environments to enhance quality teaching and learning and subsequently improved learning outcomes for every child. Daniel is passionate about supporting every child to learn, he believes that every learner in a school is a special gift who has joined the school to get better. He has supported school leaders to focus and work with the limited resources they have, to improve their schools rather than continuously lamenting on what they do not have, with a belief that ‘Every School can Improve’.

At PEAS, Daniel has been instrumental in developing the PEAS inspection framework including the inspection tool and school improvement approach. Having evaluated it as a success story, PEAS is now sharing learnings and is currently supporting 200 government secondary schools through our system strengthening strategy. Daniel is excited about this project, which has created an opportunity for PEAS to support quality learning for over 100,000 learners.

Daniel is driven by a work environment of high expectations and where impact is evident. Working with integrity and building a team of value-aligned colleagues remains Daniel’s utmost goal.

David Boateng joined PEAS in October 2023 as the Country Programme Manager for PEAS Ghana and is PEAS’ first employee in Ghana.

David is a Development Planner and Education Specialist, with over 15 years of work experience in programme strategy planning, high level strategic partnership development, project management, monitoring, evaluation, research, and collaborative learning. He has provided strategic leadership to organizations over the course of his work in Ghana, helping them grow sustainably and stay at the forefront of evolving policy thinking and practice in delivering quality education, particularly to girls and marginalized groups. He has also occupied key decision-making roles aimed at strengthening policy engagement with partner government ministries in the areas of education, social protection, monitoring and evaluation, and research.

David grew up in the gold mining area of Tarkwa, Ghana where illegal mining had led to environmental degradation, deforestation, pollution of the local water supply, air, and soil through the release of toxic chemicals, and ultimately negatively affected the livelihood of local communities. It is against this backdrop that David felt motivated to pursue a career in the development sector and contribute to improving livelihoods of rural communities through various interventions such as public education, health and small to medium scale enterprise initiatives.

Over his career, David has focused on improving livelihoods through strengthening access to quality education, especially for girls in deprived rural communities, to help level the playing field and open up opportunities to otherwise deprived people, their families and wider community. This career focus is aligned to the vision and mission of PEAS as an organization, and its approach to providing adolescents with access to quality secondary education to lead fulfilling and successful lives.

Dirk joined PEAS Zambia in 2013 and currently serves as the Deputy Country Director.

After graduating from Northrise University, he worked at an accountancy firm where he studied to become a qualified Auditor. Dirk is responsible for ensuring that PEAS Zambia delivers on its commitment to sustainability by supporting schools to develop their financial management skills. He also works with the PEAS Zambia team, helping them find ways to operate as efficiently as possible.

To increase his impact at PEAS and within the Zambian education sector more broadly, Dirk is studying for a degree in project management. He also regularly appears on a Ndola radio show, where he offers career guidance, discusses current affairs and provides updates on PEAS and the education sector. Dirk is an avid squash player and has competed in the Copperbelt Open Squash Championship. When he’s not on the court, he spends time with his wife and four children, often supporting two of his sons at football games.

Elizabeth Amuge is Head of Operations and joined PEAS in 2023.

As Head of Operations, Elizabeth is responsible for leading the delivery of operational excellence at all levels of the organization to support sustainability, strengthen practices and improve ways of working in the school network office. Before joining PEAS, Elizabeth was responsible for overseeing the organizations financial strategies, improving financial processes, beneficial use of finances, assessing investments and ensuring legal and regulatory compliance. Her experience extends from educational institution, banks, and NGOs.

Elizabeth previously worked for an International NGO – Plan International that focussed on children’s education, protection, health, and youth empowerment. She realized working at PEAS creates a chance for her to strengthen her experience and skills at a broader level.

Elizabeth is zealous about financial independence and PEAS’ financial sustainable model is what attracted her to work at PEAS.

Emily is Head of Partnerships and joined PEAS in 2019.

As Head of Partnerships, Emily is responsible for global income generation and developing long-term value add partnerships to support PEAS to achieve our ambitious growth strategy. Before joining PEAS, Emily successfully led several fundraising teams to exceed fundraising targets, broaden reach, and win and develop profitable, long-term partnerships. Her fundraising experience spans corporates, trusts & foundations, high- worth net individuals, and institutional funders.

Having previously worked for an INGO and several UK-based charities focussed on education and youth employability – including The Prince’s Trust and Impetus Private Equity Foundation, Emily saw working at PEAS as an opportunity for her to combine her skills and experience in one role.

Emily is passionate about reducing long-term dependency on international aid, and PEAS’ financially sustainable model is what attracted her to work at PEAS.

Henry Senkasi joined PEAS Uganda in June 2017 from Heifer International, a US-based charity, where he was leading Business and Partnerships in East Africa.

As PEAS Uganda Country Director, he leads all aspects of operations including the development of PEAS Uganda’s overall strategic plan and delivery of its goals.

With a master’s in Development Studies, Henry has many years of experience working for international NGOs and government; delivering strong leadership across various thematic areas including education, livelihoods, child protection, health and social inclusion. He is driven by innovation and has a passion for working with and for impactful organisations.

Jenny is PEAS’ Chief Programme Officer and joined PEAS 
in 2016. As CPO, Jenny leads the growth and quality assurance of all PEAS programmes. 

Jenny’s relationship with PEAS started back in 2011 as a volunteer and supporter before she joined the senior management team full-time in 2016. She works closely with PEAS’ team of technical experts and PEAS’ country teams to drive the expansion and improvement of PEAS’ programmes.

Jenny’s passion is to help PEAS’ leaders and their teams to push themselves to achieve more than they thought was possible, helping them solve problems along the way. She is a tireless advocate of girls’ education across the organisation. Jenny often represents PEAS externally to influence others in our sector to do more to deliver inclusive, quality secondary education.

Before joining PEAS, Jenny was COO at Skills Builder, a UK education social enterprise, and led projects across a wide range of industries for the management consulting firm, Oliver Wyman.

John Rendel is the founder of PEAS. Although he no longer works for PEAS in an official capacity, he remains a close friend and adviser to the executive team.

During university, John took a trip to Uganda where he met Mike Kironde, a Finance Director in a local primary school in Kampala. Mike explained that due to the relative successes of the Millennium Development Goals in increasing access to primary education, the poorest children were completing primary but had no secondary school to continue their education.

John saw the need for low-cost, high-quality secondary schools in Uganda and was determined to make that a reality.

On his return to the UK, he immersed himself in education, taking part in the Teach First programme and teaching secondary-school maths for two years, whilst learning as much as he could about secondary school systems. He also managed to raise enough the money to build a secondary school in Uganda. The school was a success. It demonstrated that it was possible to expand access to affordable, quality, sustainably delivered secondary education.

On the back of the school’s success, John left the classroom, and in 2006 and dedicated himself to founding PEAS. During his 12 years at PEAS, the organisation grew to become Africa’s leading low-cost secondary school network with 28 schools across Uganda and Zambia. As PEAS Founder and CEO, John went on to win the Teach First Ambassador Award, an UnLtd Social Enterprise Award, a UK Charity Awards Rising Star CEO award and to become a member of the Courvoisier Future 500 and the Rockefeller Top One Hundred Next Century Innovators.

Since the beginning, John has been passionate about delegated leadership and responsibility something that is still the ethos of PEAS leadership today.

In 2018, John handed over the reins to Laura Brown to lead the organisation into its next chapter. John stepped into a consulting and non-executive career across international education and commercial start-ups. He is now Director of Grants at The Peter Cundill Foundation.

Laura has been PEAS CEO since June 2018. She joined the PEAS team in Uganda as an education specialist in 2010 when the organisation was in its early stages.

A key player in PEAS’ rapid growth over the last decade, Laura has been involved in all aspects of the organisation’s work from school- level teacher training and community engagement, overseeing the expansion of PEAS to Zambia and the development of strategic partnerships with Ministries of Education and institutional donors.

Before working at PEAS, Laura worked as a secondary school teacher in the UK (qualifying through the TeachFirst programme) and has teaching experience in low-cost private schools in Rwanda, India and Thailand.

Laura was educated at Oxford University and gained her masters in Educational Leadership from the University of Warwick where she specialised in school leadership development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Richard is PEAS’ Chief Operating Officer and joined PEAS in 2014.

As COO, Richard’s role is to ensure PEAS can deliver our strategic plan through operational excellence that is driven by an amazing team which is diverse, equitable and inclusive. Richard oversees PEAS’ operations function including finance, people and culture, and grant management to support the effective and efficient delivery of programmes.

Richard started as a Teach First science teacher in a London secondary school, which instilled a lifelong commitment to ensuring all children can benefit from a quality education. Before joining PEAS, Richard spent four years at Teach For All in several roles including a period as Head of Partner Engagement for Europe, managing support to 10 country partner organisations and supporting new partners to join the network.

Having been born and brought up in Zambia, Richard was then thrilled to join PEAS in 2014 to help the organisation expand access to quality education across Africa. He has overseen the launch of 10 PEAS schools, the delivery of key Girls’ Education Challenge and FCDO grants, and PEAS’ response to the Covid pandemic.

Richard passionately believes that every child deserves the right to a quality education. Simply put, he thinks making sure this is achieved is the most important work in the world.

Sibeti Msariri is PEAS’ Global Senior Finance Manager and joined PEAS in 2022.

As GSFM, Sibeti’s role is to lead and coordinate all PEAS’ global financial processes ensuring strong financial management, championing value for money and sustainability across the organization with a strong focus on building financial models, systems, tools, and financial controls to drive strong financial performance, impact, and providing quality assurance of financial information to support scale and enable data driven decision making.

Sibeti has a wealth of financial management experience across multiple sectors. He has led finance teams at various organisations in a number of African countries, served as CFO driving expansion at fast growing start-up hospitality enterprise, and most recently held the Finance Director role at the NGO Spark Microgrants. In that role he spearheaded the development of finance strategy across 3 countries and provided executive level finance direction, strategy and counsel to senior leadership while working closely with the Finance and Audit Committee of the Board.

Sibeti holds a Bachelor of Accounting Honors Degree and is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA). He’s passionate about educating youths and kids and believes education is the catalyst for change, empowerment and development at an individual, national and global level.

Unia joined the PEAS team in 2018 and was appointed Head of School Network in Uganda in 2024. As Head of School Network, Unia is responsible for ensuring the delivery of high-quality education across the PEAS network of schools. She is a dedicated and experienced professional with a background in leading educational initiatives and partnerships.

With her strong passion for education and organisational management, she has demonstrated expertise in managing teams and driving impactful change within the education sector. Her focus on stakeholder engagement, programme management, and fostering positive learning environments has enabled her to effectively lead and support school improvement initiatives.

Through her unique ability to coordinate diverse teams and manage substantial budgets, she has been instrumental in achieving strategic goals and ensuring operational efficiency.

Before joining PEAS, Unia oversaw the delivery of quality vocational skills training among the Street and Slum Youth and led programme implementation across various regions of Uganda while working with Educate! Uganda.

Unia is committed to driving educational excellence and making a lasting impact in the lives of students and the communities we serve.