Team Bios

Edward T. Jackson is President of E. T. Jackson and Associates Ltd. His current advisory, training, and research interests focus on the employment, gender, and community dimensions of climate finance and the energy transition in developing economies in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Europe. Dr. Jackson is an internationally recognized expert in ecosystem-building in sustainable and blended finance and gender lens investing, social-purpose business, impact management and measurement, local governance, program evaluation, community-based research, and community-university partnerships. He has advised the development cooperation programs of Australia, Canada, Denmark, and Switzerland; the Mastercard, McConnell and Rockefeller foundations; and the Caribbean Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, International Development Research Centre, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, United Nations Environment Program, UN Women, and the World Bank. An active, multi-disciplinary scholar, and former Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Public Affairs at Carleton University, his research has been cited in over 200 peer-reviewed social-science journals. Professor Jackson also serves as Senior Research Fellow at the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, Honorary Associate with the Institute of Development Studies, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa, and was Associate Editor of the Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment. He is a co-founder of the Canadian Forum on Impact Investment and Development, the Canadian Association of International Development Professionals, and the International Evaluation Academy. Originally trained in adult education and community development at the University of Toronto, Ted Jackson earned certification as a responsible investment professional from the UNPRI Academy and Responsible Investment Association of Canada.

A specialist in human rights education, gender equality, and civil society, Magda Seydegart is Principal of the firm. She has served as an evaluation, planning, and training consultant to Amnesty International-English Section, Global Affairs Canada, UNDP, UNESCO, and other governmental and non-governmental agencies. She was twice appointed to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal Panel. Her international overseas work has included assignments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, The Gambia, Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, The Philippines, and Taiwan. A former board member with Habitat for Humanity in the Ottawa region, she has strong interests in the social, cultural, and design dimensions of affordable housing for and with diverse communities. Ms. Seydegart has been honoured by both the Canadian and Ontario governments for her leadership in human and women’s rights. She works in English and French, and speaks Polish, as well.

Karim Harji serves as Director of Research of E. T. Jackson and Associates Ltd. and has played central roles in the firms major evaluations of the Convergence blended finance platform and the Rockefeller Foundation’s global impact Investing initiative and social enterprise work in Africa.  He is the Programme Director of the Oxford Impact Measurement Programme at the Said Business School, University of Oxford, and a Founding Partner at Mondiale Impact. Mr. Harji is also the Managing Director at Evalysis, which works with boards and management teams to clarify their impact aspirations and strategies; align their measurement and management approaches; and navigate the complexity of data and decisions. Mr. Harji has made influential contributions to advance knowledge and practice in social impact measurement and impact investing. He has published on industry trends and innovative practices; supported field-building initiatives to promote the value and integrity of impact measurement; and designed education and training programs across established and emerging markets. Mr. Harji is completing his D. Phil in impact management at Oxford University.

Dr. Beaulieu has served as a Senior Associate of E.T. Jackson and Associates since 1996. She brings over 25 years of consulting experience in gender equality, programme evaluation and knowledge mobilization in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.  She has proven skills in mixed-methods and feminist research and evaluation design, participatory training, results-based management, theory of change analysis, focus-group facilitation, and online survey design and implementation. From 2019 to 2023, she was part of the firm’s team that engaged in a series of gender-lens investing (GLI) assignments in the Caribbean for the Caribbean Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and UN Women. These included organizational capacity development for the Development Bank of Jamaica, Development Finance Corporation of Belize, and Saint Lucia Development Bank; GLI training for the regional UN Women’s Office; and focused support to DFC Belize to accelerate and broaden the impact of its products and services for women entrepreneurs. In 2022, Dr. Beaulieu provided support to a large Canadian NGO for the design of an integrated program in response to the challenges brought about by the triple nexus of gender inequalities, climate change and conflict on women and girls through integrated approaches. Issues related to the triple nexus have in the past been addressed in pairs (gender-peacebuilding, gender-climate change, peacebuilding-climate change). In 2020, she led a team that carried out a needs assessment for feminist evaluations at Global Affairs Canada. Denise Beaulieu holds a Ph.D. in Administrative Sciences from Université Laval in Québec and is fluent in French and English.

Vijay Badhani is a Senior Associate with E. T. Jackson & Associates Ltd.. He brings to the firm over a decade of experience in supporting government policy formulation, business research, program design, fundraising, strategic planning, and project management. As an Associate Director at PwC, and later KPMG, Vijay led multi-functional teams in the execution of socio-economic transformation programs with annual budgets exceeding a billion dollars, while working closely with government organisations, private enterprises, financial institutions, research organisations, international development agencies and other key stakeholders. Subsequently, he was a part of the leadership team at Precision Development, a US based global nonprofit working on advancing sustainable agriculture, gender equality and education in South Asia, Sub Saharan Africa and Latin America. Lately, Vijay has been active at the intersection of climate, agriculture, gender, innovative finance and technology, and collaborates with nonprofits, social enterprises, international development organisations, corporate foundations, impact investors, and startups to co-create impactful programs, raise money and establish global alliances. He also advises environment focused startups and nonprofits using digital platforms, remote sensing, blockchain and artificial intelligence on product, strategy and partnerships. Vijay has an undergraduate degree in computer engineering, a masters in international business and a masters in engineering focused on innovation. He has worked or studied in India, Canada, UK, Singapore, UAE and Saudi Arabia. 

Hamidya Ismaila, Senior Associate of the firm, has over 23 years of experience in finance and investments and over 16 years of experience in venture capital and private equity investing. She is currently the Chief Executive officer of Savannah Impact Advisory (SIA), a fund management company specializing in private equity/venture capital fund structuring, fund management, and impact investing advisory. Savannah is currently managing the first private sector-led fund of funds, the Ci-Gaba (Progress) Fund. Ci-Gaba is a blended finance vehicle established to invest in Managers investing across West Africa in impact sectors aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Prior to SIA, she worked as the General Manager of Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF), a government-backed fund of funds where she oversaw the investments and general operations of the Trust. She also managed the Venture Capital Trust Fund Technical Assistance Facility, which is designed to support emerging fund managers and build the capacity of investee companies. Ms. Ismaila is a member of the Governing Council for the Ghana Alternative Exchange (a second-tier listing platform for SMEs on the Ghana Stock Exchange), an Investment Committee member for the Mastercard Africa Growth Fund, a member of the Governing Council of the Star Ghana Foundation and a member of the Gender Lens Advisory Board of the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA). She is a former member of the Board of Trustees for the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing in London. She is a Fellow of the 2019 Class of the Aspen Finance Leaders Fellowship and a Member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Ms. Ismaila holds an executive certificate in private equity and venture capital from Harvard Business School, a Master’s of Public Administration from Columbia University, a BBA (Sum Cum Laude) from Monroe College, and an LLB degree from GIMPA Law School.

Brian Rowe is Senior Associate with the firm, specializing in NGO and social enterprise management and gender equality. His current research and advisory interests include civil society and sustainable development in Southeast Asia, effective models of basic income provision in the Global North and South, and the role of artificial intelligence in non-governmental organizations. Mr. Rowe has had a distinguished career in international development, NGO management, rural development, and gender equality in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. He directed the firm’s provincial governance project in Vietnam, served as a gender specialist on its microfinance project in Bangladesh, and led its evaluation of a major global human rights institution. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rowe held various management and program positions with the Canadian NGOs Cuso and Inter Pares and served as a community development officer with Algonquin College in Eastern Ontario. He has worked in 30 countries around the world.

Kizzann Sammy is a Senior Associate with the firm specializing in gender equality, economic development, citizen security and poverty reduction.  She has served as a senior consultant for Jackson and Associates assignments on gender mainstreaming with the Caribbean Development Bank and development finance institutions in Belize, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia, and on women’s voice and leadership programming with Global Affairs Canada. Ms. Sammy has 20 years of experience in planning, implementing, and evaluating development projects in the Caribbean, and has served as project manager of major initiatives in land administration and municipal economic development.  A member of the Canadian Association of International Development Professionals, she has earned certifications in emergency disaster communications and combating money laundering. Passionate about community empowerment and ethical leadership, she is a volunteer board member with RESET Society of Calgary and SHIFT!Caribbean. Ms. Sammy holds an MBA in economic crime and fraud management from Utica College and an MA in international development from the University of Denver.  She divides her time between Calgary and Port of Spain.

Katie Turner is Senior Associate with the firm. She is an independent consultant with over 15 years of experience in impact investment, gender lens investing (GLI), gender-smart technical assistance, ecosystem development, blended finance, gender-climate nexus, evaluation and program design and development. She is passionate about shifting systems of finance to be more equitable in order to create positive and sustainable change. Ms. Turner’s expertise builds on her deep experience across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Africa and Asia, collaborating with a range of stakeholders including impact investors—private investors, development finance institutions, and national development banks—as well as accelerators, governments, think tanks, economic development organizations and ecosystem builders. She has advised Global Affairs Canada, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, Criterion Institute and 2X Global. She works with investors and other development finance stakeholders to integrate a gender lens throughout the investment process to contribute to gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. Ms. Turner also has deep expertise designing and implementing inclusive market systems economic development programs to support MSMEs led by women and other marginalized groups. She co-authored the Gender Equality Mainstreaming Framework, an SME investment tool which supports companies to be more gender transformative. Ms. Turner is an active member of the Canadian Forum for Impact Investment and Development.  She has worked in over 20 countries across LAC, Africa and Asia and is fluent in English and has advanced Spanish skills. She holds an Honours BA in economics and a Postgraduate Degree in international development. 

Jacob Jackson serves Jackson and Associates as an Advisor on finance, technology, and climate.  He is an expert in starting, scaling, and sustaining businesses that prioritize the health of the planet. An angel investor, he has invested in 12 software companies that focus on climate tech and B2B services. He is currently on leave from his position as Head of Growth at Mammoth Climate, which engages the power of employees at major companies to protect and sustain the planet. He was previously Chief Revenue Officer at MedStack, a health-tech start-up, growing the business to over $10M in revenue.  Mr. Jackson also has field experience as a healthcare volunteer at a regional hospital and in a remote community in northern Ghana. He earned a master’s degree in entrepreneurship and engineering at McMaster University and an undergraduate honours degree in physics from the University of British Columbia. He has strong quantitative analytic and financial modeling skills

Kennisyn Longford-Daum has worked as a Researcher at E.T. Jackson and Associates Ltd. since October 2022. In this capacity, she has provided research support for a variety of projects, including the firm’s gender assessment of Global Affairs Canada’s climate finance portfolio; a follow-on assignment preparing a series of tip sheets for GAC on advancing gender equality through climate finance; a comparative review of GAC’s global program on mitigating ocean plastics pollution; technical assistance and training on improved strategies and products for increased lending to women entrepreneurs for the Development Finance Corporation of Belize and the Inter-American Development Bank; and the provision of technical advice on the design of an impact management and measurement system and metrics for the Ci Gaba (Progress) fund of funds in West Africa for Impact Investing Ghana. In other roles outside the firm, she has supported the work of non-profits and Canada and the United States on grassroots community organizing, human rights, and labour rights, and with Canadian political organizations at the provincial and municipal levels. Ms Longford-Daum holds an honours Bachelor’s degree in public affairs and management with a specialization in rights and human development and a minor in political science from Carleton University, where she graduated with High Distinction in 2023. She was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts in the United Kingdom. 

Sonja Vanek has served as secretary and website coordinator for Jackson and Associates for more than 25 years. She has provided administrative support to the firm’s major projects in all parts of the world. She is familiar with the reporting, publishing, and communications systems of a wide range of clients, including Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Global Affairs Canada, the Caribbean Development Bank, Ci Gaba Fund of Funds, Danish Foreign Ministry, Development Finance Corporation of Belize, Digital Opportunity Trust, Emerging Markets Impact Investment Fund, Impact Investing Ghana, Inter-American Development Bank, German Institute for Development Evaluation, Mastercard Foundation, McConnell Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, United Nations Environment Program, World Bank, WUSC, and other government agencies, think tanks, and non-governmental organizations. Ms. Vanek’s expertise is in word processing, desktop publishing, website management, and graphics. She is responsible for the formatting and production of the firm’s documents and reports, and the system maintenance and content coordination of the company website.

CURRENT NEWS	ABOUT	Contact Information
Company Boards Should Focus on Substance, Not Signaling March 7, 2025 Replicating Gender Incentives in Climate Finance March 7, 2025 Celebrating Enduring Partnerships March 3, 2025 $3B for Women’s Small Businesses February 26, 2025	E.T. Jackson and Associates is an international management consulting firm providing strategic planning, organizational learning, and performance assessment services in sustainable development to grant-makers and investors in the public interest in developed and emerging economies.	We are located at: E.T. Jackson and Associates Ltd. 117 Crichton Street Apartment 1 Ottawa Ontario K1M 1V8 Canada Tel: + 613 296 9934 E-mail: etjackson@etjackson.com