Leadership Team

RealtimeAid’s leadership have unique skills sets and expertise which when brought together makes for a dynamic, and innovative team - leaving absolutely no space for group-think.

Meet Tarek Alsaleh, entrepreneur and Founder, RealtimeAid. A German with an Arabic name and Syrian heritage. He set up the first capoeira sports project in Syria, and went on to grow it into an international entity. Check out his words of wisdom here.

Meet Manish Panjabi, Director, Finance, British with Indian heritage, his extensive years in senior charitable finance roles means he knows the very bones and sinew of how the aid sector operates. He has also set-up his own app solution to charitable finance.

Meet Cham Fernando, Director, Due Diligence, Accountability, and Localisation, Canadian with Sri-Lankan heritage, his entire career has been spent in leadership roles mostly with UN organisations. His list of war zone work locations include Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Unfortunately, he understands the bureaucracy of aid inside and out, and knows different solutions are needed if we want to give meaningful aid to people who want to help their own communities.

Meet Steven Hein, Chief Technology Officer, American living in Germany, is a bioengineer turned computer scientist. He has spent over a decade developing solutions for social initiatives ranging from hospitals, restaurants to grassroots project. , whether as an employee, freelancer, or volunteer, he is dedicated to projects that help people on the frontline, think outside of the box to provide tools and technology that innovates. His ability to dissect aid concepts into plain language has been especially useful for the Team. See the Webapp he has been building here.

Meet Ummul Kadir Choudhury, co-Founder and Director, Fundraising, Marketing and Quality Control, a Londoner with Bengali heritage, she has been working with start-ups since 2009. Ummul wants to change how the current architecture of aid marginalises and disempowers too many people; see an article she wrote on aid, race, and needed systems change here.