Board Member Opportunities

Summary

The Flowminder Foundation is looking to appoint new board members to ensure we have the skills, capacity and diversity to oversee the next phase of our development. We seek individuals excited by the prospect of improving the lives of millions of vulnerable people in low- and middle-income countries through the use of novel data sources and high-quality science. We are looking for individuals who can make important contributions to the organisation in coaching and leadership, business management, ethics and in creating high-value partnerships. 

We will advertise for several specific roles on this web page one by one on a rolling basis. This advert seeks to describe the roles we are envisioning to advertise for as well as to open the opportunity for individuals who do not fit these roles exactly to get in touch. 

Board members are expected to attend six board meetings per year, and to participate in the life of the organisation between board meetings, including advising the staff team and acting in an ambassadorial role for the Flowminder Foundation. The total expected contribution per board member is on average 1 day per month.

Our board meetings are online and participation is remote. Board members can be located anywhere in the world.

About the Flowminder Foundation

Flowminder is a Swedish operational, non-profit foundation with 38 staff across our three offices in Stockholm (Sweden), Southampton (UK) and Geneva (Switzerland), with team members in Africa and the Caribbean. 

Flowminder seeks to improve population well-being among vulnerable people in LMICs by providing high-value decision support through data science in the development and humanitarian sectors. Flowminder uses new types of large-scale digital data sources, such as de-identified mobile operator data and satellite data, combined with traditional population surveys and robust data science to develop and implement solutions that can positively impact the lives of millions of people. 

Flowminder was founded in 2012, building on pioneering work by Drs. Bengtsson, Lu and Tatem, to use de-identified mobile operator data to monitor and predict population displacement after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and to understand population mobility to assess malaria transmission dynamics between Zanzibar and the Tanzanian mainland in 2008. 

Flowminder has since expanded to work with mobile operators and to support governments, intergovernmental and national organisations across a number of sectors and countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. Flowminder has also developed several additional pioneering data products based on data sources other than mobile operator data. The organisation is currently scaling services to support the placement of public services in LMICs and improve the sampling of household surveys (www.gridsample.org).

Flowminder is active in a number of countries, including Haiti, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.

Flowminder receives grants and sells commercial services within its focus areas. Flowminder’s largest donors and clients include the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the US Centers for Disease Control, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the International Organisation of Migration, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), UK FCDO, Swiss FDFA and the World Bank. The organisation’s work has been featured in media such as New York Times, Financial Times, The Economist, CBS, Le Monde and many others.

What we are looking for

We are looking to create a strong board team to support the scaling of our impact through new partnerships with end-user organisations, mobile operators, and funders, as well as to expand the success of our commercial products and increase their value to end-users.

We are interested in applications from skilful individuals who can help us towards the above. We are especially interested in applications from individuals with the backgrounds below. Advertisements and selection for these roles will be made in 2023 and 2024 but we welcome anyone interested to get in touch already now. 

1. Individuals with senior finance experience, having worked as CFO or in similar positions, who can act as treasurer and guide Flowminder’s financial strategies and operations. (Position filled)
2. Individuals with senior experience in development or humanitarian organisations, with good connections to end-users and donors who can support business development, product and programme design. 
3. Individuals with senior experience as CEO or in similar roles in tech-focused companies who can advise on the efficient running of our business units, how to best prioritise in scaling our work and how to improve the success of our existing and future products. 
4. Individuals with senior experience at mobile operators, especially in low- and middle-income countries, with a deep understanding of the needs and internal workings of mobile operators who are able to support the development of Flowminder’s business models and partnerships with operators, as well as supporting Flowminder’s managerial development.

Individuals with senior expertise in ethical and legal issues regarding data, data analysis and data sharing, ideally in development and humanitarian sectors.