Action Against Hunger Welcomes Four New Board Members to Help Scale Programs & Reach Even More People in Need

Action Against Hunger, a nonprofit leader in the movement to end hunger, today announced the appointment of four members of its U.S. Board of Directors. The appointees bring diverse personal and leadership experience along with a commitment to helping the organization reach more people in almost 50 countries by scaling proven hunger prevention and treatment programs, enhancing its operations, and exploring new partnerships that bring the sector together against hunger.

The new board members are:

• Ricardo Hernández is the founding partner and managing director of Royalhalo, a global network of produce growers, packers and distributors, where he leads operations, and business development. Originally from Mexico, Mr. Hernández brings 20 years of experience in operations and business development, which can help Action Against Hunger to serve more people even more efficiently.
• Anya Kuligina serves as Chief Marketing Officer at MuleSoft, a Salesforce company that helps teams create seamless digital experiences, products and services by connecting their applications, data, and devices. She is a 17-year veteran of Google, where she helped build and scale the company’s Ads and Cloud businesses. Ms. Kuligina can help Action Against Hunger advance its technology agenda.
• Julia Sherbakov leads Global Sustainability Education and Engagement at Arcadis, a 30,000-person infrastructure firm. Previously, she was a strategy consultant and consumer brand executive for Bain & Company, PepsiCo, Ross, and Expedia. Based in Rome, she brings expertise to help advance Action Against Hunger’s organizational strategy and focus on sustainability, including the intersection of climate and hunger.
• Robert Spatt is a retired partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where for 30 years he focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate and corporate governance advice to public and private companies and their boards of directors. His transactional corporate and legal experience can assist Action Against Hunger in advancing ongoing organizational development and partnership goals.

“I am thrilled to welcome four new colleagues onto Action Against Hunger’s Board,” said Raymond Debbane, the organization’s board chair and president and CEO of The Invus Group, LLC, a New York-based global investment firm. “With backgrounds in supply chain and logistics, advertising, brand strategy, and corporate law, these individuals will add tremendous value to the organization.”

“Our new class of Board Members will be instrumental in advancing Action Against Hunger’s critical, life-saving work as climate change, conflict, and other emergencies push families beyond the brink,” said Dr. Charles E. Owubah, Action Against Hunger’s CEO. “As 811 million people go to bed hungry every night, it is more important than ever to come together against hunger and ensure everyone has access to adequate food and water to realize a healthy future.”

The new appointments to the Board join existing members who include: Raymond Debbane (Chair), Thilo Semmelbauer (Co-Chair), Charles Owubah (Secretary and Chief Executive Officer), Christophe Duthoit (Treasurer), Jean-Pierre Chesse, Sylvain Desjonqueres, Burton K. Haimes (Chairman Emeritus) Yves-André Istel, Shabrina Jiva, Ketty Pucci-Sisti Maisonrouge, Amy Schulman,  Karim Tabet, Sandra Tamer, and David Van Zandt.

Action Against Hunger has been recognized for the strong governance practices of its board of directors and executive team, including through 15 consecutive 4-star ratings from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity evaluator. This is the highest level of recognition, reflecting the organization’s sound fiscal management and commitment to accountability and transparency.