Martina Hibell has worked with international, child focused development, within different organizations since 2017, whereof eight years at Barnfonden. She is motivated by the possibility to support change in contexts where change appears impossible, and to find the key factors that need to be interlinked in order for this to happen.

As a Program Director she has been the head of organizational changes for a stronger and better development work. Martina believes in partnerships and has strengthened Barnfonden’s relations both with country offices and donors.

Her focus now will be to continue finding new and innovative collaborations with different kinds of actors in order to jointly contribute to a safer world for children.

Kevin Hyland OBE is a renowned international specialist in the fight against modern slavery and human trafficking. In 2014, Kevin was appointed as the UK’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner by Theresa May, serving with distinction, before stepping down to undertake his role as CEO with ChildFund Ireland in July 2018. 

Prior to his role as Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Kevin was head of the London Metropolitan Police’s Human Trafficking Unit, which was internationally recognized for developing best practice in anti-trafficking operations. He has over 30 years’ experience of investigating serious and organized crime and was successful in securing convictions of international organized crime groups behind some of the most challenging cases of slavery and trafficking.

In 2015, Kevin was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.), acknowledging his outstanding service in combating human trafficking. Kevin was also instrumental in the establishment of the Santa Marta Group, a high-level strategic partnership between international law enforcement agencies, the Catholic Church and civil society, which was launched by Pope Francis at the Vatican in April 2014.

Kevin is also Chairperson of "The Human Trafficking and Exploitation Project in Ireland," a project established to identify, collate, create and analyze databases relating to information on the scale and scope of human trafficking into and within the island of Ireland.

Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KevinHyland.jpg#filelinks:KevinHyland.jpg#filelinks

Margaret Sheehan is CEO of ChildFund Australia, an independent international development organisation that works to reduce poverty for children in developing communities.               

Previous to this role, Margaret spent four years as ChildFund Australia’s International Program Director, overseeing the development and implementation of child-focused development  programs in the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to joining ChildFund, Margaret held senior international roles with UNICEF and the World Health Organisation.

With a Masters in Public Health, Margaret has over two decades of experience in managing international development programs and personnel in field office. 

Joern studied theology in Göttingen and Heidelberg. He started his professional career working in various roles for the International Society for Human Rights in Frankfurt (1981 - 1990). He continued as a fundraiser for World Vision in Germany (1991-1995) and then as director of social marketing with the Christliches Jugenddorfwerk Deutschlands (1996 - 2000). He joined ChildFund Deutschland in 2001 as managing director and was appointed CEO of the organization in 2007. He served as a director of the ChildFund Alliance from its foundation in 2001 until 2008, and was a member of the Alliance´s Executive Committee from 2005 to 2007.

Joern is married to Susanne; the couple has six children, including an adopted son from Afghanistan.