Members of the board

Henriette Svarre Nielsen, MD DMSC, Professor at University of Copenhagen and Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Head of Recurrent Pregnancy Loss at Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre.

Henriette is Maternity Foundation’s Founder and Chairman of the Board. She pursued her dream, and family legacy of living and working in Ethiopia as a doctor. Her experiences working both at a fistula hospital in Addis and as an OB/GYN in Gimbie, Ethiopia, led her to convene a group of talented women from a variety of backgrounds to create Maternity Foundation when she returned to Copenhagen in 2005.

Ashwajit Singh is the Founder & Managing Director of IPE
Global, the largest social sector management consultancy firm in
South Asia. Headquartered in New Delhi, India with seven
international offices in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Myanmar,
Nepal, Philippines and United Kingdom, the company offers a range
of integrated, innovative and, high-quality consulting services
across several sector and practices. The company has 1100 plus
workforce and has successfully undertaken over 1000 assignments
with bilateral & multilateral agencies, governments, and private
sector in over 100 countries for clients like USAID, FCDO, World
Bank, ADB, JICA, WHO, UN agencies, EU etc. With an in-depth
presence in Africa, IPE Global plays a vital role in strengthening
Africa’s comparative advantage in achieving greater economic
diversification, supporting development initiatives and
acknowledges the critical role of south-south cooperation in achieving the goals of 2030 Agenda.
Ashwajit is also Chair, Triple Line Consulting (an IPE Global Group company), a UK based
international development consulting firm & Chair, Northern Chapter of Healthcare Federation of
India (NATHEALTH). As a mark of recognition and commitment of his work in the sector, Ashwajit has
won several awards like the Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award (2021); Distinguished Alumni
Award, Shri Ram College of Commerce from the (Late) Honorable Finance Minister of India, Shri
Arun Jaitley (2019); CA Business Leader (Global) Award by ICAI (2015); Global Punjabi Society
Achiever Award by Former Indian PM Dr. Manmohan Singh (2015) and, ranked in the Top 10 Global
CEOs in Consulting & Business Services (2017). An Inlaks Scholar, Ashwajit has over 30 years of
experience in the sector. A Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary (Gold Medalist, he is an
alumnus of Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Peter is a MSc from the Technical University of Denmark. He has extensive managerial experience from global and market leading high-tech companies. He is Chairman of FOSS A/S and Vice Chairman of William Demant Holding A/S respectively the Oticon Foundation and a member of several other boards.

Illa is CEO of the Foundation Ebbefos Fonden, which focuses on investing in projects on the mental health of young people. Before that Illa was CEO for 10 years in “Lær for Livet" (Learn for Life) - an initiative by the Egmont Foundation. Illa is co-writer of the book "Om at gøre en forskel" (Making a difference) published in 2012 at Gyldendal Business about social entrepreneurship in Denmark. Illa is former lawyer with the right to appear before the High Court. Illa contributes with particular expertise in social entrepreneurship, legal matters, fundraising, campaigns, communication and press.

Michael Halbye has been working with McKinsey & Company for 35 years. Among his responsibilities, Michael was in charge of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Michael has also been part of McKinsey's Global Board for 18 years. Furthermore, he is Chairman of Ludvig & Co, Board Member in the Mary Foundation, Penda (Ethiopia), 7N, Crown Prince Frederiks Foundation, Founder and Member of the Board in One Life Foundation and sits in WWF's Danish praesidium. Michael has a long and international experience with strategy, organizational development and fundraising.

Jimmy Maymann has more than 20 years of experience working in business, tech investments, digital media and advertising. Today, he is chairman of the Danish media company TV2 and the NGO start-up UNLive. Previously, Jimmy Maymann served as CEO of the digital media platform Huffington Post and as Executive Vice President and President of AOL Content and Consumer Brands.

Carina works for the Danish National Audit Office (Rigsrevisionen) where she works with performance auditing. Carina is MCs of Political Science from the University of Copenhagen and has been working with research, analysis and evaluation in different fields of the public administration.