People
About Colin
Colin has proven experience in business development, strategic marketing, corporate governance, impact investing and fundraising. He has worked in each of these disciplines both theoretically and in practice for more than 20 years in the US, UK, Europe and Southern Africa.
His client engagements include executive level negotiation and project completion with enterprises, SMEs, government and civil society organisations. He has played a role in key stages of the tech business lifecycle from startup through scaling growth in the finance, property, marketing and media sectors. Colin has focussed his career on serving organisations with one common feature – clear intent to create positive social and/or environmental impact.
He has contributed to a variety of industry and media reviews and presented at conferences across the world on investment, analytics, fundraising, and strategic communications and the perspectives they bring to business and social systems.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa, a member of the South African Institute of Fundraisers, and serves on the boards of a number of for-purpose organisations.
Marsé Kirsten
About Marsé
Marsé completed her degree in Accounting, as well as her Postgraduate Certificate in Education, at Stellenbosch University, thereby combining her passions. She leverages her experience in education and languages with her unique expertise in accounting and mathematics.
Marsé is very adaptable and has explored a diverse range of work experiences and contexts to inform a unique perspective on the world. These work experiences always have people and social impact at the centre. She has been involved in various different projects across the impact management and measurement space, through which the main goal is optimization and maximization of positive impact.
Marsé is a self-motivated, hardworking and professional person with a passion for helping people reach their full potential.
About Kerry
Kerry is a Consultant for Relativ Impact with a mutual love for both business strategy and managing social impact.
With over 15 years experience in multidisciplinary industries that have grown and shaped her business administration and communication skills, it is her experience in both fields of commerce and most recently, the impact industry, that has been most formative to her skills development.
Kerry believes that bridging the gap between the bottom-line and stakeholder wellbeing is the secret to both operational success and sustainability. With a love for people, innovation and excellence, she prioritises relationship-building, trust and integrity in all engagements, and she brings enthusiasm and a strategic social focus to the team. Currently busy with her Advanced Research Methodology course from the University of Johannesburg, this will feed into her Masters in Social Impact Assessment, which she will pursue in 2025.
Advisors and Associates
Sarah Nielsen
About Sarah
Sarah leads Relativ’s operations in North America as well as projects with clients and partners globally.
Before joining Relativ, Sarah held various management positions at organizations, mainly youth development focused, in Canada and across Southern Africa. Her educational background is in international development and fundraising management.
Sarah has experience in multiple levels and areas of social sector management including project development, impact measurement, fundraising, and communications. She is the Campaign Chair for one of the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka’s endowment funds and is leading the development of an Impact Measurement and Management Community of Practice for the Canada Forum for Impact Investment and Development.
Having served a diverse range of stakeholders from around the world, Sarah is dedicated to advancing creative approaches to development through sustainable resource mobilization.
Nicole Twomey
About Nicole
Nicole has a drive for having a positive influence on people and planet. From a young age, she developed a love towards the environment and carried that across into her studies. She completed a Bachelor’s of Science in Biodiversity and Ecology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Development at Stellenbosch University. She has a particular interest in climate change and corporate social responsibility. These interests promoted a specific focus towards integrating sustainable principles within the business realm to help mitigate climate change impact.
Nicole cares deeply about these passions and strives for creating a difference, which has led to her becoming a strong, determined individual. As a creative person, this has helped her to think critically and creatively when it comes to problem-solving. She takes a special interest in learning from the people around her and looks to absorb that knowledge along with her skills to help contribute towards her work.
Gabrielle Habberton
About Gabrielle
Gabrielle is the Co-Founder of the Relativ Group and a specialist in Socio-economic Development and Impact Management. Gabrielle has been working across the social investment continuum for over a decade. She has been involved in each aspect of the life cycle of impact-driven organizations, the investors that support them and the contexts in which they operate to enhance innovative and sustainable solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.
Gabrielle completed her formal education, which culminated in a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies, at the University of Cape Town. Gabrielle has since played leading roles in a number of pioneering organisations and projects primarily operating in Southern Africa.
Gabrielle’s work has included areas such as research and analysis; government policy co-creation and design; development of impact management and measurement processes and practices (from theory of change to impact reporting and learning); impact assessment and due diligence of social and impact investments (including a number of evaluations of Jobs Fund investments); deployment and management of impact capital; strategic and product development and planning; and guest lecturing on Masters and Executive education courses.
Kirsty Dewrance
About Kirsty
Kirsty has been with the Relativ team from the start in 2009. Living in Norhtern KZN in the heart of Zululand, by qualification she is a veterinary nurse, ballet and swimming teacher and dog trainer.
She has worked as a freelance graphic and web designer since 2007 and contributes to our Relativ team with all things visual.
About Fiona
Fiona is passionate about projects that use a social-ecological lens and strive to strike a balance between addressing social well-being needs and environmental
conservation. She believes this is essential for the achievement of SDGs at all scales as people are interconnected with the environment. She holds a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Geographical Information Science and Earth Observation from
the University of Zimbabwe, and also completed a Master of Philosophy degree in Sustainable Development Planning and Management at Stellenbosch University. Through her background in the GIS and Sustainable Development fields Fiona has a wide range of skills such as data collection and analysis, research and training
facilitation to mention a few.
She envisions a future in which human well-being needs of all social groups are met using environmentally sustainable measures. Fiona is fascinated by new experiences and problem-solving tasks, as this provides her with opportunities to learn and
acquire new skills.
About Megan
Megan completed a Bachelor’s of Science in Conservation Ecology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Development at Stellenbosch University. Her love of conservation started from a young age and has grown through the years, and was then cemented by her studies.
She is passionate about the connection between the natural environment and human beings, and finding ways for both to work in harmony. Megan loves to learn and experience new things, and she believes that any challenge is a good challenge.
About Chris
Chris is a Computer Science educator who has a passion for developing future problem solvers by incorporating code into foundational education. He believes that programming is not only a vital skill that all people should understand, but that the true value is in developing computational thinkers.
Computational thinking is a powerful problem solving strategy which has the power to unlock the door to gritty problem solvers who will impact the future by addressing world problems.
Chris believes in looking at a problem and identifying a solution that can be implemented at its grass-root level. This is why he focused on creating an educational strategy that starts at the earliest level of schooling. He spent time researching, developing and sourcing tools that will supplement the teaching of computational thinking across all year levels which culminated in the establishment of a hands-on research project call ‘incode’ in 2017.
The incode project is designed to bring computational thinking to children’s foundational learning and to develop a clear path of progressive development throughout their schooling career through professional development for teachers and outsourced after-school programmes.
Outside of education, Chris has developed a number of full-stack solutions to address specific needs within schools and businesses. He enjoys creating computational solutions for everyday problems by combining his expertise in software development and database architecture.
About Fiona
Fiona is a media professional by training, holding a Bachelors in Journalism from Rhodes University, and has worked in diverse capacities for magazines, newspapers and television. After completing a couple of development-focused courses through UNISA, Fiona moved her focus to the non-profit sphere. She went on to head up the Content and Communications department of a well-established education-focused non-profit, gold Youth Development Agency. After graduating from Iris Global Leaders School in the USA, she co-pioneered an outreach project for at-risk women in California, and went on to direct Iris Leaders School, gaining valuable leadership and administrative experience. She is currently based in Varanasi, India.
About Jessica-Leigh
Jessica is passionate about social research, especially research related to gender,
education, mental health, and race. Since completing a masters degree in research
psychology in 2020, Jessica has been able to focus in on these areas of interest, while also
developing monitoring and evaluation skills, expanding her research methodology
knowledge, and gaining practical experience working with NGOs to develop and strengthen
their impact monitoring and research capacities.
Having worked with NGOs across Africa, Jessica is passionate about cross-country research
and interdisciplinary learning. She is always keen to engage with new people, and she
enjoys the flexibility and variety that consulting work offers.
Bill Toliver
About Bill
After two decades developing leadership, branding, and communications programs for Fortune 500 clients like Westin Hotels and Hewlett Packard, Bill founded The Matale Line to offer more innovative thinking to social impact organizations.
With a global reputation as a transformational change agent, his work has helped some of the world’s most consequential nonprofits, foundations, education and social enterprise organizations reframe their approach to strategic decision-making, resource development, and advocacy communications. He is privileged to have worked with organizations across a broad spectrum of social issues, and has a strong pedigree in public and private education institutions in the U.S.
Bill grew up in the developing world, and his desire to effect change is deeply rooted in his childhood experiences. Coupled with a degree in systems engineering he has a unique ability to help guide organizations through challenging times. He has served on boards of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, and currently serves as board chair of The Resource Alliance—a global nonprofit committed to transformational change in the social impact sector. Bill is a widely sought-after speaker for his unique perspective and compelling approach to storytelling.
Elvira van Hooff
About Elvira
Elvira is a seasoned strategic fundraising and change communications professional based in The Netherlands. Having lived and worked in various countries in Europe, Asia and Africa, she has a broad and international perspective on making social impact. Elvira’s work includes strategic fundraising and philanthropy advice, social impact management & measurement and organisational change management.
She strongly believes that creating a meaningful dialogue is key in connecting people and indispensable when aiming for behavioral change in society. This insight originates from over two decades working in corporate and change communications in the global maritime industry and hospital health sector, as well as many years as a professional fundraiser and philanthropy advisor for Doctors without Borders (MSF) and the Red Cross.
Elvira built successful strategic donor partnerships to support the international work of Doctors without Borders in The Netherlands and southern Africa. As Head of Philanthropy for MSF Southern Africa, she made a major contribution to the research report, The Duality of Giving: Contemporary Perspectives on Formalized African Philanthropy which studies what drives African philanthropists to give to social causes and how ancient concepts such as Ubuntu relate to formalized giving.
David Phipson
About David
David is an educator, learning specialist, and tactician with nearly two decades of experience in education and people development. Over the years, he has collaborated on diverse learning projects across various industries, including insurance, financial services, education, healthcare, telecoms, packaging, and fast-moving consumer goods. This wide-ranging experience has given him a holistic understanding of the learning and development domain.
David prides himself on designing innovative, cutting-edge solutions to learning challenges. His contributions to the field have been recognised globally, notably winning the Global Learning Experience Design Sprint in 2020.
He holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a Certificate of Instructional Design from the University of Witwatersrand.