Michael holds an MA and PhD from Oxford University and trained as a Catholic priest. Since 2010, he has worked for the growth of civil society and democracy in Myanmar, in which education plays a key role.

As well as Prospect Burma, Michael currently serves as a trustee and CEO of The Rangoon General Hospital Reinvigoration Charitable Trust. He is also a trustee of a global child protection charity, the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. He has frequently travelled to Myanmar to advance health and education projects in the country, especially for communities in Rakhine State.

In 2020 to early 2021, a key part of Michael’s role was supporting the creation of a new national education strategy for Myanmar, promoting higher education and digital learning as an opportunity for disadvantaged and under-served communities.

Martin Smith has researched and reported about Burma/Myanmar since the early 1980s for a variety of media, non-governmental and academic organisations. He is a graduate of London University and a post-graduate of the Institute of Education.

His publications include Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity, Ethnic Groups in Burma: Development, Democracy and Human Rights and Fatal Silence?: Freedom of Expression and the Right to Health in Burma. His television work includes the documentaries Dying for Democracy (Channel Four) and Forty Million Hostages (BBC).

Martin was also an independent expert member of the Three Diseases Fund board, supporting programmes to combat tuberculosis, malaria and HIV.

Caroline Courtauld is a writer, photographer and documentary film producer. Her publications include books on Burma, Hong Kong and China. She worked with Jonathan Dimbleby and Francis Gerard on the BBC documentary project, The Last Governor, while her latest documentary, Building China Modern, was broadcast as part of American Masters Series (PBS) for which she was Co-Executive Producer.

The widely acclaimed book The Forbidden City–The Great Within (Frances Lincoln, WW Norton, The Foreign Language Press in China), which Caroline co-authored with May Holdsworth, was a companion book to a lavish dramatized documentary (Discovery Channel).

Caroline’s first book on Myanmar, In Search of Burma (Frederick Muller), was published in 1984. Myanmar’s new regime in November 2011 led to several new projects, including Myanmar: Burma in Style (Odyssey and WW Norton) and many publications for the Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, most recently Myanmar: The Legacy 2011-2015.

Mathea Falco is President of Drug Strategies, a nonprofit research institute she created in 1993 with the support of major foundations. Ms Falco was Associate Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College Department of Public Health in New York from 2003–2010. From 1977 to 1981, Ms Falco was US Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters and head of the US delegation to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

A graduate of Radcliffe College and Yale Law School, Ms Falco has served on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, the Board of Trustees of Radcliffe College, and as Chair of the Visiting Committee on Harvard University Health Services.

Among other national organizations, she has served on the boards of Girl Scouts, USA; Big Brothers of America; the International Women’s Health Coalition; the Treatment Research Institute, and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.

Mathea is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Guy is a renowned actor, writer, theatre and television director and producer, as well as a drama teacher and member of various arts boards and committees.

Guy has keen links with South Asia. He was a reporter for an English language newspaper in Rangoon, and worked as a teacher/mentor in Karachi.

Guy was educated at Cambridge University. He founded the Horseshoe Theatre Company (now the Haymarket Theatre Company) in Hampshire. He produced many prime time dramas for the BBC, and also worked on disability-focussed programmes for Channel 4 and for theatre. His various fundraising and board roles include the One In Eight Committee which aims to increase the visibility of disability in the media.

Stephanie has managed development and emergency programs in South East Asia for over 15 years. She works in partnership with civil society groups and community-based organisations in Myanmar to build organisational and institutional capacity.

At Prospect Burma, she has been responsible for developing country program strategy, and for the evaluation of programmes.

Richard has spent 28 years in the financial services industry in Europe and the US. He is Chairman of various Boards including AgFe, a London-based financial services company, Skagen Conscience Capital, NetZeroAg and Alta Advisors. He is also a Board Member of Lioncourt Homes and Soros Economic Development Fund.

Richard’s impressive track record includes senior leadership positions with Lehman Brothers, and Morgan Stanley Financial Sponsors Group and European Leveraged Finance Group.

Richard is a board member of the not-for profit Media Development Investment Fund, which supports independent media in Myanmar. He is also a board member of several not-for-profits, and founder of the UK charity With Love All Things Are Possible which focuses on health and special needs education in Myanmar. Richard is a Trustee of several youth charities and Chairman of Eastside Young Leaders Academy.

Dr Joanna Barnard has over ten years of experience working to support Myanmar’s development across a range of sectors. 

Joanna graduated from the University of Cambridge with first class honours in Geography. She completed an MA and PhD at University of Nottingham, focusing on aspects of Myanmar’s healthcare delivery, economy, and governance.   

She spent three years living and working in Yangon, firstly in the Political Section of the EU Delegation to Myanmar, then as Research and Advisory Director for the Yangon office of an international business advisory firm focused on emerging markets. In this latter role she worked across real estate, construction, energy, and telecommunications. She has travelled extensively in the country and in the region.   

Joanna joined Prospect Burma in 2019, working as Development Lead to build new partnerships, develop programmes and diversify the organisation’s funding sources. In this time, she has managed projects funded by the ILO, UN agencies, USAID and the US Department of State. She took over as Executive Director in January 2023, managing the UK and local teams, leading on fundraising and providing strategic direction in the fast-changing post-coup environment. 

She is based between the UK and Thailand.

Our Programmes Manager is based just outside Myanmar. If you would like more information, please contact us at information@prospectburma.org.

Tahnee has a diverse career working within the charitable and publishing sectors. She spent seven years living in Myanmar, initially between 1997 to 2000, and latterly between 2012 to 2016, working at MMRD Publications. During her second visit, she also assisted in the foundation of the Rotary Club of Yangon.

Within the charity field, she has been involved in fundraising, project management and governance support at a number of international charities based in the UK as well as being a VSO Volunteer in Uganda.

Tahnee is trying to learn Burmese to conversational level!

Our Programmes Officer is based just outside Myanmar. If you would like more information, please contact us at information@prospectburma.org.

Our Finance & Programme Administrator is based just outside Myanmar. If you would like more information, please contact us at information@prospectburma.org.