TechLab @ FHI 360

At FHI 360, a 4,300-person nonprofit working in some 70 countries, I merged existing technology departments and recruited new talent to found and direct the TechLab – the unit responsible for technology and innovation strategy across the organization's global portfolio.

TechLab ran on a combination of grant funding and earned revenue, unusual for an internal NGO unit: it had to win the work from FHI 360 colleagues around the world and deliver value, not simply spend a budget. The unit grew to 13 people. Its product managers reported to me, some of them leading teams of two or three people, and I managed its seven-person team of open-source software developers. Over time it raised more than $7 million in total and shipped open-source tools used in more than 60 countries, from agricultural advisory platforms to fisheries market systems.

The unit established FHI 360's Technology for Development practice as a lasting capability rather than a series of grant-funded experiments – the same institution-building instinct behind everything else in this portfolio.