Meet the secretariat

Meet the secretariat

Wednesday, 04 November 2009 14:22

Helen Marquard
Executive Director

Helen Marquard became the Executive Director of the SEED Initiative in 2007. Previously Helen was Deputy Director at the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), where she was responsible for a number of policy areas including international and European sustainable development, chemicals and biotechnology safety. Before that, Helen was the Deputy Head of the Environment Policy Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Helen’s academic background is in molecular biology and cancer research. Most of her work was on DNA repair mechanisms at the Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research in Cologne, and at the Technical University in Aachen, Germany.

Constance Hybsier
Programme Manager

Constance Hybsier has joined the SEED team in August 2009. Previously Constance was a Programme Officer with UNDP Viet Nam where she was responsible for the thematic areas human rights, anti-corruption and civil society. Before moving to Viet Nam she was part of the UNDP Bulgaria team working on Public Private Partnerships and the Global Compact and led UN Communications and UN reform efforts in FYR Macedonia. She also shortly worked on HIV/AIDS prevention in Sri Lanka and on environmental issues in Bhutan.

Constance has a degree in Anthropology from Goldsmiths College, London and a Masters Degree in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.

Amélie Heuër
Programme Manager

Amélie Heuër joined the SEED Initiative in June 2009 as the new Operations Assistant. Amélie worked for several years on marine conservation and coastal resources management in the Philippines, where she conducted and managed several socio-economic and livelihood research projects. While working for the NGO Coral Cay Conservation, she was also in charge of community development and initiated a few livelihood development projects. Previously she worked in London as Deputy Manager for the Author’s Licensing and Collecting Society to protect and promote the rights of authors.
Amélie has a Masters Degree (MSc) in Human and Development Geography, which she studied at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the University College of London (UCL).