A team of deminers use metal detectors in a field in Nagorno Karabakh

Leadership team

Since our small beginnings over 35 years ago, the HALO family has grown to employ over 9,000 staff around the world.

In the countries where we work, we become part of the local community, training and employing men and women from the communities we serve. We create jobs in places where opportunities are often scarce and our local staff make up 95% of our total workforce. Find out more about where we work.

Our headquarters are in the beautiful Scottish hills of Dumfries and Galloway. We also have offices in Salisbury, UK, and across the Atlantic in Washington DC.

"HALO is committed to making the world a safe place. We clear mines to stop people from being killed and wounded. We restore land for farming and other livelihoods and we restore confidence in countries devastated by war. I am proud of HALO's men and women, many of whom come from villages and towns living with landmines, who work everyday in pursuit of this goal."
James Cowan, CEO, HALO

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
James Cowan was a soldier. He joined The Black Watch from Oxford in 1986, serving in Berlin, Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Hong Kong. He helped plan the Kosovo operation in 1999, and he commanded in Iraq in 2004 and 2006. He planned the military Olympic security operation of 2012. In 2015 he become HALO's CEO.

James Cowan

Chief Operating Officer
Adam joined HALO in 2008 and worked on operations in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar, Georgia, Afghanistan, Mozambique and Ukraine before moving to HALO's Washington office as Executive Director in 2016. His focus moved back to operations in 2019 when he joined the Capability department, and he was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2025.

Before joining HALO, Adam worked as a journalist at the British Broadcasting Corporation. He has studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Tbilisi State University and King's College London.

Adam Jasinski

Chief Strategy Officer
Rob joined the Army from Cambridge and served for 35 years. He was an operational soldier for most of his career, serving on operations in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan. He then became more of a soldier diplomat working in the British Embassy in Paris and then as the Administrator of the UK's Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus. After a spell running a communications coaching and training consultancy in London he worked as an adviser, mostly in Africa. He joined HALO as Chief Strategy Officer in April 2025.

Rob Thomson

Chief Finance Officer
Mick joined HALO as Director of Finance in April 2017 and brings a wealth of public, private and not for profit experience to the organisation, including Finance, Project Management, Systems Development, Logistics and ICT. Mick is a keen weekend golfer and enjoys spending time with his young family.

Mick Darby

Executive Director, HALO USA
Chris Whatley joined HALO in June 2019. Prior to HALO, Chris served as Executive Director of the United Nations Association of the United States. Chris previously served as Deputy Executive Director of The Council of State Governments (CSG) and began his career as a field-based officer for the International Republican Institute (IRI), leading programs in Liberia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

Chris Whatley

DIRECTORS

Director of Strategy
Ruth joined HALO in 2018 as Head of Partnerships and became Director of Strategy in 2022. Based in Scotland, Ruth manages the team that oversees HALO's government relationships and advocacy. This includes increasing engagement with new donors, connecting with local partners and maximising academic research.

Before HALO Ruth held senior HR roles, most recently with Oxfam, where she provided HR leadership for Oxfam’s work in the Middle East and North Africa region. Ruth has an MA in Human Resource Management from Oxford Brookes University and is a Chartered member of CIPD.

Ruth Jackson

Global Head of Strategic Communications
Louise has worked in the media and charity communications for 25 years, starting her career at BBC Radio Scotland and then Scotland on Sunday. She reported from Brazil for the Independent before becoming an editor at The Sunday Times.

Since 2004 she has worked for a number of NGOs in the human security field. She joined HALO in 2015 and holds an MA in Conflict, Security and Development from the University of Leeds.

Louise Vaughan

Director of Information Systems
Dan joined HALO in 2025 to lead the expanding Information Systems function across the organisation.

Dan has had a 25+ year career in information systems and technology, from running helpdesks to Information Systems Director and everything in-between. He has commercial experience in large global corporates and small-scale, rapid-growth start-ups, as well as working with not-for-profit organisations – his most recent role being at Amnesty International where he headed up enterprise solutions.

Dan Dickinson

Director of Planning
Tom has worked for HALO since 2008 in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Georgia. As Regional Director, he covered HALO’s programmes in the West Bank and Ukraine before becoming deputy director of Capability and then Deputy Director of Programmes with responsibility for the Eastern hemisphere in 2021.

Tom Meredith

Director of Transformation
Michael joined HALO in 2007 and completed operational training before taking on roles in Afghanistan and Angola. He then moved to a global research and development position, which involved developing and testing equipment and techniques for clearance of landmines and other explosive hazards across HALO's global operations. Michael has had long involvement with the development of HALO’s training, procedures, safety systems and information management. He has a MMath in Mathematics.

Michael Nevard

General Counsel
Alice is HALO’s General Counsel and Company Secretary. Alice is responsible for HALO’s global legal affairs and provides strategic legal advice to HALO’s CEO, Trustees and leadership team. In addition, Alice oversees governance and risk management. Alice joined HALO from BDB Pitmans LLP, where she specialised in supporting clients with charity law and governance matters. In that role Alice advised HALO for over 10 years, as well as international NGOs, public bodies, philanthropists and corporate foundations.

Alice Unwin

PROGRAMMES GROUP

Regional Director MENA
Andrew is a former professional opera singer, who has worked for HALO since 2005. He has managed demining operations in Mozambique, Angola, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Georgia. In his previous role as Regional Director for Europe, Andrew was responsible for developing private fundraising for Kosovo and Nagorno Karabakh, and from 2017 to 2020 he was Director of Private Fundraising and Communications.

Andrew Moore

Regional Director Africa
Lucy joined HALO in 2017 and completed operations training in Cambodia, Somaliland, Georgia and Abkhazia. She was then posted to Afghanistan, Cambodia and Libya, overseeing the delivery of projects in mine clearance, weapons and ammunition management and IED clearance. In 2021 she became Chief of Staff, and became Regional Director for HALO's Africa programmes in 2025.

Before joining HALO, Lucy worked in sustainable travel and international development. She has a BA Hons in Chinese, an MPhil in racial and ethnic conflict and is a visiting fellow at The University of Oxford.

Lucy Reeve

Regional Director Europe and the Americas
Tom trained with HALO in Somaliland in April 2011 and subsequently spent time managing operations in Georgia, Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique and Afghanistan. Returning to Somaliland as Programme Manager in 2015 he oversaw the establishment of HALO's Southern Somalia Programme. Tom is currently HALO's Regional Director for Europe and the Americas, including overseeing Ukraine and Colombia.

Prior to HALO, he worked in outdoor education after attending university in the Lake District in the UK.

Tom Griffiths

Director of Weapons and Ammunition Management
In 2014 Fiona joined HALO's Côte d'Ivoire programme, managing large-scale demolitions, weapons destruction, and construction of weapons and ammunition storage facilities. She went on to manage programmes in Sri Lanka and Laos, later becoming HALO's Head of Training then Head of Region for the Balkans and South Caucasus. In 2024, Fiona became Director of WAM Operations. Before joining HALO, Fiona taught bomb disposal in Afghanistan after spending nine years as a British Army Ammunition Technician.

Fiona Kilpatrick-Cooper

Our US staff

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