Newsroom
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC — RTI International’s corporate regional offices in Asia and Africa have new leaders.
Robin Bush, Ph.D., recently took over as director of the Asia Regional Office, located in Jakarta, Indonesia replacing outgoing director David Spiro.
In the Africa Regional Office, located in Nairobi, Kenya, Moges Gebremedhin became director in August, replacing Volkan Cakir.
“RTI is fortunate to have such experienced and talented leaders to help grow RTI’s work and impact in these regions” said John St. Clair, senior director of RTI’s international offices.
The Asia and Africa regional offices serve as operational support hubs for RTI’s projects working in education, economic development, governance, health, and other areas. The offices also focus on business development, strategic partnerships and client/government relations.
Bush began working for RTI in 2014 as the director for research and strategic collaborations in Asia. In 2015, she took over leadership of the Knowledge Sector Initiative, a a joint program between the governments of Indonesia and Australia that seeks to improve the lives of the Indonesian people through better quality public policies that make better use of research, analysis and evidence. She was previously a Senior Research Fellow in the Religion and Globalization Cluster of the Asia Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore. Prior to her work with ARI, Dr. Bush was the Country Representative for The Asia Foundation’s Indonesia office which included directing the foundation’s programs on Islam in Indonesia for six years. She has an academic background in political science, and more than 15 years of experience researching and working at the intersection of politics, religion, and development in Asia.
Gebremedhin joined RTI in February as the director for strategic partnerships and program development for Africa. He was previously a regional behavior change communication advisor with Danya International providing social/behavior change communication support to FTF (Feed the Future) programs in Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Prior to that he spent 10 years with Chemonics International in a number of roles having worked in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, and Malawi as well as in U.S.-based positions. Earlier in his career his work included communications and media consulting in his native Eritrea. He has an academic background in history, political science and communications.
