Renewal and Rewilding:
My Departure and Our Connections
After eight incredible years with Global Integrity, I’ve decided to step down from my role as Executive Director. Thank you for being part of the journey, inspiring me, supporting me, and challenging me along the way. The connections we have made have been the highlight of the role. I’m glad to know that our connections will continue to grow beyond my time with Global Integrity.
Finding the right time to move on from a great role, with a wonderful organization, an amazing team, and inspiring partners was never going to be easy. But now feels like the right time to make space for new leadership and organizational renewal at Global Integrity, and to explore new pathways and opportunities myself. I am confident that Global Integrity will take full advantage of the opportunities for renewal that my departure will bring, ensuring that the organization’s ways of working are squarely focused on meeting the needs of its partners, promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, and supporting the movement towards more locally-led development.
Over the coming months, our Board – with an Executive Search and Transition Committee chaired by Ania Calderon – will lead the process of finding a new Executive Director, with the aim of appointing a successor before the end of the year. I plan to remain as Executive Director while this search moves forward and am committed to doing all I can to ensure a smooth and successful transition. The job description and details of how to apply are here. We would really appreciate it if you could share it with your networks, and help us to ensure that it reaches a global audience so that we can be sure of having a strong and diverse pool of candidates.
There have been plenty of challenges, but I have enjoyed my time with Global Integrity very much, and – while reflective on the things I might have done differently – am proud of the contribution that the team has made. For a small organization, we have had a big impact. We have supported many partners around the world – in Latin America, in Africa and in Asia, as well as in Europe and North America – as they have sought to address challenges relating to the use of public resources. We have also helped to shape broader conversations about how locally-led efforts to address complex challenges and their political economy dynamics can best be supported, and about how corruption might best be tackled. Those conversations – and the policies and practices which flow from them – are different now, and the Global Integrity team has, in our small way, contributed to this evolution.
I’ve also been proud to lead internal transformations to our staffing makeup, skills set, and ability to work in a rapidly changing world. When I started at Global Integrity, the team was wholly located in Washington, D.C., with neither the team nor the board reflecting our global mission. There is more to do on this front, but I am pleased to leave Global Integrity with a more diverse team, which – as well as having the technical skills – also embodies the lived experience which we need if we are to effectively support our partners’ efforts to address governance-related challenges. It has been a pleasure to lead the team in all its various iterations, and I know that my colleagues, along with a new Executive Director, will ensure that Global Integrity continues to adapt, so that the organization is able to play a valuable role – making connections, catalyzing collaboration, generating evidence and insights, and informing policy and practice – in the governance and development space.
In planning and moving forward with this leadership transition, I am grateful for the support of the team and the board, for the excellent assistance that Revolution Impact (Megan Colnar and Grace Lyn Higdon) and La Sobremesa (Anca Matioc) are providing, for the leadership transition support group that I’ve been part of, for the patient and inspiring support from Becky Pfordresher at Opal Coaching and Wellness, and for the care and kindness of family, friends and colleagues who have helped me navigate the last few months.
My focus right now is on ensuring a smooth leadership transition. Beyond the transition, my plans are fluid. What I do know is that I will continue to play a role in making the connections and fostering the cross-pollination, collaborative learning and collective action that is needed, amidst the complex challenges we face, to seize the opportunities we all have to shape a more equitable, more inclusive, more sustainable and more compassionate world.
I’d love to stay connected. Drop me a line, whenever, and if your travels bring you close to Brighton, England, sometime – or you live by a beach, in the mountains, or in a vibrant city, and might welcome a visit – please do give me a shout!
~ alan hudson
See the Executive Director Job Description here.
