Groupe URD’s dynamic, international team includes fifteen permanent staff from different sectors, a group of consultants and voluntary staff.

François GRÜNEWALD, President of Groupe URD. François is an agricultural engineer with a lot of experience working on emergency food security programmes. He supervises all of Groupe URD’s research work. He was the Director of the Global Study on Consultation and Participation of Disaster-affected populations and the Scientific Director of the Quality Project. He is the joint editor of Editions Karthala. He is a member of the "Commission Nationale Consultative des Droits de l’Homme" and Associate Professor of the "DESS Gestion de l’Humanitaire de l’Université Paris 12 in Créteil". He is a former member of the "Haut Conseil de la Coopération Internationale".
Contact François Grunewald

André PRINCE, Deputy General Director of Groupe URD. André joined the team in November 2005. He is a graduate of CIEDEL in Ingénierie de Développement Local. He has extensive experience of working in the field, with over 12 years of experience managing and coordinating local development projects in rural and urban areas in Latin America.
Contact André Prince

Béatrice BOYER, Researcher in charge of Housing and Urbanism. Béatrice is a qualified architect and urban planner. She worked for many years as a project manager in renovation work, ran urban renovation projects and trained in post-disaster architectural operations. She joined Groupe URD in October 2005 and is involved in applied research and evaluations. She coordinates research into ‘Housing and urbanism, crises and reconstruction’.
Contact Béatrice Boyer

Pierre BRUNET, Training. Pierre is a Project management graduate from the Institut Bioforce. He worked for some time teaching French as a foreign language and was the director of an association involved in national solidarity and cross-cultural events. Pierre has been with Groupe URD since 2006 and is responsible for developing Groupe URD’s training activities (courses and workshops at URD headquarters and elsewhere when there is demand) and is also involved in many support activities.
Contact Pierre Brunet

Annette COURTEIX, Research, Geographer - environment. After 10 months working on a comparative monographic study in Ethiopia, India, Nepal and Bolivia, and several months at URD headquarters, Annette has now joined the KAIFIAT project team with whom she will be working until at least next March.
Contact Annette Courteix

Véronique DE GEOFFROY, Research. Véronique is a DESS graduate in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) with experience of emergency and rehabilitation operations in a number of areas. She is the coordinator of the Quality Project and the Quality COMPAS©. She was the team leader in the Colombia case study for the Global Study on Consultation and Participation of Disaster-affected populations in Humanitarian Action. She carries out research and training on IHL and the theme of public sector/private sector humanitarian action. She has dual French and Colombian nationality.
Contact Véronique De Geoffroy

Juliette HAÏM, Administration and Accounting. Juliette is qualified in Administration and has a lot of experience in transport logistics and managing small and medium sized companies. She works with the Deputy Director and is responsible for Groupe URD’s general accounting, coordinating all logistical and administrative transactions for field visits and staff. She is also responsible for keeping the Groupe URD web site up to date.
Contact Juliette Haim

Domitille KAUFFMANN, Research. Domitille is an agricultural engineer specialised in nutrition. She has been running Groupe URD’s research in the nutrition sector since summer 2005 (Afghanistan, Laos …). She has worked in Africa and Central Asia. As a Quality specialist, she also contributes to the numerous activities Groupe URD carries out in this domain (COMPAS Qualité©, COMPAS Dynamique, …).
Contact Domitille Kauffmann

Anna LEAR, Research and communications. Anna is British. She is a DESS (Masters) graduate in ‘Humanitarian management’. She was a member of the research team which carried out the Guinea case study for the Global Study on Consultation and Participation of Disaster-affected populations in Humanitarian Action and took part in tests of the Practitioners handbook which came out of the Global Study in DRC. She is responsible for communications and supervises the production of documents and books in English.
Contact Anna Lear

Karla LEVY, Research. Karla is Venezuelan, is a Communications Engineer and is a DESS (Masters) graduate in ‘Humanitarian management’. She is a member of the Quality Project scientific team. She coordinates the operational form of the Quality COMPAS©, the Dynamic COMPAS. She carries out evaluations and operational research. She was a member of the research teams which carried out the Colombia case studies and co-directed the DRC and Guinea case studies for the Global Study on Consultation and Participation of Disaster-affected populations in Humanitarian Action. Her background and the work she has done in Latin America mean that she is particularly experienced in this region.
Contact Karla Levy

Amina MAHAMDOU, Archivist. Amina runs Groupe URD’s resource centre in connection with the Ritimo network, and keeps the computerised reference database up to date.
Contact Amina Mahamdou

Claire MARIANI, Country Director. Claire worked with Groupe URD as an urban planning trainee in Kabul in 2005. She has since worked as the head of research and evaluation for SAYARA and as the coordinator of NSP programmes for Samangan province for our friends, Solidarités. She has now taken over as Afghanistan Country Director.
Contact Claire Mariani

Hugues MAURY, Paediatrician. Hugues is a part-time consultant for Groupe URD. He worked for a long time on the implementation of quality procedures in hospitals. He is joint scientific director of the Quality Project and is involved in designing the Dynamic COMPAS.
Contact Hugues Maury

Sylvestre PARMENTIER, Coordinator of the PMIS project in Afghanistan. Sylvestre is an agronomist who specialises in the social management of natural resources and sustainable development. He is experienced in coordinating and implementing projects.
Contact Sylvestre Parmentier

Peggy PASCAL, Research. Peggy is Groupe URD coordinator for Afghanistan. She is an agricultural engineer and as such is a member of the Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development project in Afghanistan. She contributes to Groupe URD’s evaluations and operational research in Afghanistan.
Contact Peggy Pascal

Johan PASQUET, Research. Johan is an agro-economist and has a lot of experience in rural development in Sri Lanka and Liberia. He worked as a researcher on the PMIS project and has been in charge of various studies for Groupe URD in Afghanistan. He is back with the team once more, and will be in charge of studies connected to agriculture, food security and the environment.
Contact Johan Pasquet

Claire PIROTTE, Co-founder of Groupe URD. Claire is a doctor. She has a great deal of experience of emergency health programmes in a number of regions (Africa, Latin America, Asia). She is in charge of pedagogical activities at Groupe URD and is co-editor with François Grünewald of the “Pratiques Humanitaires” Collection, published by Editions Karthala. Since 2005, she has been in charge of the “Analyse des crises et action humanitaire” Masters at Savoie-Chambéry University since 2005.
Contact Claire Pirotte

Olivier SARRAT, Computer Engineer. Olivier is a software design and development engineer, specialising in new technology. He joined the Groupe URD team at the beginning of 2007 and is responsible for developing the Dynamic COMPAS, as well as providing support and maintenance. Part of his studies took place in Singapore and he worked on a scientific project in the Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.
Contact Olivier Sarrat

Bonaventure G. SOKPOH, Research. Bonaventure is an agro-economist. He is part of the Dynamic COMPAS team. He principally carries out evaluations of food security programmes in Africa and Asia. He participates in Groupe URD training courses, and notably the ‘Evaluation of humanitarian action’ module. He was a member of the research team who carried out the DRC case study and co-directed the Guinea case study for the Global Study on Consultation and Participation of Disaster-affected Populations in Humanitarian Action. His Togolese background means that he brings an African perspective to the URD team.
Contact Bonaventure Sokpoh

Jeanne TAISSON, Communications and Groupe URD network. Jeanne is actively involved in both operational and fundamental research. She is tri-lingual, trained in journalism and is a DESS (Masters) graduate in ‘Humanitarian Management’.
Contact Jeanne Taisson