Medair

Randall Zindler has been the CEO of Medair since the beginning of  2004. Prior to this, he worked in marketing with the Credit Suisse Group, and in leadership development with the Swissair Group. Randall has demonstrated a lifelong passion for responding to the needs of the most vulnerable. He once cycled solo across North America to raise awareness about hunger and poverty. During the 1990s, he responded to a variety of humanitarian needs in Africa, including food distribution and reunification of children with their families in Rwanda after the genocide.

His education includes Bachelor’s degrees in Management from the University of Wisconsin, and in Geography / Anthropology from Minnesota State University. He received an MBA at the University of Lancaster in England, and was selected for a prestigious three-month extension at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) in Switzerland. He also earned a Diploma in Disaster Management at the University of Wisconsin, Department of Engineering.

He is currently Chairman of the Administrative Council of EU-CORD, a network of European humanitarian aid organisations. He is also a member of the Advisory Board for Lancaster University Management School, and is in the NGO Leaders Consultation Group of the World Economic Forum.

Randall is a featured speaker at various events. He has been a delegate at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, in Davos, Switzerland, and he also participated in the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship and several UBS Global Philanthropy Forums. He is the recipient of Minnesota State University’s Distinguished Alumni Humanitarian Award. Currently residing in Lausanne, Randall has both Swiss and US citizenships. He is married to a Swiss paediatrician, with whom he has three children.

David Sauter is Medair’s Operations Manager and the longest serving staff member at HQ. A native of Switzerland, he graduated as a Medical Doctor from Lausanne University, Switzerland in 1980, and received a Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the Institute of Tropical Medicine of Antwerp, Belgium in 1984. Ten years later, he earned a Master’s of Science in Health Planning and Financing in Developing Countries from the London School of Economics and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Prior to joining Medair, David spent over seven years working in Africa in the primary health care sector. He did immunisation outreach in Uganda, and was the director of two health centres of the Central Secretariat of the Church of Christ in Zaire (now DR Congo). He also spent 18 months in Chad, working at the Internal Medicine service of the central N’djaména General Hospital for the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel.

David’s seven years in Africa gave him field experience and cross-cultural perspectives that have been invaluable to his work with Medair. When he started in 1994, he was a Desk Officer, and continued to work in that role for programmes in Armenia, Southern Sudan, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iran, and presently, Madagascar. He also acts as a Line Manager, supervising and supporting Medair’s WatSan and Health Advisors.

As Operations Manager, David has been pivotal in the success of many of Medair’s programmes over the years. When he first began working at HQ, there were only five people in the office, compared with approximately 60 today. His continued presence has provided a vital link with Medair’s Swiss roots and organisational history. Over the years, David has been instrumental in building fruitful high-trust relationships with some of Medair’s key institutional funding partners. He has been an integral part of the organisation’s growth, launching many new emergency relief and rehabilitation projects, and has been pleased to create opportunities for staff to develop their skills and experience in serving with Medair. David resides in Switzerland with his wife and their four children.

As Medair’s Director of Information Services, John Rigstad is responsible for ICT support services to the entire organisation, which includes dozens of offices in Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. John has been with Medair since 2001, with responsibility for overseeing support services to the entire organisation. This includes computer, networking, and communication technology worldwide, software and knowledge management services, archives and records management, internal and external audit and support, and oversight of business workflows, policies, and procedures. He is also responsible for monitoring the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System and the organisational risk assessment process.

John is from the United States, where he earned a BA with Special Departmental Honours in Economics from Macalester University, Minnesota. He worked eleven years as a computer and network executive for Murphy Motor Freight Lines in Minneapolis, as well as three years in financial and administrative management for St. Johns Water Company, a non-profit water utility. He also spent three years in financial administration for Youth with a Mission in Israel and Switzerland, as well as three years teaching and demonstrating entrepreneurial business principles in Romania. He has over 18 years of experience in ICT management.

John’s accomplishments at Medair are numerous. He oversaw Medair’s financial growth from nine million to 29 million dollars, made improvements and standardisations in IT infrastructure, and contributed to the development of Board of Trustee committees which led to improved governance of the organisation. John is passionate about his work for Medair, where he makes a direct and significant impact toward improving the lives of individuals, providing them with a sense of hope and encouragement despite their circumstances. He is married to Nancy and has two daughters, one of whom is studying Disaster Management at Coventry University.

Patrice Leguern has served as Medair’s Marketing Director since 2005. He joined the team full-time in November of that year, becoming responsible for the development and implementation of Medair’s communications and marketing, with focus on recruitment and fundraising strategies.

A native of Montreal, Canada, he moved to France at age 15. Working fluently in both French and English, he became the youngest computer analyst at Honeywell-Bull France at 19 years of age. He went on to work in London and Paris, and in 1999 he became the managing director of two marketing agencies dedicated to servicing NGOs in fundraising and communication. He has worked extensively in Spanish and in Dutch, spending six-and-a-half years in Holland as Executive Director of The European Missionary Association (TEMA). Patrice has also conducted several long-term consultancy missions for the European Commission (EC) throughout Europe, and managed government training programmes for the EC in Warsaw, Poland.

Patrice oversees extensive fundraising efforts, gaining private support for the important work Medair accomplishes. He was instrumental to the development and implementation of a recent organisational rebranding process, as well as the development of a style guide for all of Medair’s external communications. His international experience -- accompanied by his vast knowledge of business, human resources, commerce, and marketing -- all combine to make Patrice an essential component of the Medair Management Team.

Patrice currently resides with his wife Michèle and his son in the southeast of France, commuting to work in Ecublens, Switzerland.

Jim Ingram began working for Medair in February 2004 as a Field Finance Officer. He held this position for various country programmes until 2006, when he became Medair’s General Accounting Manager. In March of 2007, he became the Finance Director for the entire organisation, overseeing all of the financial activities for Medair worldwide.

Jim was raised in Ontario, Canada where he studied mathematics, computer science, economics, and philosophy. He spent some time working for the Canadian government, before beginning his long career at L’Abri Fellowship Foundation in Switzerland. From 1980 until 2003, he worked at L’Abri as a teacher, counsellor, treasurer, and as director. He was the trustee of six L’Abri Foundations around the world, and was instrumental in opening a branch in his home country of Canada.

Upon deciding to work for Medair, Jim’s combination of professional expertise and a deep grounding in Christian apologetics quickly made him a vital contributor to the organisation’s growth and vision. He advocates that accounting reveals the moral character and identity of an organisation: the task of finance is to account for the actions of an organisation and to do so with integrity, which requires the development of character sufficient to sustain accountants in this task..

During his time at Medair, Jim performed the first consolidation of all of the organisation’s accounts (including the national offices), and he is currently moving Medair toward weekly processing and monthly closings. He has helped to implement a move toward fund accounting, which enables better management and better accountability in the not-for-profit sector. Jim is also passionate about the development of the finance team, and has launched an annual week of training for field finance managers. He resides in Switzerland with his wife Gail and their four sons.

Since 2004, John has been the Operations Director of Medair. He is responsible for strategic planning, risk management, and oversight of global field operations. During his time at Medair, John’s many accomplishments include improving the way field programmes are managed by implementing a portfolio perspective. He integrated strategic planning and management of field programmes within the organisation, and continued the development of a consistent and integrated security management process. Under John’s oversight, Medair has developed an enhanced emergency response capacity, which included the rapid mobilisation and response to the 2004 tsunami and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. During John’s tenure, Medair’s field programmes have more than doubled in size, while keeping their focus on serving the most vulnerable in the most difficult situations.

Prior to coming to Medair, John worked in the field with Food for the Hungry International (FHI) for eight years. He held various leadership positions within FHI, working extensively in high-risk countries in Africa, the Balkans, and Central America, and responding to a variety of humanitarian needs (primarily complex emergencies, but also including natural disasters). His responsibilities included being the field emergency response manager for new programme development; programme support management including security oversight and logistics; and field programme troubleshooting. He began his professional career in banking, becoming Senior Vice President of Real Estate Investment at a major financial institution. John later owned and operated a shopping centre management company in San Antonio, Texas.

His education includes a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he was also the captain of the varsity football team. He received his Master’s degree in Church History at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International, and is also a member of Medair’s Management Team. A native of Atlanta, Georgia in the USA, John currently resides in Switzerland.