Global Team

GLOBAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CFF’s Global Board of Directors has several primary roles. First, it sets the organization’s long-term strategic goals and direction. Additionally, the Global Board undertakes and oversees critical organizational tasks, including fundraising, marketing, establishing key partnerships, and supporting our students through site visits, mentorship, and workshops. Finally, it ensures the Cambodian Board and CFF’s student cohort have the resources necessary to carry out CFF’s vision and mission in Cambodia. Many of the Global Board members have been with CFF since its inception in 2013.

Robert Landau — Chair of Global Board

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Robert moved abroad for the first time at the age of one and has been captivated with a global perspective his whole life. For the past 40 years Robert has worked as a teacher, principal and head of school in Switzerland, Indonesia, Czech Republic, China, Cambodia, and Singapore. For 10 months, in 1998-99, Robert was the Founding Director of the first international charter school in Monterey, California. Since July 2015, Robert has served as the Executive Director of the Hawaii Association of Independent School stationed on the island of Oahu.  

Robert has had the honor and privilege of serving on numerous association boards — most recently as President of the Academy for International School Heads. His most precious and memorable experience took place in Cambodia, where he had the honor of working at the Liger Learning Center. At Liger, Robert and his team selected 50 disadvantaged yet promising students to receive an education at the Center. He then created an interesting and dynamic curriculum framework that he hopes to share with other interested schools. In 2013, Robert became the founder and board chair of Cambodia’s Future Foundation. Working in the NGO and foundation world certainly changed his life for the better in many ways.

The ability to help empower Cambodia’s young people to “be the change” is an awesome and humbling experience.

Neil Dougherty — Vice Chair of Global Board

Neil is a Grade 3 teacher at Singapore American School and former lawyer. He has a history degree from Colorado State University; earned his juris doctor from the University of Pennsylvania; and most recently and importantly, obtained his teaching certificate from The College of New Jersey. For eight years as a lawyer, Neil represented a diverse group of clients, including investment banks, Somali refugees, and victims of civil rights violations. In 2013, Neil retired his cufflinks to pursue his true calling and passion: teaching children. Now in his first year at Singapore American School, he is humbled on a daily basis by the creativity, passion, happiness, and curiosity of the children he not only teaches, but also learns from.

Neil and his wife live in Singapore with their daughter and son, who are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Lesotho, respectively. He is passionate about empowering people to realise their potential and goals on their own accord. Neil is committed to the mission and vision of CFF, and is honored to be surrounded by such impressive and dedicated colleagues. Neil cares deeply about CFF’s student cohort and has made numerous trips to Kampong Speu, Cambodia, to stay personally involved with their success.

Alison Cuthbert — Global Board Member

Alison Cuthbert is a teacher-librarian with a passion for learning, and the connections we make with others along the way. She is currently an Elementary Librarian at an international school in Singapore, where she and her husband Peter have been living for nearly a decade. Along with their two young boys, they divide their time between Southeast Asia, Canada, Scotland, and New Zealand.

Alison believes deeply in the potential of Cambodians, and looks forward to sharing ways that interested people can get involved to nurture leaders, and ultimately change lives.

Peter Cuthbert — Global Board Member

Direct, efficient routes are often prized, regarded as the products of forthright planning and thoughtful preparation; but you know what is said of best laid plans. Most often, that which is not premeditated, or deliberate, becomes a springboard for the raw experiences that shape us. The journey that Peter currently finds himself on is as circuitous as it is fortunate. From kilted knees to hockey skates, and from Mariachi-filled alleys to Hainanese chicken rice, it has not been scripted, or predictable. It continues to be, however, an adventure that he does not take for granted.

Peter’s connection to Cambodia spans over a decade through house building, teacher training, health promotion, and mentoring international student service learning opportunities. He believes than now, more than ever, Cambodia is ready for their own leaders to bring positive change and Cambodia’s Future Foundation will ensure these leaders possess the skills and experience to embrace the opportunity. Peter and his wife Alison are currently teaching in Singapore and venture back to Bayfield in Ontario, Canada, each summer to be with friends and family on Lake Huron.

Mark Fischer — Global Board Member

Mark was born and raised in Boston. He first came to Asia to visit a high-school classmate in Taipei, with little more than a whimsical interest in exploring Asia, a duffle bag of clothes, and a couple hundred bucks in his pocket. Three decades of personal and career growth later, he’s still here. Currently based in Singapore, Mark has had the good fortune to work in Asian sports marketing for nearly 20 years. This experience includes a dozen years with the National Basketball Association (NBA), a four-year stint as MD Asia for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and presently operating his own sports advisory business, whose major clients include Perform Group and Oceans Sports & Entertainment. His previous experience in Taiwan began with splitting time between trade journalism, import-export trading, and playing semipro basketball; following which he entered the corporate world full-time as director of Far East sales and marketing for Capetronic, a large OEM electronics manufacturer.

While developing his career, Mark has always been keen to give back to the global community.  He worked pro-bono for a solar energy startup in the early 1990s (before solar was fashionable) and then attended Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to receive his mid-career Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) degree in 1995. Mark sees great value in CFF’s mission to nurture future leaders in Cambodia, and applying his marketing and project development experience to help build awareness and funding for the foundation.

Sushmit Dutta — Global Board Member

Sushmit Dutta is currently a student at the Singapore American School who has a passion for learning from the community around him and giving back to the ones who need it the most. Born and raised in India, he has spent 12 years in a country where he saw and understood the plead of the underprivileged first hand. In an aim to do his part during his time in India, he spent time at a local orphanage to connect with the kids there to lighten up their mood and do his best to motivate them to make the right choices in life.

Born in Guernsey, the Channel Islands, Kate’s background and training is in hotel & event management. Graduating from the Ecole Hoteliere in Lausanne, Switzerland, she has moved around the world all her adult life, meeting her husband Robert, an international school administrator, along the way. At each posting, she volunteered, assisted in setting up programmes, and contributed to many charitable works. She has also organised a variety of fundraising events, including gala evenings.

After living in Phnom Penh for two years, where she served on the Project Support Group Committee of the Women’s International Group of Cambodia, and initiated and organised the first NGO Fair at an international school, she realised the vital importance of helping this very much in-need country. Having now moved further away, she is excited to be able to maintain her connection with Cambodia through Cambodia’s Future Foundation and serve as Foundation Coordinator.

FOUNDING BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CFF’s Founding Board members were instrumental in the creation and establishment of the organization — we would not be where we are today without these talented, creative, and committed individuals. While a variety life circumstances have reduced their quantity of participation, the quality of their ongoing contributions remains vitals to CFF’s success.

Andrew Hallam — Founding Board Member

Andrew Hallam is an international teacher and global Vagabond. He has written columns for The Globe and Mail, Canadian Business magazine, and Assetbuilder. He has also published in Reader’s Digest, Personal Money, MoneySense, and L’Actualite. His personal finance book, Millionaire Teacher, is currently ranked ten thousand spots behind Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Rumour has it, JK Rowling is losing sleep.

Pele Hallam — Founding Board Member

Pele Hallam has enjoyed the last 26 years of adventures and surprises of overseas living.  She looks forward to her next venture as a founding board member of Cambodia’s Future Foundation, helping students on their educational journey to grow and positively contribute to their country. She hopes it creates a domino effect.

Elena Morey — Founding Board Member

Elena Morey is a young high school student born in Russia, south of Moscow. At the age of six months, she was adopted by an American family and moved to the United States. Elena attended school in America until third grade, when she moved to Switzerland. There, she found her passion for exploration, the fine arts, history, science, technology, and, more generally, learning. Importantly, she also discovered her now deeply ingrained passion for service and how to use her unique collection of skills to aid others. At the end of sixth grade, Elena moved to Singapore with her family, where they stayed for three years. Elena now continues her studies back in the United States while maintaining her passion for service with CFF.

Reflecting on her own origins and gifts received, Elena is committed to helping others fulfill their potential, hoping to give back to the world what it gave her. She understands how crucial education is for development and self-sustainability and anchored herself to CFF’s vision and mission for Cambodia. Elena has also been touched by the care given by, and relationship formed with, her teachers, and has come to see what a difference education and strong community ties can have on one’s life. By being so instrumental in the creation and establishment of CFF at such a young how, she hopes to show other students that they too can make positive change in the world. Elena believes there should be no age restrictions on giving back, helping others, and striving for a better world.

Tony O’Driscoll — Founding Board Member

Originally from Ireland, Tony’s childhood as the son of a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) consultant afforded him the life-changing opportunity to live and learn in countries and cultures widely different from his own. In having caught what his dad affectionately calls the “Itinerant Bug,” Tony’s family moved about between Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia for nearly two decades. This resulted in the peculiar but true fact that Tony actually attended more schools during his pre-university days (14) than the amount of years it typically takes to complete pre-university schooling!

Tony has spent the bulk of his professional and academic career at the nexus of business, innovation, technology, and learning. In keeping with the trend established in his early years, he has also held as many official positions (22) as he has spent years in the workforce. In other words, as his wonderfully patient wife Theresa would accurately say, “he still does not know what he wants to do when he grows up.”

One thing Tony does know, however, is that a safe and secure collective future for us all rests on the shoulders of the next generation of leaders who will soon be taking the helm. As someone who works with the most senior organizational leaders in his role as Executive Director at Duke Corporate Education, Tony understands that in order to leave the world a better place, we must help create the leaders the future needs. As with the rest of his board colleagues, it took one trip to Kampong Speu, Cambodia, for Tony to recognize that it needed and deserved a dedicated focus on leadership. Tony has been especially instrumental in getting CFF scholars’ projects off the ground by providing education and guidance in project planning.