“Having had the privilege being managed by Astrid for over 2.5 years at the IGC, I can attest that she is an incredible leader, mentor and all-round urban economics expert. One of her greatest strengths is her absolute clarity of thought in decision making. Whether it be on key stakeholders to engage, weighing up trade-offs of projects to take forward, setting the strategic direction of a new initiative, or people management, she has the rare ability to see through all the background noise and chart a clear path forward. Astrid epitomises all that is good about the development sector – she achieves truly impactful outcomes while building long-lasting and meaningful relationships with policymakers. Her strong values of collaboration, equality and empowering others are embedded in all that she does – this is evident in the teams she manages, and the policy stakeholders she engages with. Astrid also has a broad range of abilities – being able to both focus on incredibly detailed work, as well as big picture thinking and strategic agenda setting. She has a wonderful talent for concisely (and convincingly!) summarising key arguments and conveying challenging information to non-technical audiences. She also has excellent public speaking and moderating skills, with the proven ability to inspire global audiences, bringing a very grounded and practical perspective to debates and discussions. I feel incredibly lucky to have been managed and mentored by such an incredible woman and leader!” – Victoria Delbridge, Head of the Cities that Work Initiative, International Growth Centre
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“Astrid is one of the most insightful development economists, visionary leaders, and effective managers I have had the pleasure of working with during my career. I worked for Astrid at the International Growth Centre (IGC) in my role as the Head of Country Programmes. Where we worked with the IGC’s country teams to help drive economic growth and development across the developing world through supporting world-class research, responding to the needs of policymakers across Africa and Asia and driving greater effectiveness in the IGC’s overall programme. In normal times, this would have been no mean feat, but Astrid and I worked together during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the pandemic’s health and economic impacts directly influencing the nature and structure of the work of our country teams, researchers, policymakers and the wider IGC. In practice this required that Astrid lead IGC’s response to a vast number of organizational and strategic challenges such as; how to support policymakers respond to the crisis; where to focus our resources to maximize impact and how we should respond as an organization given the fast changing global landscape of foreign aid. In every case, Astrid worked tirelessly excelling as a leader, manager, and economist: Consistently being able to quickly identify what mattered, where we should focus our efforts and how our response might impact our work, relationships, the wellbeing of staff and IGC’s overall impact as a whole. All in all, I was honoured to have had the opportunity to work with Astrid and would wholeheartedly recommend her to any organization lucky enough to have an opportunity to bring her onboard.” – Giles Dickeson-Jones, Independent Consultant
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“I have had, and I put this most unreservedly, the privilege of working with and under the supervision of Astrid for nearly three years. Three particular features of my experience with Astrid stand out. First is her almost encyclopedic understanding of urban policy in Africa. This understanding is grounded in real-world policy experiences, without being divorced from academic research — this form of knowledge is unique and imperative in development policy. I have witnessed how this allows her to look at problems in a more complex manner and leverage policy advice and analysis that is truly impactful. Second is her leadership. As the head of Cities that Work, she led a small team that repeatedly punched above its weight: winning major grants; being placed in positions of highest policy influence. From inside the team, I saw how this was made possible by Astrid’s leadership that went beyond a typical line-manager: creating a common-purpose, realizing every team member’s skills, and building a (very) proactive and collaborative environment. The third is her ability to communicate brilliantly: both internally within the team and broadly with policymakers, development partners, and academics. Her ability to be empathetic but clear in her conversations won us many partners and is a crucial reason why multiple people and organizations choose to work with us. It is also why Astrid is rightly an in-demand speaker for many high-profile events. All in all, Astrid is one of the most brilliant people I have had the pleasure of knowing and learning from.” —Sharukh Wani, Cities Economist, International Growth Centre
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“Astrid is a highly experienced policy advisor and organisational leader. During my two years working under her management at the International Growth Centre (IGC), Astrid brought tremendous drive and determination to all of her responsibilities, and most impressively in building IGC’s Cities programme into the respected voice in International Development that it is today. Astrid’s technical knowledge combines deep sector expertise in areas such as Municipal Finance, Transportation, and Urban Management, alongside a broad understanding of development policy that is grounded in her many years living and working in Sub-Saharan Africa. This perspective means Astrid can truly relate to a wide spectrum of client challenges, and it consistently puts her in high demand among IGC’s networks, both for the quality of her research and advice, as well as her personal tenacity to deliver results. As a manager, Astrid places great focus on her team, encouraging and developing each of those around her to achieve their best. In addition, she consistently promotes and supports the goals of the wider organisation, and this is one of the many reasons why she became such a well-respected mentor to all of those around her at IGC. I would be very glad to work with Astrid again and I would fully recommend her to any organisation.” – Sebastian Kriticos, Infrastructure Analyst, EBRD
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“Astrid is hands down one of the most intelligent, enthusiastic and driven employees I’ve had the pleasure to work with. I managed Astrid at IPA – Uganda over 2 years, as she scaled up a USAID-funded safe-water program and later took on an acting Deputy Country Director role. Astrid stands out in her incredible management skills, both operational and strategic: no problem is too challenging for her to take on and run with. She is very results-oriented and self-motivated: I trusted her absolutely, knowing if I left her a critical management responsibility I could depend on it to be done 110%. Additionally, Astrid has fantastic people skills. Her team loved her as a manager, and she can converse with warmth, intelligence and authenticity to anyone from a donor or high-level government official to the office’s security guard and cleaner. Astrid was a huge asset to IPAU during a time of growth and development, exhibiting flexibility, creativity and a solutions-oriented approach to work in a complex, fast-paced environment. Any organization would be lucky to have her as an employee–I highly recommend her.” – Daniele Ressler, Director of Impact, Research and Learning at Lwala Community Alliance