Leadership
With a beginning in the Red Cross as a volunteer, Jean Ayoub became operations director during the Lebanese civil war. He then served on several field missions for the International Red Cross before relocating to Geneva to re-design and supervise Red Cross Red Crescent response to worldwide natural disasters as Director of Operations and IFRC Director of Cooperation and Development.
Jean went off then to Paris as the Director General for the French Telethon to refocus systems and teams on the main vision and mission of the Telethon umbrella association (AFM). Starting 2005 he worked several years as an independent advisor, consulting mainly on turnaround management situations and leadership coaching.
Jean is currently and since 2008 the Secretary General and CEO of International Social Service (ISS) driving with a dream team the full transformation of the organisation ahead of its 100th anniversary in 2024.
Jean has travelled to more than 130 countries; has a deep understanding of the world’s humanitarian and social affairs. He is a strategic thinker and committed to organisational change and cultural diversity in the digital age.
Jean is passionate about having a role to make our battered world a better place to be, working with ISS worldwide in addressing child protection and children migration challenges.
our team
Talia has been volunteering with the General Secretariat since 2021, mainly working with the Network Development team. Currently, she is working full time as a social worker at a migration counseling center and refugee home close to the Black Forest in Germany. Thalia speak English, Hebrew, Spanish, and German and hope to learn more languages in the future!
Liliana, of Uruguayan origin, joined the ISS team in 2000 to support the Information and Publication Unit. Today, she is responsible for the administrative part of the ISS/CIR, in particular the management of the international database and the dissemination of services aimed at improving the protection of children around the world, a task that is particularly close to her heart.
Sabina has been working at the ISS General Secretariat since 2015, starting as Project Assistant for the International Family Mediation Programme. Currently, she coordinates the development of the ISS Network, providing daily maintenance to its members and harmonising internal procedures. Sabina has a Master’s Degree in International and European Law and speaks English, French, and Russian.
With an administrative background, Mauricio has worked in the administration and finance department of the General Secretariat since 2014. His professional career has been in institutions and companies such as the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the Guardianship Tribunal of Geneva, and the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the UN, among others. Mauricio speaks French and Spanish.
Marie runs and oversees the global program “A better future is possible” since 2013. She is a double degree graduate in Psychology (major in child development) and international cooperation management. She has a proven field work experience, which started in Benin as project coordinator and then in Mali as a Child Protection and Intercountry Adoption Officer attached to the Embassy of France.
At the end of 2022, Margherita graduated with a Master in Educational Sciences. She is specialised in designing training and intervention to support social workers and parents in their educational roles. Margherita speaks Italian, English, and French.
Giovanna works as a Children’s Rights Specialist within the ISS/IRC team. She is an Italian Ph.D. candidate and is qualified to work as a lawyer. In addition, she has both international experiences, notably with the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) and the German Central Authority, and national experience with the Court of Appeal of Milan in the family and minors section. She speaks Italian, Spanish (both as a native speaker), English and German.
Ehab has a degree in International Business Management from the University of Bordeaux. He is responsible for identifying and recruiting new members, communicating with current members to ensure their active participation, and maintaining our network databases. Ehab has a successful track record of building strong partnerships and fluently speaks English, French, and Arabic.
Fanny thrives when she can motivate and guide people to pursue their individual and common goals. Inspired by the impact of collaboration in any kind of setting or part of the world, she has supported organisations achieving their objectives mainly in the field of partnerships, fundraising, and communications. Fanny is passionate about being the COO of the General Secretariat. Her main responsibilities are to manage and coordinate both internal and external communications and consolidate HR processes especially related to strengthening individual staff and team development, and collective performance towards the ISS objectives. Fanny speaks English, French, and Flemish.
Chloé is a Master’s student in Organisational Communication, Humanitarian Communication and Solidarity at the University of Lyon 2 in France. Previously, she worked for 5 years as a social worker in contact with different public, mainly in the medico-social sector. Chloé speaks French and English.
Carlotta is a qualified Italian Lawyer and English Solicitor, with a Masters of Law in Children’s Rights. She has worked for over a decade on children’s rights, focusing on alternative care and adoption within NGO, UN human rights system and other intergovernmental organisations. Currently, working as Senior Child Protection Lawyer at the ISS/IRC, she has previously worked as legal officer at the Italian Central Authority on intercountry adoption and the only Italian public accredited adoption body. Also, she has conducted training on behalf of the ISS/IRC in Mali and Burkina Faso. She is a native Italian speaker, fluent in French and English, and proficient in Spanish.
Spanish human rights lawyer and children’s rights expert. She has both international experience, notably with the Committee on the Rights of the Child and Child Rights Connect, and national experience, at Plataforma de Infancia, the national network and coordinating body for NGOs working in children’s rights in Spain. She has mainly worked in the fields of access to justice, violence against children and the rights of children deprived of parental care. She speaks Spanish, Catalan (both as a native speaker), English and French.
With a beginning in the Red Cross as a volunteer, Jean Ayoub became operations director during the Lebanese civil war. He then served on several field missions for the International Red Cross before relocating to Geneva to re-design and supervise Red Cross Red Crescent response to worldwide natural disasters as Director of Operations and IFRC Director of Cooperation and Development.
Jean went off then to Paris as the Director General for the French Telethon to refocus systems and teams on the main vision and mission of the Telethon umbrella association (AFM). Starting 2005 he worked several years as an independent advisor, consulting mainly on turnaround management situations and leadership coaching.
Jean is currently and since 2008 the Secretary General and CEO of International Social Service (ISS) driving with a dream team the full transformation of the organisation ahead of its 100th anniversary in 2024.
Jean has travelled to more than 130 countries; has a deep understanding of the world’s humanitarian and social affairs. He is a strategic thinker and committed to organisational change and cultural diversity in the digital age.
Jean is passionate about having a role to make our battered world a better place to be, working with ISS worldwide in addressing child protection and children migration challenges.
His favorite motto is “You have not come that far to only come that far!”