Gerry Power

Partner & Managing Director

Dr. Gerry Power is Partner and Managing Director at Purpose, based in London. For more than 25 years, he has designed and directed multi-country global impact, measurement and learning studies on narrative change, campaigns, communication strategy, creative execution, and public opinion for multi-laterals (British Council, UNICEF, UN Women, WHO), foundations (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Democracy Fund, Luminate, Wellcome Trust) and NGOs (BRAC, HIVOS, SightSavers).

His work has had a particular focus on prejudice, equality and social justice.

Gerry was formerly Chief Research Officer at M&C Saatchi World Services. He also served as Director of Research and Learning at BBC Media Action, establishing an award-winning global research network across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He was Vice President with Magid Associates, the media research and consulting firm in New York and London. Gerry has also served on the faculties at UCLA, UDLAP (Mexico), the University of Texas and the London School of Economics.

He has received the Communication Research as Collaborative Practice Award from the International Communication Association and the Global Reith Award for Professional Services from the BBC Global News Division. He is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He is an invited member of the UK Market Research Society Delphi Group and is a Trustee of the Refugee Council UK and the Thomson Foundation.

Gerry holds a PhD in Communication Theory and Research from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He has also participated in the Social Impact Investing programme at the Said Business School at Oxford University. Gerry is an avid traveller and especially to Ardmore, in County Waterford, in his native Ireland.

Harpreet Bagga

Partner & Managing Director

Ilyse Hogue

Partner

Ilyse Hogue is a fierce advocate for justice and a leader, innovator and coalition builder across American and global progressive movements. As a Partner at Purpose, Ilyse supports the global team of passionate changemakers and steers strategic planning and development. A trained ecologist, she approaches social change from a systems perspective, looking to identify gaps and points of leverage at which to intervene and proactively anticipating trends where Purpose can apply knowledge and capacity to address emerging threats.

Ilyse, who has spent over a quarter century waging fights on behalf of humanity and our planet, most recently served in an eight-year tenure as president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, during which she helped transform the legacy organization into a modern-day organizing and political powerhouse. Under her leadership, NARAL tripled its membership, staff and annual budget in service advancing state and federal legislation to protect and expand abortion access, and fighting an unprecedented wave of abortion bans at the state level. She helped to position reproductive freedom as a central tenet of progressive politics and to engage organizations cross-movement in support of the full spectrum of reproductive freedoms being fundamental human rights. In doing this, they achieved what was said to be impossible: engaging the private sector in the fight to protect abortion access. 

In 2016, Ilyse made history when she became the first speaker to share her abortion story at the Democratic National Convention. In 2020, she co-authored a best-selling book, The Lie That Binds, with former NARAL Research Director Ellie Langford on the history of the radical right, its authoritarian aims, and its reliance on white supremacy, misogyny and disinformation. Her commentary has been featured in The Washington Post, HuffPost, The Nation, Cosmopolitan, and ELLE. She is a frequent guest in the media, appearing as a progressive pundit on MSNBC, CNN, and NPR. She also spoke to popular New York Times podcast The Daily about the interlocking fights against dissolution of democracy, undercutting reproductive freedom and justice and disinformation. 

Prior to her work for NARAL, Ilyse worked for MoveOn.org, Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Media Matters for America, and the Friends of Democracy PAC. She holds a BA from Vassar College, an MS from the University of Michigan, and was named as one of the 10 Most Powerful Women in Washington DC by Elle Magazine. She currently serves on the boards of Demand Justice, a court reform organization, and Governing for Impact.

When not at work, Ilyse can be found spending time with her husband, six-year-old twins, and two dogs Ranger Rooster and Little Yellin. She’s an avid hiker, biker, and home cook, and an aspiring gardener.

Jeremy Heimans

Co-founder & Chairman

Jeremy Heimans is the co-founder and Chairman of Purpose, a Public Benefit Corporation with offices on six continents, that builds and supports movements for an open, just, and habitable world. He is co-founder of GetUp!, an Australian political organization with more members than all of Australia's political parties combined, and Avaaz, the world’s largest online citizens’ movement, now with more than 65 million members. Heimans has been building movements since the age of 8 when, as a child activist in his native Australia, he ran media campaigns and lobbied leaders on issues like children’s rights and nuclear non-proliferation. 

Heimans has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, The Guardian has named him as one of the ten most influential voices on sustainability in the US and to its World Pride Power List of LGBT+ leaders, and The Monthly has observed that Heimans “might be the most influential Australian in the world”. With Henry Timms, Jeremy is co-author of the international bestseller “New Power”, praised by the New York Times’ David Brooks as “the best window I’ve seen into this new world” and by The Guardian as “a manual on how to navigate the 21st century.” The book was short-listed for the 2018 FT & Business Book of the Year Award and named a best book of the year by Bloomberg, Fortune, Inc, CNBC and others. Heimans and Timms’ thinking on new power has been featured as the Big Idea in Harvard Business Review, as one of CNN’s “ideas to change the world” and Jeremy’s top-rated TED talk on the topic has been viewed 1.5 million times.

He is a recipient of the Ford Foundation's 75th anniversary Visionary Award, the Foreign Policy Association Medal and the Performance Theater’s Inspired Leadership Award. He served as chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Civic Participation. Heimans has been a keynote speaker at venues such as the World Economic Forum at Davos, TED, the Aspen Institute Ideas Festival, the RSA, Chatham House, the United Nations, Blair House, The Economist Big Rethink, The Guardian Activate and Social Media Week.

The proud son of two first-generation immigrants to Australia, Jeremy was educated at Harvard University and the University of Sydney, and began his career with the strategy consultants McKinsey & Company. He lives in New York.

Jon Damon

Partner & Chief Financial Officer

Jon Damon is a Partner and the Chief Financial Officer at Purpose. He brings over 15 years of Corporate Finance and Strategy experience in the advertising, consulting, media, and technology industries. Jon oversees Purpose’s Finance, Accounting, IT and Legal functions and works with the Leadership Team to drive growth, expand internationally and promote business performance. 

Prior to joining Purpose, Jon was the Head of Finance and Accounting at AccountAbility, a consulting company specializing in sustainability and corporate responsibility. 

Earlier in his career, Jon was the Director of Finance at SourceMedia, a business-to-business media company focused on the financial services industry.

Jon holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Rochester and an M.B.A in Finance from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.

Outside of the office, Jon enjoys the outdoors, traveling, and reading.

Keno Sadler

Partner & Chief Experience Officer

Keno brings over 20 years of experience as a social entrepreneur creating and implementing innovative programs in education, leadership development and social justice. With a background that blends military service, classroom teaching and organizational development rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion, he delivers senior-level leadership and guidance to multi-disciplinary teams delivering social impact globally. At Purpose, he has worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support their effort to elevate diverse voices that can help broaden the conversation about the issues inhibiting economic mobility and generate deeper awareness and actionable understanding. 

Before Purpose, Keno served as Vice-President of Programs at the Echoing Green Foundation where he provided strategic leadership to Echoing Green’s flagship Fellowship programs designed to identify, develop and support early stage social justice and climate change leaders. A 1997 Echoing Green Fellow himself, Keno also created the Breakthrough Atlanta program, an empowering educational experience that has resulted in equitable access to higher education for over 2,000 Atlanta middle school students and prepared over 400 college-aged teaching fellows for education sector roles. An educator at heart with a passion for leadership development, Keno also co-created and taught the Resilient Leadership course at Yale University and has served as an Executive Coach to a wide range of impact leaders around the world.

After hours, you will find Keno enjoying New York’s restaurant scene, hunting for a bike trail to explore or working towards his next belt in Karate and Jiu Jitsu. 

Samantha Fennell

Partner & Managing Director, North America

Samantha Fennell is Partner and Managing Director at Purpose, based in New York. She is North America's principal market-facing leader, focused on the strategy and growth of Purpose’s impact, best-in-class project delivery, and business development. She is a member of the global senior leadership team at Purpose.

Samantha brings over 15 years of cross-functional leadership experience to her role, having held managing director positions at global agencies and leadership roles at the world’s largest media enterprises, including Condé Nast, Hearst, Time Inc., and Huffington Post. She has built and led highly matrixed partnerships with Fortune 500 clients while leading multidisciplinary teams toward growth.

Before joining Purpose, Samantha founded and operated Athari Collective, an equity-driven social impact consultancy focused on inclusive marketing, community outreach, and corporate and nonprofit partnerships. During this time, she worked with partners such as Uber, Airbnb, and The Bruce Museum, forging connections with diverse communities to achieve meaningful change.

In 2008, Samantha took a hiatus from her business endeavors to dedicate herself to fundraising and organizing for the Obama '08 campaign. She inspired a wide audience of first-time political activists through her regular blog on elle.com while securing hundreds of campaign contributions and mobilizing scores of volunteers in key swing states.

She continues to be actively involved in campaigning and fundraising for candidates who prioritize social justice issues. 

Samantha holds a bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature and Italian from The University of Michigan. She lives in Manhattan with her son, Addison James who is teaching her to play pickleball and take regular breathing breaks.

Simon Goff

Partner & CEO

Over the more than eight years Simon has spent at Purpose he has played a key role in our global expansion. After joining the Strategy team as one of Purpose’s first employees in London, he went on to lead the growth of our EMEA region as its Managing Director before relocating to Sydney to establish an Asia Pacific hub for our work. Since 2020, he has played a number of global roles including Global Managing Director and COO. In 2023, he became Purpose’s CEO, relocating to London with his family for two years to lead the organization and identify a long-term CEO successor before returning to Australia where he and his family are based.

At Purpose, Simon has developed and led projects with clients including The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the LEGO Foundation, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, Google, Luminate Group, Unilever, the World Health Organization, the Red Cross, AGL, and The Fred Hollows Foundation on issues including early childhood development, digital rights, climate change, avoidable blindness, and women's empowerment. 

Simon has deep experience working on some of the world’s most complex problems - crafting new ways to channel the power of culture toward positive social change. Through his career he has built unique partnerships to harness the potential of powerful storytelling to mobilize people to action. 

Prior to Purpose, Simon spent over a decade working at the intersection of media and social change. After joining Viacom International in London to work on MTV’s social responsibility initiatives, Simon co-founded the MTV EXIT Foundation, an independent non-profit organization based in London and Bangkok committed to ending human trafficking and exploitation, becoming its Chief Executive in 2009. In 2013, Simon became Executive Director of FilmAid International, an organization that uses the power of film and media to bring life-saving information, psychological relief and empowerment to refugees.

Simon completed a degree in Engineering and Business Finance from University College, London, which somehow led to making a television program about his journey across the Caucasus and Central Asia in search of Xanadu. He hopes the resulting program remains buried in the archives.

He is a native of Brighton, England, and has lived in London, Bangkok, and Sydney.

Alex Hammer Ducas

Senior Director, Private Sector Lead

As the Private Sector Lead at Purpose, Alex brings 15 years of global experience partnering with leading brands, civil society organizations and philanthropists to drive social change. 

Alex joined Purpose from Girl Effect where she served in a range of roles across partnerships, program leadership and most recently as a Chief of Staff. During her tenure, she led expansion into new markets including Malawi, Tanzania and the US as well as partnerships with organizations including PEPFAR, the Vodafone Foundation and Nike. Before Girl Effect, she was part of Nike’s Social Impact team in Europe. She started her career at SustainAbility advising corporate clients on sustainability and social impact strategy. 

Alex graduated from Brown University with a BA in Development Studies and holds a Masters in Food Policy from City University in London. 

When not at her desk, Alex tries to be outside and is more likely than not chasing around or being chased by her two young children.

Bernard Hayman

Global Head of Impact, Measurement & Learning

As Global Head of Impact, Measurement & Learning, Bernard melds evaluative research design and digital campaign strategy to design and implement measurement and evaluation tools for the Voices for Economic Opportunity Incubator Lab. He uses data and information from the Incubator to develop products that can increase the program’s potential and impact. Additionally, his work translates research analysis and testing results into key findings, best practices, and actionable insights for organizational partners, stakeholders, policymakers, and other audiences. 

Before joining Purpose, Bernard was a campaign manager at Color Of Change, where he spearheaded successful digital campaigns that pressured companies like Airbnb to take action against racial discrimination and lobbied U.S. government agencies to improve lead poisoning prevention policies in the wake of the Flint Water Crisis. Prior to entering the digital advocacy sector, Bernard taught at the University of Brasilia as a Fulbright Scholar and served as an interrogator in the U.S. Army. 

Bernard holds a M.A. in Geography from the Ohio State University. He also holds a B.A., with High Honors, in International Relations and Global Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Outside of work Bernard is usually busy chasing his toddler around the house, reading, or playing Magic: the Gathering. 

Chris Cooper

Senior Campaign Director & Head of Office, Australia

As Senior Campaign Director & Head of Office, Australia, Chris brings over a decade of experience in strategic communications, advocacy and content production to our work on digital rights, public health, international development and climate change.  

Through the combination of his early career in media production and cultural anthropology, he has worked with communities to leverage culture and storytelling to shape behaviours and systems, enable change and drive progress. He has a strong commitment to participatory approaches and is driven to work that enables vulnerable and marginalised communities to self-advocate and design their own progress. With this approach and throughout his career, Chris has co-designed, built and implemented issue-driven programs and campaigns across numerous continents and issue areas.

Chris brings to Purpose experience working across the corporate, NGO, and activist sectors, and continues to drive innovative work at the intersections of these areas. After having spent years working in Kenya, Iceland, the UK and Indonesia, Chris is now based in our Sydney office.

Daniel Hale

Senior Campaign Director

As Senior Campaign Director, and co-lead of the Purpose Climate Lab, Daniel drives our climate work across the world.

With a background in community-based and faith-based campaigning, as well as non-profit management and leadership, he makes sure Purpose’s climate campaigns deliver across the political spectrum from hyper liberal to deeply conservative.

Daniel’s campaigning with Purpose includes our work with Catholics in Poland and Brazil, Evangelical Christians in Brazil and Australia and Muslims in Indonesia and the UK. He led our work with communities of colour in London, nature friendly farmers in Cornwall, rural women in Poland, and even renewable first-movers in Bulgaria.

His portfolio includes leading the development of a major global campaign for Bloomberg Philanthropies, election-focused campaigning for Environmental Defense Fund, and climate disinformation campaigning for the KR Foundation. His private sector clients include IKEA and Capgemini.

Before arriving at Purpose, Daniel led the campaigning at Catholic development agency CAFOD, driving action on net zero and refugee rights by reaching a younger and more diverse audience. He ran ActionAid UK’s successful women’s rights campaign. Daniel also co-founded a youth empowerment non-profit.

Daniel holds a PhD in geography from the University of Leeds and an MBA from the Open University. He’s a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Pope Francis once met Daniel at the Vatican. And despite living in Central London he’s surprisingly outdoorsy.