Jo de Serrano, CEO of RedR
Jo de Serrano is an expert in deployment surge mechanism for humanitarian response. She was part of DFID’s CHASE Operations Team for 12 years and involved in every emergency from the Indonesian Tsunami in 2004 through to 2017, including emergencies such as the Pakistan earthquake, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, the Syria crisis and Ebola response.
In recognition for her work in deploying personnel in global humanitarian emergency response, Jo was awarded an OBE in 2016 and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Portsmouth in 2017.
Jo elaborated on her reasons for deciding to help judge the competition’s submissions: "
As I am not an engineer, I am particularly interested to find out if gender, disability and age considerations are taken into account in any of the designs, all issues which are extremely important considerations in development and humanitarian contexts".