About MSI United States

Jess Search is a co-founder and CEO of Doc Society. She is also currently a trustee of the progressive think tank in the UK, IPPR, and a board member of Kickstarter, the crowdfunding platform.

Previously Jess was a Channel 4 commissioning editor. She has an MBA from Cass Business School and acts as a moderator for The Skoll World Forum, the Thompson Reuters Trust Conference and TED Women.

Doc Society is based in London and New York and harnesses the power of film for social change. In partnership with the Bertha Foundation, it gives partnership support to documentaries such as the Academy nominated Virunga, The Square, The Look of Silence and the Academy Award winner CITIZENFOUR.

In partnership with the Ford Foundation and The Sundance Institute, Doc Society created and runs The Good Pitch which partners films with NGOs, foundations, policy makers and brands in New York and around Europe and, in partnership with regional hosts and local filmmakers in India, Argentina, Australia, Kenya, Indonesia and Colombia.

Jess visited her first MSI clinic in 1988 in Nicaragua when her mother was working for MSI. She has remained a committed supporter of MSI’s mission ever since.

Dr. Mohsina Bilgrami is a pioneer in sexual and reproductive health. She established MSI’s program in Pakistan in 1991 and oversaw its expansion from just one clinic to more than 100. Under her leadership, MSI expanded outreach services all over the country to underserved and marginalized families and partnered with more than 700 private health care providers.

In her most recent role at MSI as Regional Director for its West Asia, Dr. Bilgrami managed a diverse group of over 3,000 employees and provided technical support to five countries – Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Yemen.

Dr. Bilgrami retired from MSI in 2020, after almost 30 years with the organization. She has a bachelor’s degree in Medicine from Dow Medical college and a Public Health Diploma in Community Health Sciences from Aga Khan University, both in Pakistan.

Glenda is a skilled professional in the area of large-scale organizational change and brings a wealth of experience from the not-for-profit and commercial sectors. She brings substantial board experience as chair of the MSI Board of Trustees; co-chair of the International Rescue Committee Overseers, where she served on the board for 12 years; co-chair emerita of the Women’s Refugee Commission, and US co-chair and board member of Tusk USA, which supports innovation in conservation in Africa. She also chaired the Board of Directors for the Northwest Connecticut Centre for Family Service and Mental Health.

Glenda has worked in corporate executive roles for several large companies, including Millipore, and Reader’s Digest and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which seeks to strengthen and defend the humanities and arts as central to the well-being of diverse, fair and democratic societies.

Glenda’s consulting experience includes the restructuring of British Airways North America Sales and Marketing; the restructuring of the Human Capital organization at the NY City Department of Education; and the roll-out of and related advocacy of research regarding race-sensitive admissions policies in colleges and universities.

Phil founded DKT International in 1989 and served as its president through 2013. He is Chair of the DKT Board of Directors. He was co-founder (with Dr. Tim Black, CBE) of Population Services International (PSI) and served as PSI president before founding DKT.

Phil has been championing the benefits of social marketing for over four decades. Earlier he served as deputy director of CARE’s program in India.

He is author of Let Every Child Be Wanted: How Social Marketing is Revolutionizing Contraceptive Use Around the World (1999) and of more than 20 published articles on international development, family planning and the use of social marketing techniques to promote family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention programs.

Jim has over 15 years of experience in finance and operations management with an extensive background in the development, implementation and management of the business cycle. In his current role at MSI-US he is responsible for all aspects of operations management including finance, human resources and legal compliance. Jim’s role is to ensure that MSI-US is an excellent steward of donor contributions, and that MSI-US is fully compliant with all US nonprofit requirements.

His past responsibilities have encompassed complex budgeting and cost allocation in the service and manufacturing industries, facilities and IT management, incentive and compensation plan design, and financial oversight in both the private and non-profit industries.

Jim is a graduate of the Villanova University School of Business and has been a practicing CPA for 12 years.

Alexis is Marketing Manager at Facebook and Instagram, where she has worked on helping small businesses and nonprofits build and grow their online presence. Her career focus is scaled marketing for technology companies, previously working at Epsilon, a leading performance marketing agency with clients such as Google and Apple, as well as Brilliant Earth, a socially responsible e-commerce retailer of conflict-free diamonds.

In 2008, Alexis spent three months in Sierra Leone working with MSI as a research assistant. Since then, she has been a passionate advocate for MSI’s work. With three generations of family members involved in women’s reproductive health, she feels deeply about MSI’s mission.

Alexis previously served as a board member for Spark, which supports international grassroots women’s organizations. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and her Master’s Degree in Organizational Theory from Stanford University.

Marjorie Newman-Williams is an accomplished non-profit executive whose single-minded purpose is to help women and sexually active adolescents prevent unwanted pregnancies and avoid unsafe abortions. She is President of Marie Stopes International’s US office and Vice President of External Affairs at Marie Stopes International.

For over 30 years advancing human rights and human development through programs that improve health, save lives, educate children and empower women has been her focus. She worked previously with UNICEF, PAHO/WHO, FHI 360 and Children’s Defense Fund.

Marjorie is a graduate of the University of the West Indies and is originally from Jamaica. She pursued a career in advertising and marketing avidly until Jamaica’s Ministry of Health contracted her agency to develop family planning and improved nutrition campaigns. Thereafter she joined UNICEF and never looked back.

Susan Rich is an accomplished philanthropic leader with over 25 years of experience in international family planning and reproductive health issues.

She served as the Vice President of the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) from 2013-2017 where she cultivated a portfolio of international programs funded by private foundations and non-USG partners such as UNFPA, the World Bank and DFID. Susan has also led development for PRB programs funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates, Hewlett and Packard Foundations. From 2013-2015 Susan managed the IDEA project, funded by USAID for $20 million over 5 years.

Previously, Susan led the team that developed the Gates Foundation’s first $600 million, five-year family planning strategy. While at Gates, she also collaborated with major governmental donors in the UK (DFID), Germany (Kfw) the Netherlands and US (USAID), as well as the Hewlett, Packard, MacArthur, Ford and United Nations Foundations.

Susan also brings experience directing multi-million dollar grant portfolios at UNF and Wallace Global Fund. She has an extensive leadership portfolio that includes chairman of the Board of the Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health and Rights. Susan has a track record of convening key donors and stakeholders, as well as raising awareness through public speaking and media collaborations.

Owen is a Designer, Partner and Client Relationship Executive at IDEO. He works across IDEO on global initiatives, spending his time at the cross-section of brand, business and organizational design. Owen brings his creative expertise to an array of different sectors. His portfolio includes clients such as Pacific Life, HBO, Microsoft and Toronto Pearson Airport.

Since joining IDEO in 1998, Owen has led various core initiatives. He started IDEO’s first cross-disciplinary studio, bringing together engineering and design; he has led the San Francisco studio; and he launched the company’s presence in Asia. Additionally, Owen co-founded IDEO’s online school, IDEO U.

Owen’s father was the medical director at an MSI clinic in London for over 20 years. Owen fondly recalls spending time at the clinic after school and during holidays, where he met the staff and clients whom MSI supported every day. His passion for MSI’s mission continues, as he mentors and coaches the Sexual Reproductive Healthcare practice at IDEO.org, the non-profit sister company of IDEO.

Owen graduated from the Royal College of Art in London with a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design, and in 2017 he received his Honoree Doctorate in Design from the University of Wales.  He is married and lives with his wife and two sons in the Bay Area.

Jonathan Tobert moved from his native UK to the US in 1975, where he spent his career working in the pharmaceutical industry, designing and coordinating clinical trials to demonstrate efficacy and safety of investigational drugs.  He led the team that developed the first statin for lowering blood cholesterol and obtained regulatory approval in 1987.  Subsequently he worked on the large-scale clinical trials that showed that statins prevent heart attacks and strokes, with very few side effects.  These drugs are now taken by over 50 million people worldwide.  Thirty years later, Jonathan is still contributing to the medical literature as a University of Oxford academic visitor. He divides his time between New Jersey and Oxford.

Jonathan’s mother was a family-planning doctor at a time when this could not be mentioned at cocktail parties, which triggered his interest in reproductive medicine.  As a junior doctor, he spent six months in obstetrics and gynecology before pursuing a career in research.  Several decades later, he served on the FDA Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs. He has a medical degree from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in pharmacology from the University of London, where his thesis was on the copper IUD.