As one of the founding partners of Social Impact (SI), Rolf leads SI in the fulfillment of its mission to make development more effective in improving people’s lives. His leadership, vision, experience, and creativity in participatory development and results-based management are the foundation of SI’s philosophy and approach. Over the past twenty years Rolf has worked to grow SI from a small company comprised of a handful of key consultants to a global leader in international development management with a team of over 200 full time staff around the world. Rolf works closely with SI’s Executive Management Team to provide strategic direction to SI and to expand SI’s global footprint and influence.
For over 30 years, Rolf has been a passionate thought leader, practitioner and teacher on a range of topics to make international development more effective in improving people’s lives. An expert in strategic management, program design and management, program evaluation, organizational development, performance management, participatory planning and adult learning, he has been an adviser to USAID, State Department, Millennium Challenge Corporation, World Bank, the Asian and African Development Banks, DFID, Family Health International, World Wildlife Fund and The Carter Center, and a number of developing country governments, to advance their program and organizational effectiveness.
While leading Social Impact, Rolf designed and directed many of SI’s multi-year programs and contracts with SI’s clients in the areas of results-based management, strategy development, evaluation and evaluation capacity building leading to measurable improvements in their programs for poverty reduction, economic growth, health, education, environment, social inclusion and democracy and governance. Over the years Rolf has led over 150 projects for more than 40 client organizations in 80 countries. He is also the originator of SI’s innovative approach to Evaluation Quality, Use and Impact (EQUI).
As an independent consultant, prior to launching SI, Rolf worked in over forty countries providing technical and management assistance to strengthen the performance of governments, development organizations, and project teams working to improve people’s lives.
Rolf taught for seven years Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service where he enjoyed preparing the next generation of development practitioners and inculcating values and skills for managing development and positive social change.
Rolf holds an M.A. in International Public Administration from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota where he worked closely with V.W. Ruttan, a leading development economist.
In his free time, Rolf enjoys his family and cycling on country roads of Virginia.