Global Leadership

Gary Haugen is CEO and founder of International Justice Mission.

Before founding IJM in 1997, Gary was a human rights attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, where he focused on crimes of police misconduct. In 1994, he served as the Director of the United Nations’ investigation in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. In this role, he led an international team of lawyers, criminal prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and forensics experts to gather evidence that would eventually be used to bring the perpetrators of the genocide to justice. Gary received a B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard University, and a J.D. from the University of Chicago.

Gary has been recognized by the U.S. State Department as a Trafficking in Persons “Hero” – the highest honor given by the U.S. government for anti-slavery leadership. His work to protect the poor from violence has been featured by Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, the New Yorker, The Times of India, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, the Guardian and National Public Radio, among many other outlets. He is the author of several books, including Good News About Injustice (Intervarsity Press) and, most recently, The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence (Oxford University Press). Gary was invited to share the themes of The Locust Effect at the annual TED Conference in a talk entitled: The hidden reason for poverty the world needs to address now.

Barry serves as IJM’s Chief Information Officer, leading the strategy and teams responsible for strengthening IJM’s technology systems and infrastructure, driving innovation, automating business processes, and enhancing employee performance.

Most recently, Barry held the interim CIO role and before that joined IJM in June 2021 as Vice President, Information Technology Strategy and Operations. He has over 20 years of experience in the technology field, 15 of which have been spent leading IT teams and driving digital transformation efforts. Prior to joining IJM, Barry held IT leadership roles at the National Academy of Sciences, College Board, and Gategroup, where he managed IT infrastructure platforms and oversaw IT modernization efforts globally. Barry holds a dual bachelor’s degree in engineering and computer science from Kingston University in England, as well as a master’s degree in information technology from Virginia Tech.

Barry is married, has two daughters, and has lived in the Washington, D.C., area for the last 23 years. He was born and raised in Ghana and still calls Ghana home. He is very thankful for the work IJM does there and is excited to be a part of the IJM story.

Blair Burns serves as IJM's Chief Program Officer, leading the development and execution of the global program strategy to make justice for people in poverty unstoppable. Blair also oversees the development and drives the execution of a global activation strategy that mobilizes critical centers of global power and the Global Survivor Network to provide the resources and influence necessary for transforming local justice systems.

In previous leadership roles at IJM, Blair directed IJM's casework operations around the world in Latin America, Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, developing intervention strategies and advocating with local and national authorities; he supervised the HQ Field Operations, Aftercare, Investigations and International Church Mobilization departments. Before that, Blair served as Southeast Asia's Vice President of Regional Operations. Blair joined IJM Chennai in 2004, and throughout four and a half years, he led a team to rescue more than 700 people from modern slavery.

Before IJM, Blair worked as an associate lawyer at Bersch, Rhodes & Butler, where his practice focused on business, corporate and elder law. Blair holds a B.A. from James Madison University and a J.D. from Wake Forest University. He lives in the Washington, DC, area with his wife, Christina and their three children.

Eric serves as IJM's Chief Administrative Officer and is responsible for ensuring strong, effective executive leadership and strategic management of the global enterprise. Eric leads the Global Executive Office and manages the operations of the Global Leadership Team. Prior to this role, Eric served in several other executive leadership positions at IJM, including as Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel.

Before joining IJM, Eric spent nearly a decade at Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago where he managed large-scale commercial litigation, provided regulatory and strategic counseling, and conducted internal compliance investigations for major corporate clients. Prior to joining Sidley, Eric served as Advisory Counsel in IJM's Chennai field office where he worked on cases to rescue victims of forced labor slavery and human trafficking. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Miami School of Law and served as a federal law clerk to the Honorable Jorge A. Solis, Chief Judge of the Northern District of Texas.

Eric earned a B.A. with honors from the University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School where he was a Public Interest Law Initiative Fellow. He lives in northern Virginia with his wife and three children.

Stacy McMahan serves as Chief Financial Officer at International Justice Mission. She brings 30 years of experience in serving public companies, serving as CFO at nVent (NYSE:NVT), Spectranetics (NASDAQ:SPNC) – acquired by Royal Philips (XAMS: PHIA), and MSA Safety (NYSE:MSA). Previously, she served in financial leadership roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Johnson & Johnson, and Eli Lilly and Company.

Stacy is a graduate of Oklahoma State University, holds a MBA from the Harvard Business School and is a Certified Management Accountant.

Bill Clark serves as IJM’s Chief Resources Officer developing and leading strategies in collaboration with IJM Regional Presidents to increase global resources to fuel the mission.

Bill has 30 years of leadership experience with expertise in fundraising, brand management, marketing, communications, strategic partnerships, customer service, and operations. Bill has served for 10 years with International Justice Mission leading teams that have pioneered IJM revenue and movement building strategies.

In addition to his work at IJM, Bill has served in executive leadership positions across a broad spectrum of industries including Client Services Group Manager at PDSI Software, Chief of Strategy and Staff at Fuller Seminary, and Chief Advancement Officer at A21.

Bill graduated with honors in Political Science from the University of California at Irvine in 1992 and is currently engaged in a master’s program in conflict analysis and resolution at the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. Bill lives in California with his wife and two children.

Andy originally joined IJM in 2011, and in 2019 returned as the Regional President for Africa and Europe. During his career Andy has led teams in a number of different disciplines, sectors and regions.

Andy grew up in Brazil where his parents served as missionaries to indigenous people. After returning and studying in England, Andy led a successful career as a corporate lawyer specializing in sports and media, eventually becoming the global head of business and legal affairs for Endemol Group, the world’s largest independent TV and digital production company. He left Endemol to serve IJM as the Field Office Director for IJM Chennai, India, from 2011 to 2014, leading the team through the innovative Google Intervention Project. The total number of people rescued globally by IJM was doubled within 2 years as the IJM Chennai team pioneered the model of “scaling through partnership”.

Between his engagements with IJM, Andy became Global Director of Governance for VisionFund, the microfinance arm of World Vision, leading Board and Governance policy development with 35 organisations and 7,000 staff around the world. He then served as Chief Executive of Laureus Sport for Good, working with a network of 180 community-based partner organizations in 40 countries to support local change and development through sport. After 4 years leading Laureus Sport for Good, during which it doubled its revenue and partnership network and pioneered impact measurement for sports-based interventions, Andy rejoined IJM in 2019 as the Regional President for Africa and Europe.

Andy is based in London, England with his wife and 2 daughters

Saju Mathew serves as IJM’s Regional President of South Asia. IJM currently has offices in five cities in India, and Saju oversees our work to rescue and secure justice for survivors of trafficking and slavery and to transform the justice system so the poor are protected from violence.

Saju joined IJM in 2008 as the Field Office Director in Chennai, where he led our collaborative casework to rescue families from slavery and pioneered a flagship program to partner with the government to make reforms that will help end slavery in India.

Saju has fourteen years of litigation experience in both federal and state courts working for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. He received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law. Saju lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, Anu, and their five children.

Sharon Cohn Wu serves as IJM's Regional President of North America, leading the strategy and teams responsible for IJM's constituent, government and corporate partnerships in the United States and Canada.

Sharon has more than 20 years of leadership experience with IJM. Prior to her current role, Sharon managed and led all of IJM’s programs in the field for 10+ years before she began pioneering IJM’s Justice System Strengthening projects. Sharon also led IJM’s anti-trafficking efforts in South Asia and Southeast Asia, including establishing anti-trafficking operations and implementing IJM’s first USAID police training grant in Cambodia. Most recently, as Principal Advisor on Violence Against Women and Children, Sharon led IJM’s center of excellence in addressing violence against children, trafficking, and intimate partner violence, and developed globally applicable best practices for IJM’s extensive programs worldwide.

Sharon received her B.A. with honors in Government & Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She lives in the DC area with her husband and three children.

Christa Hayden Sharpe serves as IJM’s Regional President of Asia Pacific. Christa and her regional team support six IJM Program Offices in the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia as they support national governments to end the online sexual exploitation of children in the Philippines and forced labor and cross-border trafficking in various industries in Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia. Christa also leads our advancement growth and strategy across the region, with offices in Australia, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

Christa joined IJM in 2005 as IJM Cambodia’s Director of Aftercare where she led a team of social workers to provide crisis care, trial preparation and case management support for over 250 sex trafficking survivors. Christa then served as a Director of Church Mobilization in the U.S. where she engaged thousands in local and global efforts to seek justice and end violence committed against the most vulnerable. Christa returned to IJM Cambodia as Program Office Director where her team partnered with Cambodia's justice and social service systems, as well as a network of civil society partners, to successfully decrease the prevalence of child sex trafficking and increase local rule of law protections and trauma-informed support to the most vulnerable communities. Through police and social worker training and casework mentorship, municipal campaigns, monitoring and evaluation incentives, and collective action amongst civil society and government, IJM’s model led to the prevalence of child sex trafficking decreasing an additional 73% in two years. Most recently, Christa served as Vice President of Global Aftercare, and then as the Vice President of Programs, Southeast Asia before taking on this expanded Regional leadership role.

Christa holds a Master’s in Social Science Administration from Case Western Reserve University and a B.A. in Political Science and African & African Diaspora Studies from Tulane University. Christa, her husband and son currently live in the Washington, D.C. area.

Pablo Villeda serves as IJM’s Regional President of Latin America. IJM currently has field offices in Bolivia, Guatemala, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, as well as a casework alliance partner in Peru. Pablo oversees our work to bring rescue and restoration to children who have been victimized by sexual violence and to secure justice against rapists and traffickers.

Pablo joined IJM in 2007 as IJM Guatemala’s Field Office Director, where he led his team to achieve significant convictions against perpetrators of sexual violence and pioneered new ways of combating child sexual assault by equipping officials within the Guatemalan justice system.

Before joining IJM, Pablo worked alongside his father as an attorney with a focus on family law and contract dispute. He was also a visiting professor at the Universidad Rafael Landivar in Guatemala, where he received his J.D. Pablo and his wife live with their children in the Washington, DC area.