Learn more about us: People

Monique Villa was appointed CEO of Thomson Reuters Foundation in 2008, shortly after the acquisition of Reuters by Thomson. She has since transformed the former Reuters Foundation into a strategic, high-impact and truly global foundation that reflects the expertise and business acumen of the company.

With the strong belief that information is a form of aid that can strengthen humanitarian work, spread the rule of law and ultimately save lives, Monique has built upon the Foundation’s successful programmes in media and journalism training around the world to launch several new initiatives.

In January 2010, she created the Emergency Information Service (EIS) to provide critical information to survivors of Haiti’s devastating earthquake. EIS provided an unprecedented lifeline for tens of thousands of people through SMS messages, demonstrating that two-way communication is key to saving lives and bolstering recovery.

In June 2010, she launched TrustLaw, a service to connect lawyers willing to work at no cost with NGOs, social entrepreneurs and governments in need of legal assistance. With members in more than 140 countries, TrustLaw is also a global hub of news and information on anti-corruption and good governance.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Monique was Managing Director of Reuters Media and Chairman of Action Images. Monique managed the picture and text news business for Reuters from 2001. She transformed the picture business and negotiated important deals for Media and Editorial, including a partnership with the International Herald Tribune to jointly produce their business pages, both in print and online.

A French national, Monique spent the first part of her career at Agence France-Presse (AFP) where she held a number of senior journalistic and management positions. She reported for a number of years from Paris, Rome and London where she was bureau chief from 1991 to 1996. She then became Director of Strategy and Business Development at AFP headquarters in Paris, with responsibility for the agency’s major partnerships worldwide.

Married with two sons, Monique studied Law and Political Science and has a Diploma from the Paris Centre de Formation Des Journalistes.

Timothy Large is Editor of three flagship news services run by Thomson Reuters Foundation: the AlertNet humanitarian news website, its related Emergency Information Service (EIS) and the TrustLaw website on anti-corruption and free legal assistance.

Before joining the Foundation in 2003 he was a correspondent for Reuters News in Tokyo, a staff writer for a major Japanese daily newspaper and news editor of a popular online science magazine. He has also worked as a freelance journalist. He has written widely on humanitarian themes as well as social issues, economics, science, literature and the arts. He is a passionate photojournalist.

He led the creation of EIS, a free, SMS-based mass information service for disaster-affected populations, which deployed for the first time after the January 2010 Haiti earthquake. He spearheaded the AlertNet for Journalists initiative aimed at helping media professionals around the world tackle neglected wars, disasters and health emergencies. He has designed and delivered the Foundation’s "Reporting crises and disasters" courses for local journalists in Africa and Asia.

Born in the United States, raised in Australia, naturalised in Britain and a long-time resident of Japan, he considers himself a global citizen. He has a First Class degree in English Language and Literature from Oxford University and in 1997 was a Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Scholar in Tokyo.

Sarah is focused on business development efforts in the United States, working to deepen the impact of the Foundation’s programming through partnerships and other initiatives.

Sarah was most recently a vice president with SeaChange Capital Partners, a philanthropic network focused on providing growth capital to exceptional education nonprofits. Prior to SeaChange, she served as the director of programmes for New York University Stern School of Business's Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and as an adjunct professor of social entrepreneurship. She launched and directed the Stewart Satter Programme in Social Entrepreneurship at NYU, oversaw grant making for the Satter Social Entrepreneurship Fund and advised students and alumni on their business plans and operations. Previously, Sarah was an associate in the Private Equity Group at SoundView Technology Group.

Earlier in her career, she directed the non-profit social venture, Earth Tones, a long distance reseller owned and operated by a consortium of environmental groups. Sarah was also a regional In addition, Sarah co-chairs the steering committee for the Monmouth County affiliate of the Community Foundation of New Jersey and is the acting chair for Playworks

Newark. A graduate of Middlebury College and the NYU Stern School of Business, Sarah lives in New Jersey with her husband and three kids.

Maria joined the Foundation in November 2008, where she heads the team in charge of two of the communities the Foundation has created: AlertNet's community of 450 humanitarian NGOs and the TrustLaw Connect community bringing together lawyers, NGOs and social entrepreneurs.

Before joining the Foundation, Maria worked at the International Crisis Group, a world leading source of analysis and advice on the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict. She held different positions there, most recently as Director, Private Sector Initiatives. In that position, she was in charge of relations with the private sector outside of North America, contributing to corporations understanding of emerging economies and countries in conflict and post-conflict situations.

Maria completed an MBA at the Said Business School (University of Oxford) in 2007, where she worked, inter alia, on political risk and government affairs, new approaches to corporate responsibility, negotiations and social marketing. Maria also holds a Master's degree in European Union Studies.

She speaks fluent Spanish and English and good Portuguese.

Nick has been with the Thomson Reuters Foundation since 2011, looking after TrustLaw Connect's network of law firms, general counsels and free-lance lawyers, and managing projects submitted by our non-profit and social entrepreneur partners. Prior to joining the Foundation as Senior Manager - Legal, he worked as a lawyer in the London and Chicago offices of Mayer Brown, an international law firm, specialising in finance and banking law. He has a substantial development experience both as a lawyer and through voluntary programmes. Nick is British, and speaks French and Spanish as well as conversational Italian. He is an English qualified solicitor and has a degree in English from the University of Nottingham.

Anne-Sophie has been with the Foundation since 2009 and as Partnerships and Communications Manager works on building TrustLaw’s international network of law firms. Previously she worked as a journalist for the French media, writing about general politics, travel and culture. She has also compiled a documentary on the Middle East, her major passion. A French national, Anne-Sophie has lived in five countries, including Italy, Lebanon and Spain. She studied European Politics at the LSE and also graduated from Sciences-Po, Paris. She is fluent in French, English and Italian with good conversational Spanish and German.

Daniel has worked at the Foundation since 2009, building the network of NGO and social entrepreneur members for TrustLaw Connect. Daniel is Norwegian-Iranian and studied in Spain through his dual BA in International Affairs & Spanish. He also lived briefly in China and Japan during his MBA programme. He speaks Norwegian, Spanish, some Farsi and has experience in the non-profit sector in the US and the interpretation/translation industry in the US and Ireland.