Foundation Board

The fact that the board of the Digicel Haiti Foundation is almost entirely comprised of Digicel staff members is its unique factor. These dedicated and passionate individuals donate freely of their time and counsel for the benefit of uplifting our communities.

Denis O’Brien – Patron

Denis O’Brien is Chairman of the privately-owned Digicel Group, one of the fastest growing cellular companies in the world.

Mr O’Brien founded Digicel in 2001 when the company launched a GSM cellular phone service in the Caribbean. The Digicel Group has extended its operations to 22 markets with more than 4 million subscribers in the Caribbean, Central and South America region.

Digicel Pacific recently acquired a business in Samoa and has secured licenses in Fiji and a number of other markets in the region.

Mr O’Brien is one of Ireland’s leading entrepreneurs with extensive investments across several sectors including international telecoms, radio, media, property, aircraft leasing, golf and other leisure interests. He also founded Communicorp Group which owns and manages a portfolio of media and broadcasting-related companies in Ireland and seven other European countries.

Prior to establishing Digicel Denis O’Brien founded the Esat Telecom Group plc and built it throughout the 1990’s until its sale to British Telecom plc for € 2.4 billion.

Outside of extensive business interests, Denis chaired the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Ireland. It was the first time the Summer Games were staged outside the US with teams from 160 countries and over 30,000 volunteers, the 2003 Summer Games were the most successful ever.

He is Chairman of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Judging Panel, having previously been a recipient of the award. He serves as a Director on the US Board of Concern Worldwide.

In addition, he is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Frontline, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human rights Defenders. Based in Dublin, Frontline is working to ensure that the standards set out in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted in 1998, are known, respected and adhered to worldwide. Frontline’s work consists of research, advocacy, communications/technical assistance and emergency evacuation of human rights activists.

In 2000 he established The O’Brien Foundation to identify and assist projects in Ireland and internationally which aim to alleviate disadvantaged communities.

Denis holds a BA degree from University College Dublin and an MBA from Boston College.

Raymonde Pun - Chairperson

I am very proud to have been selected to be the chairperson of the DIGICELFoundation in Haiti.

Since the very beginning, I participated in the Foundation by proposing projects and by supporting the founding members to find their path to action in Haiti. I remember our meetings and especially the enthusiasm which they expressed while wanting to get to work and help the underprivileged population.

Having spent the last 28 years as Executive Director for Food for The Poor, it is with joy that I will now invest myself fully to help the Foundation achieve its goals: to educate and allow young Haitians to reach education while significantly reinforcing the communities in which they grow.

To finish I would like to thank all the volunteers, the employees, the members of the Foundation who have worked so tirelessly to build up the Foundation, particularly Josefa, Esther, Susan and Maria. Now that I belong to this large team, I have only words to say: Thank you, well done and good luck.

Raymonde Pun,

Chairperson of the Foundation

Josefa Gauthier

Executive Director, Digicel Foundation Haiti

A Message from Josefa

During the launch of the Foundation at Thomazeau in March 2007 we made the announcement that we were going to undertake the feat of constructing 20 new schools in all 10 departments in our first year. This project seemed impossible to most of us in the beginning, however with the collaboration and the support of our devoted partners and supporters we were able to reach our objective.

Now in our third year we are directly support the quality enhancement of these twenty primary schools. We have focused on teacher training, feeding programs, water provision, environment, school resources and equipment as well as professional training in each school.

We are also in-directly supporting twenty-seven schools in the central plateau through our partnership with Zanmi Lasante and run our local grant programme which has seen us renovate orphanages, equip music camps, renovate schools and many more worthwhile projects.

We are a small Foundation with a small team but we are working hard to support as many community projects as we can. Of course none of this would be possible with out our Board and the many Digicel staff that volunteer their time. We remain indebted to you. I want to thank especially the Patron of the Foundation Mr. Denis O’Brien whose vision has driven us from the onset. Indeed we could not have achieved all of the above without the many partners we have can and continue to work with. Thank you to World vision, Concern, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), World Food Program, Ministère de L’Education Nationale, Food for the Poor and Suas Educational Development.

We have just started our third year but we still have a long way to go. I am convinced that this beautiful endeavor will last for a long time, because the foundation goes further than a simple Foundation, it is a privileged place where a human construction will stand for tomorrow’s society. Thanks for helping us attain our objectives, to bring hope to thousands of Haitian children and to provide a contribution to tomorrow’s society.

Thanks to all,

Josefa Gauthier