Meet the MoveMe Team
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead
May I introduce you to our small group of thoughtful, committed citizens…
Briana Evigan
Area of focus: My role is to connect the dots globally and build the foundation, by putting the teams together for Abundant Village, in different countries around the world. As a storyteller, I believe watching other people's stories can change the lives of millions. My job is to find the impactful stories and translate them to film, television or into documentaries.
What Makes me Tick: Watching human transformation, having a change of heart, saving animals, protecting planet earth, stories telling, music, dance, believing you can make a difference and watching it all unfold knowing that if you never give up hope, you can keep dreaming and anything is possible. Whether it's finding villages to make abundant, finding the people on the ground to protect the land, or team building. My passion is in inspiring humans to thrive. Traveling around the world for the last 15 years, I’ve got eyes on several different areas globally where we will be able to scale the projects and impact the lives of millions.
Career Highlights: Having been an actor the past 15 years in successful studio films, my highlight was producing our completed pilot episode to our MoveMe South Africa docuseries and looking forward to completing the seven episodes next year. Working with Robert Rodriquez and Quinton Tarantino in the TV series From Dusk ‘til Dawn was also one for the books.
Stuart Newton
Areas of focus: My role is to create relationships and partnerships for many of the solutions within Abundant Village. Create ways to scale what we learn and refine the model to easily adapt to new and existing villages.
What makes me tick: I love our mission at MoveMe: Positively impacting the lives of millions, both animals and humans alike. I am passionate about making a difference, solving complex social challenges and making people happy. MoveMe and Abundant Villages allows me to do all that and more.
Career highlights: I love building relationships. For almost 40 years, I have been in sales, sales leadership and a senior executive across numerous industries. I have developed a vast network eager to help each other with referrals to support our continued success. I recently retired as the National BD leader for Blockchain and the Wine Practice at Deloitte, so I can focus my efforts on MoveMe and advising interesting projects.
Elle Winsted
Area of Focus: My role is to make sure all the moving parts of Abundant Village run smoothly and effectively. I believe strongly in a human-centered approach to community building which requires active listening, intentional planning, consistent engagement and thoughtful management. And of course, kindness!
What makes me tick: Collective joy is a big one for me. The feeling of sharing in each other's human experiences makes me feel deeply connected to my core being and humanity. It lights my soul on fire. I also love learning about traditions practiced amongst various cultures as it keeps generations connected throughout time. I'm a lover of people, places, animals and the earth.
Career highlights: The core values that drive my career are exploration, empathy and service. I have worked with communities around the world and am incredibly passionate about engaging with them to find solutions that can add long-lasting value to their lives. A career highlight is Victor's Home Project where I built a relationship with a former student with Muscular Dystrophy and his family over a decade. We worked to provide care for him and build a home that could be a safe and healthy space for him to live. Throughout that process, I learned the value of active listening, having empathy and serving others who might not have the resources to do so with humility. I learned the power of community and working together which has shaped me into a better human.
Albertus Louw
Area of focus: My role is listening, dialoguing and crafting strategy to create scalable solutions. To ensure that needs are identified by the community and the most impactful solutions are developed and implemented.
What makes me tick: People, cultures, regenerative solutions, stories and adventure. I am especially inspired by the ways humans move closer to our true place on this planet, in harmony with ourselves, one another and our environment.
Career highlights: Working with communities in disaster zones from war-torn areas in Africa and the Middle East to earthquakes and tsunamis in Turkey and Indonesia. As a filmmaker, I am constantly on adventures around the world, finding stories about people and the planet. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the arctic or the tropical jungles of central Africa. Through my work in Abundant Village and MoveMe, I get to continue my impactful journey with beautiful, diverse communities in unique, diverse parts of the world.
Lotus Khoza
Areas of focus: My role is to create linkages between communities and Abundant Village. Also, encouraging community participation as we develop each village. Additionally, keeping an eye on stakeholder engagement and management.
What makes me tick: I love my communities and MoveMe will provide me a platform to continue developing and empowering my people. All driven by positive impact in both conservation and communities.
Career highlights: I am inspired by community engagement and helping people up with solutions for themselves. Working with the communities and not working for them. While new ideas are important, communities have to be on board for the sustainability and ownership of any project. My 20 years’ of experience in Community Development and Conservation enables dialogue between donors and communities.
Jabu Zwane
Areas of focus: Part of my role is to forge partnerships between local communities, Abundant village and other stakeholders for sustainable projects development. Building/creating database knowledge to understand communities, how they function and their social issues.
What makes me tick: History, Culture and the heritage of Amashangana people. Empowering communities.
Career highlights: As a businessperson, being involved in several community development projects addressing poverty in the area, brought about the curiosity as to why there is a lack of cohesion between the conservation business and the communities. One of my highlights is encouraging and creating platforms for local communities to be part of the value chain to improve social issues.