Meet Our Team

Ghislain Guiebo | Co-Executive Director

Ghislain was born in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. Ghislain has a background in finance and has worked in the past with DHL account receivable and Bank Of Africa in Kenya. Ghislain has been working with The Working World since 2016, starting as a Project Steward and currently acting as Co-Executive director of the organization. Ghislain is also a business owner in Burkina Faso and on the board of Seed Commons. Ghislain is deeply committed to creating a more just and equitable world, redefining finance, eliminating income disparities, ending poverty and giving back power to the workers.

Scott Trumbull | Co-Executive Director

In 2011, Scott joined The Working World team as a Project Steward in Leon, Nicaragua. There, he led investments in over 20 worker and producer cooperatives and facilitated strategic alliances with local government and nonprofit organizations. In 2013, he returned to the United States where he managed The Working World’s New York City-based programs. Scott played a leading role developing and managing cooperative academies, launching our cooperative conversions program, and building out early infrastructure for Seed Commons, a national network of locally-rooted, non-extractive loan funds of which The Working World is a founding member. In 2020, Scott was named Co-Executive Director of The Working World’s New York City office. Scott holds a B.A. in Government and History from the University of Virginia and a M.P.A. in Public Finance and Financial Management from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. He has also served on the board of the New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives (NYC NOWC), was a 2015 Democracy at Work Institute Fellow, and has consulted for Banco Popular y de Desarrollo Comunal in Costa Rica.

Karen Haskins | Senior Fellow: Finance Advisor

As Senior Fellow with a focus on financial advising, Karen contributes her financial know-how to both cooperative projects and to The Working World’s own finances. Karen joined our team in 2011 as a loan officer in Nicaragua, and was integral in forming the US office. Karen previously worked as a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Masters of Accountancy and a BBA in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin‒Madison.

Brendan Martin | Senior Fellow: Capital Placement Advisor

Having been a co-founder of The Working World in 2004 along with Avi Lewis and its Executive Director from 2004 to 2020, Brendan has passed on the position of ED to the leadership of Ghislain Guiebo and Scott Trumbull.  Brendan now serves as a Senior Fellow as a close advisor and support for the executive team and focuses on capital placement and investment plans with the cooperative projects The Working World focuses on. Brendan is also Co-Director of Seed Commons, the national infrastructure for non-extractive finance that TWW helped launch and that it is now a member of, and his work there builds off of and helps support his ongoing role at TWW.  Brendan is an Ashoka fellow and two-time Ashoka Globalizer, serves on the board of the Southern Reparations Loan Fund, the New Economy Project, California Harvesters farmworker cooperative, Brooklyn Stone and Tile cooperative, and serves as key technical support to New Era Windows Coop.

 

Alice Maggio | Senior Project Steward

Alice is a Brooklyn-born and Berkshire-raised community developer passionate about building economic institutions that distribute power and create community wealth. At The Working World, she works directly with the members of worker-owned cooperatives, helping them strengthen their financial analysis, governance, and ownership culture. She helps convert existing companies to worker-ownership, and teaches workshops on worker-ownership for business service providers and business owners. In her previous work at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and BerkShares Local Currency, she gained experience in facilitation and public speaking while supporting locally owned businesses and community banks. Alice has a BA  in Sociology and French from Wesleyan University and an MA in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University.

Barry Pinckney | Senior Project Steward

Barry is a magna cum laude graduate of Rutgers University from Newark, NJ. Barry has experience with democratic workplaces after starting a cooperative youth development organization focused on combating the pipeline to prison that targets communities of color. Barry previously worked with the Urban Cooperative Enterprise & Legal Center, organizing around agriculture, housing, and prison slavery legalized by the 13th amendment. Barry’ vision calls for a movement of the people using cooperation as one of the main tools to move forward economic development and solidarity of underserved communities.

Michelle Saenz | Senior Project Steward

Michelle was born in Chula Vista, California, a town along the US/Mexico border. Likely due to her experiences on both sides of the border, she developed an interest in economic inequality at a young age. This led her to study Latin American economic history as an undergraduate, and from there she pursued a graduate degree in Urban Planning at Hunter College. She has worked in economic development and workforce development since then, finding a home at The Working World in 2019. Here, she manages start up businesses, conversions, and expansion projects.