Genny Kiff

Role: Senior Adviser to the African Academy of Sciences for the Global Grant Community

Country: UK

Nationality: UK/New Zealand

Biography

Genny has extensive experience in a variety of roles in both the NGO and Commercial sectors. In 2019-2023, she was the CFO for the Oxford University Clinical Research Network based in Vietnam. Prior to this role, Genny worked for the Wellcome Trust for 20 years in a number of roles. From 2015 to 2018 she was interim CFO for the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute with the aim of transforming the finance function. Prior to this role, other roles included Head of Financial Planning and Reporting, Senior Finance Manager and Investment and Subsidiaries Accountant. Her responsibilities included managing a team of 30, delivering financial planning and reporting to the Boards, business partnering services to enable the development of new legal entities and initiatives both in the UK and globally and accounting for Wellcome’s investment portfolio. As part of her roles, she has served as a Director on the boards of investment, biotech and charitable organisations. She has also been a member of finance, audit and risk committees both in the UK and internationally.

In addition to the above, since 2015 she is a Senior Advisor to the African Academy of Sciences for the development of the Global Grant Community – Good Financial Grant Practice. A standard and system which aims to standardise, simplify and strengthen the financial management of grants.

Prior to joining the Wellcome Trust, Genny worked at Ernst and Young (New Zealand) where she qualified as a chartered accountant with major clients ranging from financial institutions, manufacturing companies to charities. Prior to Ernst and Young she was a research scientist with GEC Hirst Research Centre (London, UK).