Fenton Whelan

Fenton has spent the last 20 years working on large-scale, transformative public sector projects across 30 countries. He is the founder and CEO of Acasus, a 200+ person consulting firm dedicated to improving health and education outcomes in the developing world. Some of Fenton's notable achievements in health and education include leading the implementation of the Punjab Health Reforms Roadmap between 2014 to 2018, resulting in transformational improvements in full immunisation coverage rates, skilled birth attendance rates and patient care. Since then, Fenton has led the expansion of Acasus’ data-driven approach to public sector reform, to several additional countries including Ethiopia, DRC, Nigeria and Afghanistan, where Acasus teams are leading large-scale projects in primary health care reform. Prior to starting Acasus, Fenton worked at McKinsey & Company, where he concentrated on Middle Eastern health and education systems. He studied Arabic and Middle Eastern History at the University of Oxford. Fenton has also written and contributed to a number of publications including a seminal synthesis, Lessons Learned: How Good Policies Produce Better Schools (2009), The Learning Challenge (2014), Capturing the Leadership Premium (2010), How to Close the Achievement Gap (2010) and Improving Education in the Gulf (2007). Fenton is fluent in English, and has a deep knowledge of Arabic.