Chair of the Board: VERAS Foundation

About VERAS Foundation:VERAS Foundation answers the question donors increasingly face: is the money reaching real people? It is an independent Dutch foundation being established in The Hague to govern the VERAS standard (Verified Expenditure and Recipient Assurance Standard), a sector-agnostic methodology for grading disbursement integrity across government payrolls, humanitarian cash transfers, NGO beneficiary registries, pensions, and social protection programmes. VERAS is modelled on independent rating and standards bodies, with the structural independence needed for donor institutions to cite its grades as grant conditions.

Vacancy: Founding Chair of the Board, VERAS Foundation

Chair Profile

The Chair brings standing recognised by multilaterals, bilaterals, or DFIs; independent judgment to protect the methodology from commercial pressure; and appetite for governance at a foundation in formation.

International, English-speaking, Netherlands-based with quarterly attendance in The Hague. The working language of the board is English; the methodology lead lives in Canada.

Independence is essential: the Chair must hold no commercial, advisory, or financial relationship with GuardGhost or with any entity likely to be assessed under the VERAS standard.

The following profiles are particularly relevant:

• Retired World Bank or UNDP PFM specialist: institutional credibility with multilaterals; familiarity with PEFA.
• ISS or Clingendael academic with donor-conditionality expertise: academic independence, peer-review network.
• Former senior UN, EU DEVCO, or ECHO official: humanitarian-side credibility, CHS familiarity.
• Retired development bank executive (FMO, KfW, AFD, EIB): private-capital donor-conditionality credibility.

Chair Responsibilities:

The Chair presides over quarterly board meetings and ensures board-level integrity of the standard.

Time Commitment:

Four quarterly board meetings, plus lighter engagement through the year.

Term: initial two years, renewable.

Board Composition:

The board will comprise the Chair, the methodology lead, and additional members confirmed at registration.

Contact:
Interested parties are invited to send a brief resume and statement of interest (one page) to chair-search@verasfoundation.org. We aim to confirm appointment by end of Q3 2026.
VERAS Foundation welcomes applications from all backgrounds.

VERAS Foundation was initiated by GuardGhost, a Dutch detection platform. GuardGhost is structurally independent of the foundation and holds no governance role in VERAS.