Seán Rafter
The record

Four industries and more than thirty countries

An engine lab in England, a telecoms network in Zürich, a disaster zone in eastern Congo. I have lived in Ireland, England, Switzerland and Singapore, and worked in more than thirty countries.

In 2015 the Kühne Foundation brought me in to build and shape a long-term strategy for humanitarian logistics support. HELP Logistics has grown from four people to 41 since then, across six offices on four continents. The work is advisory and training for governments, UN agencies and NGOs, on how humanitarian supply chains are designed and run.

I handed all five regional directorships to nationals of the countries they serve, and developed each of them inside HELP. After Typhoon Yolanda I stood up an international relief hub on Cebu within a day of arriving. In eastern Congo we moved operating cash between Goma and Rutshuru without losing any of it, on a road where other agencies were being robbed at gunpoint.

I hold a first-class engineering degree and an MBA graded excellent. I have given a TEDx talk, and I am one of seven authors on a peer-reviewed paper.

4
industries: automotive engineering, telecoms, humanitarian logistics, philanthropy
30+
countries worked in, on five continents
41
people across six offices, Singapore to Senegal
24 hours
to stand up an international relief hub on Cebu after Typhoon Yolanda

Experience

2015 to presentSchindellegi, CH

HELP Logistics

CEO, and Managing Director from 2015 until September 2026
A program of the Kühne Foundation
  • Brought in to build and shape a long-term strategy for humanitarian logistics support.
  • Grew the team from four people to 41, and opened each of the six offices from company registration onward. Singapore, Jordan, Kenya, Senegal, Germany and the Swiss headquarters.
  • Handed all five regional directorships to nationals of the countries they work in, and developed each of them inside HELP.
  • Hold the strategic global agreements and partnerships.
  • Advisory and training across four continents for governments, UN agencies and NGOs, on how humanitarian supply chains are designed and run.
2021 to presentConcurrent

CHORD

Operations Director, with a governance board position at Kühne Logistics University
The Center for Humanitarian Logistics and Regional Development, run jointly by KLU and HELP Logistics
  • Governance and oversight of a centre built to bridge humanitarian practice and academia.
2012 to 2014Singapore

Save the Children International

Regional Head of Logistics, Asia
  • Supply chain strategy for the region, and logistics guidance to 15 country offices.
  • Typhoon Yolanda, November 2013. Arrived on Cebu 48 hours after landfall and had the international hub running within a day, into a 2,000 square metre warehouse.
2010 to 2012Global roster

Save the Children UK

Emergency Logistics Manager
  • Senior member of a 24/7 emergency roster, deployable anywhere at short notice.
  • Deployed to Kenya, Somalia, Pakistan, Ivory Coast, North Korea, Nigeria and Libya.
2008 to 2009DR Congo, Ivory Coast

Merlin

Logistics Coordinator
Medical Emergency Relief International
  • Procurement, storage, transport and distribution for health services in development and emergency contexts.
  • Adopted and ran a cash-movement protocol proposed by a local driver, on a road where peer organizations were being robbed at gunpoint. Never intercepted, no losses.
  • Replaced document-based driver recruitment with a practical competence test.
2002 to 2007Zürich, CH

Sunrise

Operations Team Leader
TDC Switzerland
  • Built and ran a 24/7 IT operations team for business-critical telecom services.
  • Network provisioning, billing and customer relations.
2000 to 2002Bracknell, UK

Vitria Technology

Support Engineer
  • J2EE technical support across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
1995 to 2000Shoreham-by-Sea, UK

Ricardo Consulting Engineers

Project Engineer, from software engineer through FEA analyst
  • Automotive noise and vibration for GM, Saab, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Hyundai.
  • Crankshaft-noise research that informed a client go or no-go decision.
  • Company champion for WAVE simulation software, and built the technical knowledge-management intranet.

Education

2023 to 2025Hamburg, DE

Kühne Logistics University

MBA, Leadership and Supply Chain Management
Graduated 31 August 2025, overall grade excellent (1.2)
  • Thesis on localization and decision authority in humanitarian supply chains, from sixteen interviews across international NGOs, UN agencies, donor bodies and local organizations.
1991 to 1993Liverpool, UK

Liverpool John Moores University

B.Eng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering, First Class
IMechE award for best final-year project
1988 to 1991Dublin, IE

Dublin Institute of Technology

Diploma, Mechanical Engineering, merit
1987 to 1988Ireland

College of Art

Certificate, Art, Design and the Environment

Published work and speaking

2026TEDxKLU

Move Before You're Ready

TEDxKLU, Hamburg, February 2026
Watch it, or read the context on the talk page
2025Framework

Pathways and Power

Three questions that determine whether authority actually moves
Drawn from the MBA thesis. The framework
2025Research report

The State of Logistics and Supply Chain in the Humanitarian Context 2024

Global Survey Findings, CHORD, February 2025
Salem and Winter, contributor Rafter. Published by CHORD, the joint venture of Kühne Logistics University and HELP Logistics. Read it
2023Peer-reviewed

Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management

"Data, analytical techniques and collaboration between researchers and practitioners in humanitarian health supply chains: a challenging but necessary way forward"
De Boeck, Besiou, Decouttere, Rafter, Vandaele, Van Wassenhove and Yadav. Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 237-248. Open access. doi.org/10.1108/JHLSCM-07-2022-0078