OUR MISSION
Our mission is to improve how the world gives by empowering athletes to lead with their heart, head, and voice. We believe in a vision where all who can give, give effectively.
To become a world-class athlete, everything you do must be optimized. Giving back should be no different.
Led by Olympians Marcus Daniell and Hugo Inglis, HIA was founded on the idea that the high-performance mindset applied to philanthropy can change what's possible. No matter what you earn, you can make a world of difference.
OUR TEAM
Marcus is an Olympic bronze medallist tennis player from New Zealand with 5 ATP titles, quarterfinal appearances at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open (twice), and numerous caps for the NZ Davis Cup Team. He has been giving effectively since 2014, and in 2021 took the Giving What We Can pledge to donate at least 10% of his annual earnings to effective organizations for the rest of his life.
Alongside his tennis career, Marcus was elected to the IOC Athletes' Commission by fellow Olympians in Paris 2024, and was awarded the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award for his work with HIA, joining recipients such as Nelson Mandela and Roger Federer.
Hugo is a four-time Olympian and veteran of the New Zealand Black Sticks hockey team, widely considered one of the best hockey players in the world. He vice-captained the NZ team at the Tokyo Olympics. Hugo has successfully juggled his sports and professional careers across startups, consulting and banking, and holds an MBA with distinction from Heriot-Watt Edinburgh Business School.
Hugo is High Impact Athlete #2, signing on to join Marcus as a pledger athlete. He has been giving effectively since 2017.
Cam is an awarded ex-advertising creative who worked at three top-10 globally ranked agencies over a decade-long career, before turning towards leading brands for social good. Cam is an HIA pledger and came on board with the team in early 2023. He holds a bachelor of product design and diploma of creative advertising from Media Design School.
Outside of helping expand HIA's influence, Cam holds on to his high school dream of windmill dunking the basketball — he still has a long way to go.
Natalya is a three-time Olympian for Ireland in modern pentathlon, competing at London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020. She was the first Irish modern pentathlete to qualify for an Olympics since the 1980s, finishing 9th in London and 6th in Rio. On the World Cup circuit she took individual bronze in Sofia (2018) and silver in Cairo (2019).
London-based and now leading Strategic Partnerships at HIA, Natalya builds the corporate and institutional relationships that turn HIA's athlete network into long-term funding for evidence-based causes.
Maria leads growth and engagement for Race for Impact, owning email lifecycle, fundraiser activation, and data-driven experimentation across the racer journey. Based in Bali, she came to HIA from the Email Geeks community after years freelancing for a Singapore-based growth team.
Her work turns thousands of HYROX racers into active fundraisers through Customer.io flows, Raisely optimization, and a relentless test-and-learn approach.
Paddy is a tech and ops specialist with a background spanning Uber, GiveDirectly, and digital campaign tooling with Code Nation. He's helped launch cash transfer programs across Africa and Puerto Rico, and co-led a tech agency supporting high-impact advocacy organizations.
Now based in Brisbane, Paddy is the architect behind Race for Impact's product systems — leading growth experiments, engineering infrastructure, and building tools that enable the team to sprint.
Kevin is an international level 400m sprinter, coach, and HIA pledging athlete. Off the track, Kevin has almost a decade of experience working in mission-driven organizations, spanning health, technology, education, food security and existential risk. He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Engineering (with Distinction) from the University of Melbourne.
Kevin is a Swiss-qualified attorney with several years of experience as a corporate lawyer, focusing on M&A, private equity, venture capital, and sports law. He completed his LLM in Corporation Law at NYU Law with a specialization in business and corporate transactions.
An endurance sports enthusiast, Kevin has competed in the 70.3 Ironman World Championships in Taupō, New Zealand. He is dedicated to animal welfare and is involved in an education-focused nonprofit initiative in Ghana.
Lachlan is the face of Race for Impact on the ground at HYROX events across APAC and beyond. He leads racer activation, fundraiser onboarding, and community engagement, working directly with athletes and event organizers to turn HYROX races into fundraising moments.
An endurance athlete himself with multiple Ironman finishes, Lachie brings HYROX insider knowledge and an instinct for community to the role.
Emily is a marketing and content leader with experience across sport, fitness, and technology. She leads content and social strategy as well as collaborating with athletes, creators, and commercial partners to connect performance, community and impact.
She is also a 5x Ironman finisher and ultra-runner and has partnered with leading sports and lifestyle brands through her own creative projects.
Summer is a multi-faceted creative from New Zealand. With a B.F.A from the prestigious Elam School of Fine Arts, Summer is a practicing artist, art teacher and photographer. Having dedicated over 500 hours to yoga, meditation and breathwork, she shares regular yoga classes with her community outside of content creating and copywriting for HIA.
Yu Qian is a New Zealand representative springboard diver who spent over 15 years in high-performance sport, including competing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games where she finished 4th in synchronized diving. She later moved into operations and brand management in the FMCG world, overseeing multimillion-dollar portfolios across ANZ.
She's deeply passionate about equity, mental health, and making sport a more human space. Her sporting career highlight was accidentally going viral (23M+ views) for falling off a diving board.
Nicole Shields is an Olympic Silver Medallist and high-performance cyclist with over six years of elite international competition, including the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Alongside her athletic career, she holds a Bachelor of Business, is working towards a Bachelor of Physiotherapy, and holds leadership positions on two New Zealand athlete advocacy initiatives.
In 2025, Nicole completed a 4,500km self-supported bike-packing journey from Uganda to Zimbabwe, raising funds and awareness for access to education, healthcare and opportunities through bicycles.
Josh is a product designer and user researcher for early-stage ventures, using a human-centered design approach to discover users' intrinsic motivations, map them to founder vision, and develop hypotheses that drive product roadmaps and feature design.
A high-school dropout who later earned a PhD in Interaction Design, Josh has contributed to shipped products at NVidia, Hasbro, EA, and Disney, as well as building experimental prosocial digital products in teen depression, foster care, and indigenous youth engagement.
Ben is a software engineer with 5+ years of experience at startups and large tech companies. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Northeastern University. At HIA, Ben has set up custom platforms to manage athlete-driven fundraising campaigns and assisted with other technical tasks across the organization. Ben has been a Giving What We Can pledger since 2016 with a focus on Animal Welfare.
Outside of his work, he is a competitive Scrabble player and is (probably) the second best tennis player at HIA.
Jack is the founder of Ultra Philanthropy, which partners with major donors to maximize the impact of their giving. Previously, he was Executive Director at One for the World, where he oversaw over $5 million in global health grants, and founding COO of School of Hard Knocks, a UK nonprofit using rugby and boxing to help individuals realize their potential.
Jack has been committed to effective giving for over 10 years, taking the Giving What We Can Pledge at university, and participates in Ironman triathlons, albeit slowly.
Marcus is an Olympic bronze medallist tennis player from New Zealand with 5 ATP titles, quarterfinal appearances at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open (twice), and numerous caps for the NZ Davis Cup Team. He has been giving effectively since 2014 and took the Giving What We Can pledge to donate at least 10% of his annual winnings for the rest of his life.
He holds a B.A. from Massey University in Psychology and Spanish and has been awarded the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award for his work with HIA, joining recipients such as Nelson Mandela and Roger Federer.
Kara is a Senior Advisor consulting at the intersection of impact and innovation in sport. She has advised leaders at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, LA28, Riot Games, and two startups backed by Nike Founder Phil Knight. Previously, she was a Global Director at Visa, leading partnerships with Olympians and Paralympians.
Kara is a big fan of effective giving through GiveWell-rated charities. She studied Business and Spanish at the University of Oregon and is the author of "Pure Grit," co-written with Lily Collison.
Tom founded the marketing company M&C Saatchi and was appointed Chairman of the Worldwide network in 2009. Earlier in his career he held airline roles at Qantas and Ansett Airlines, and was Managing Director of DDB in Melbourne. In the nonprofit space, Tom has been Chairman of the Australian Cancer Research Foundation, AIME, Queenwood School, and Sydney Dance Company.
Tom holds a Commerce Degree (UNSW), an MBA (Stanford), and was a Resident Fellow at Harvard in 2015. In June 2015 he was awarded an Order of Australia for distinguished service to the nonprofit sector.
Luke studied medicine at Oxford University before switching to a career in finance, holding senior management positions at Natwest and Merrill Lynch and becoming a senior partner at fund management firm Brevan Howard. He now engages full time with his philanthropic activities alongside his business interests.
A keen supporter of Effective Altruism organizations, Luke has sponsored many healthcare initiatives in developing countries as well as organizations safeguarding future generations. He is based in London.
Peter Singer has been named the world's most influential living philosopher. He is considered one of the founders of both the effective altruism and animal rights movements, and his books The Life You Can Save and Animal Liberation have brought countless people into the worlds of effective giving and animal welfare.
Peter has taught at the University of Oxford, La Trobe University, Monash University, and since 1999 has been the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University's Center for Human Values.
Lewis leads Open Philanthropy Project's strategy for Farm Animal Welfare. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he worked as Policy Advisor & International Liaison to the CEO at The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and before that as a litigation fellow at HSUS.
Lewis holds a B.A. from Harvard University in Social Studies and a JD from Yale Law School.
Caroline is Of Counsel for Richman Law Group, a nonprofit focusing on environmental and animal welfare issues, and is pursuing her PhD at the University of Auckland in philosophy of law. Prior to returning to academia, she worked in corporate law in NYC, in criminal justice reform, and did pro bono work for a farmed animal welfare nonprofit.
Caroline is a meditation and yoga teacher, passionate about finding impactful ways to reduce suffering in the world. She holds a Masters from Harvard Divinity School and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School.
Ilona is a women's health and health policy expert, and a research advisor at The Life You Can Save. She focuses on systems-level solutions to improve health outcomes, with a particular interest in interventions that scale.
She plays a central role in shaping Race for Impact's Women's Empowerment fund, applying her expertise to ensure donations target the most effective interventions.
Akhil is a London-based clinical doctor and global health researcher. He is a Policy Fellow at the Center for Global Development, where his research and grantmaking focus on violence against women and girls (VAWG) and antimicrobial resistance.
His expertise provides deep insight into the most effective interventions for addressing violence against women and shaping global health policy.
Michael is the founder of the Happier Lives Institute (HLI) and a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Wellbeing Research Centre. A philosopher and global happiness researcher, he established HLI to address the gap in rigorous research on how charities influence people's happiness.
HLI's work uses a standardized measure called the Wellbeing-Year (WELLBY) to compare the cost-effectiveness of different interventions on life satisfaction. Their meta-analysis of psychotherapy in low- and middle-income countries provides the core data for Race for Impact's mental health portfolio.
Dan is the founder of Giving Green, a nonprofit evaluator dedicated to finding the most effective ways to fight climate change. Trained as a development economist, he has built Giving Green into a trusted source for evidence-based climate giving, with a team of scientists, economists, and policy experts investigating the full spectrum of climate interventions.
Before launching Giving Green, Dan spent over a decade working at the intersection of economics, development, and policy evaluation, including senior roles at IDinsight and USAID. He ensures Race for Impact's climate fund supports the most impactful and scalable solutions.