Meet the Staff
Sean Downs
President and Co-Founder
Sean Downs volunteers his services as president of the Sumba Foundation. Sean first visited Sumba in 2001 and was moved by the people and culture. Following this visit, Sean joined with Claude Graves to form the Sumba Foundation.
Sean served as the CEO of Enclarity from the company’s inception in 2005 until its sale to LexisNexis in September 2013. Previously he was the division president of Fair Isaac and Company, a New York Stock Exchange Company specializing in analytical software solutions sold in the financial services and insurance markets. He has also served as the president of Assured Health Care, which operated a chain of primary and specialty care medical clinics.
Sean has a bachelor’s degree in finance from San Diego State University and has served on the board of directors for the Mission Valley YMCA.
Claude Graves
Creator, Co-Founder, Managing Director
Claude Graves has been living in Indonesia and Kenya since 1974. He moved to Sumba in 1989 where he co-founded, created, and managed both Nihiwatu and the Sumba Foundation, creating an internationally recognized and awarded model of sustainable tourism.
In February 2013, Claude retired as the managing director of Nihiwatu to return his full focus and energies to the Sumba Foundation as its managing director and projects creator.
Claus Bogh, PhD
Health Program Director
Dr. Claus Bogh joined in the Sumba Foundation in 2004. Serving as the health program director, he’s developed the malaria-reduction and health programs for the Sumba Foundation.
Dr. Bogh has an MSc and PhD in medical entomology and researched malaria in Kenya, The Gambia, and Mozambique for five years before moving to Indonesia in 2001. He served as senior malaria control advisor to the Indonesian Ministry of Health from 2001 to 2004 under the Asian Development Bank’s ICDC program. In this role, he regularly worked on the island of Sumba, and by random chance he came across the Sumba Foundation in 2003. The love for the island and its people and the very high occurrence of malaria were all factors that contributed to his longterm commitment to Sumba.
Dr. Bogh serves or has served as senior advisor for the World Health Organization, the Asian Development Bank, S.C. Johnson, and the Indonesian Ministry of Health. For the past four years, Dr. Bogh has also been the senior advisor for a malaria research program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, establishing a comprehensive program to reduce and work towards eradicating malaria from the local communities.
Steven F. Bierman, MD
Director
Since its inception, Steve Bierman has served on the board of directors of the Sumba Foundation.
He is currently the chief medical officer of Access Scientific. Previously, he practiced medicine as an emergency physician at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas, California. Dr. Bierman’s interest in Sumba began in the mid-1980s on a surf trip.
Rainy Octora
Nutrition Program
Rainy Octora has been with the Sumba Foundation since July of 2007. Passionate about nutrition, she currently heads our nutrition projects (Infant Nutrition and School Lunch Program). She is also a key member in our accounting and office management team.
Rainy went to university in Jakarta at Atma Jaya Catholic University to become a medical doctor. Upon completion, she came back to Sumba to spend time with her family, and we were lucky enough to add her to the Sumba Foundation team.
