Wais Qais

Chief Executive Officer

Wais Qais, the founder and the CEO of AKS Services, has extensive experience working in the international development sector, with particular expertise navigating highly political development issues. Mr. Qais started his career as an investment banker with a postgraduate degree of MBA in an international business environment. Throughout his career, Wais has overseen the delivery of numerous development programs in Afghanistan and the Asia region, managing programmes for many development consultancies including the United Nations. Seeing the rapid changes in the region, Mr. Qais was determined to contribute and work towards its development, and this has been proven through the formation of AKS, which aims to not only support international donor programmes, but also build the region’s capacity for economic and political development.

Martin Daniels

Executive Director

Martin Daniels is an experienced international development specialist with 30 years experience, 25 years of which were in a variety of senior management positions with Crown Agents, including project management, business development and regional management roles for the former Soviet Union, southeast Europe & MENA. He has over 15 years of experience in Afghanistan, having been involved in projects including the management of the ARTF (Crown Agents), the post-2001 development of Da Afghanistan Bank, the debt management function in Ministry of Finance, and reform programmes in the Security & Criminal Justice sectors. Mr. Daniels has been involved in the implementation of development projects for a spectrum of donor institutions, including World Bank, EU, British DFID & Government of Japan. Amongst these, he led the JICS/Crown Agents team managing the $1 billion Japanese Iraq Reconstruction Programme. He has specific experience in post-conflict & challenging environments, including holding management roles in the Japanese Food Aid Programme to the Russian Far East, establishing Crown Agents post Dayton Accord presence in Bosnia, European Union funded Serbia Pharmaceutical sector rehabilitation project, setting up the Russian State Procurement Training Organisation, , working in collaboration with DFID on the UK Ebola Response Programme in Sierra Leone & establishing Crown Agents Turkey Joint Venture to support UK & US Syria Emergency response programmes. Mr. Daniels has Degree in Economics (BA) from University of Sussex & MBA from Henley Business School.

Dr. Joji Tokeshi

Senior Advisor for Policy and Strategy

Dr. Joji Tokeshi has more than 30 years of experience working with multilateral and bilateral agencies, private sector, and non-governmental and civil society organizations for project planning, budgeting, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation in sectors like agriculture, rural development, natural resources management, integrated water resources management, food security and nutrition, infrastructure (energy and roads), environmental management, climate change, renewable energy, humanitarian aid and communities’ development, public financial management reform, rural finance, customs, and tourism. After 10 years working as staff for Pacific Consultants International in Tokyo, Dr. Tokeshi worked 17 years for the Asian Development Bank, including 12 years as Country Director/Deputy Country Director in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. He managed strategically by monitoring of long-term goals and annual objectives for strategic multi-billion programs and investment portfolios, nurturing client relationships, and leading and participating in development partner coordination initiatives. He supported strategic country programming by formulating and implementing the Country Partnership Strategies, their monitoring, participating in all country and sub regional cooperation programming related missions, undertaking policy dialogue with government and development partners, and analyzing relevant economic, development, and political events. He has ample experience in regional economic cooperation having represented ADB in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program, Istanbul Process, Tajikistan Development Forum and Silk Road Initiative. He has extensive experience in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan in raising capital and financing to support governments through multilateral and bilateral agencies collectively. He was also Country Director in Afghanistan for Cordaid, the largest NGO in The Netherlands, where he managed strategically a country portfolio of Euro19.0 million per year which promotes access to healthcare, security, and justice, and increase the economic resilience of vulnerable Afghans, with a strong focus on women and youth and lobby and advocacy.

Wida Yalaqi

Co-founder/Advisor for Management & Operation

Wida Yalaqi is the co-founder of AKS and the management and operation advisor . Mrs. Yalaqi has extensive experience in performance management, business process improvement, capacity building, and transformation management in a wide variety of national and international organisations. She specialises in designing and establishing NGOs as well as small and medium-size businesses with a strong emphasis on empowering women. Mrs. Yalaqi was born in Afghanistan and completed her higher education in the United Kingdom. She started her career as an audit officer with GlaxoSmithKline but moved back to Afghanistan in 2005 and successfully implemented numerous development programmes for international entities and the Government of Afghanistan.