Trustees
The Kite Tales Foundation promotes the preservation of threatened cultural heritage, celebrates diversity and highlights marginalised voices, while working to bridge divides between communities through storytelling, education and outreach.
Aela Callan is an award winning filmmaker and journalist who has produced more than a dozen documentaries on Myanmar. Her work for Al Jazeera's Asia current affairs program, 101 East, has won several major awards including gold at the New York Festivals Film and TV Awards and the Crowley Award for Excellence in Journalism Covering Issues of Concern to Women. At Stanford University, she was a 2014 Knight Fellow for journalism innovation, where she explored ways that media in Myanmar could counteract online hate speech and fake news.
Sandar Hla brings 25 years of global professional experience across a range of sectors and industries in frontier and industrialised economies. As an agile thinker committed to social impact and change, Sandar’s career has been driven by her values since her early roles in documentary film production and the United Nations. Her career has since evolved to guiding businesses on strategic-level thinking on responsible business practices and sustainability. Sandar is completing her Executive MBA at Warwick Business School.
Tara Dermott has devoted her career to empowering diverse populations by including communities in sustainability efforts. As part of McDonald’s Global Impact team, Tara drives efforts to further embed respect for human rights across the value chain. Prior to this, Tara spent 17 years in Asia in supervisory and partner engagement roles, including seven years with the United Nations, leading human rights initiatives across 25 countries. A career highlight was when, in 2012, Tara obtained permission from the Office of the President of Myanmar for MTV’s EXIT Campaign to host the first ever international concert in Myanmar at the Yangon People’s Square, drawing a crowd of more than 70,000 people and reaching millions more via broadcast to raise awareness about human trafficking. Tara is a strategic thinker who brings expertise in donor relations, project development, monitoring and evaluation, gender, strategic communication, and human rights.
Saw is currently working as Operation Manager at SpaceX, overseeing the development of insourcing operations and supporting insourcing manufacturing activities for Starlink. A graduate of Georgia Tech, she was part of the manufacturing engineering team that helped launch Model S and Model X during the early days of Tesla. She has also led various business departments of well-known companies in Myanmar during her five-year stint back home between 2016-2021. When she is not at work improving things, she loves spending her time working out, playing tennis, cooking, painting or getting busy with her two super inquisitive kids.
