Beverly Hagerdon Thakur has 14 years of experience working in international development. As the Chief of Party for IFES Philippines, she coordinates with the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and civil society stakeholders to implement electoral modernization and reform programs. Hagerdon Thakur was an original member of the Consortium for Electoral and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS) Philippines Election Observation Mission which produced an assessment report recommending technical improvements to the Philippine electoral process.

Hagerdon Thakur previously worked for IFES as a consultant and training specialist for a pollworker training project in Azerbaijan for the 2003 elections and was Chief of Party in IFES former Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina office. There she championed the establishment of the first, post-war, statewide non-governmental organization   Association of Election Officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina" (AEOBiH) in promoting free, fair and transparent elections. Hagerdon Thakur began her career in election administration and management with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997 where she worked in operations to conduct three electoral exercises, and designed and implemented professional development programs for OSCE staff and local election officials.

Hagerdon Thakur served as Head of Operations for the International Oganization of Migration's Out-of-Country Registration and Voting Program for the Afghanistan Presidental Elections in 2004, as well as Senior Operations Officer for the Out-of-Country Voting Program for the Iraqi National Elections in 2005. She has observed elections in other countries apart from those previously mentioned, including Armenia, Croatia and the United States. Hagerdon Thakur started working in international development with Price Waterhouse in 1994 to support projects on mass privatization and capital markets development in Central Asia.

Hagerdon Thakur earned a bachelor s degree in government from Dartmouth (1988) and a master s degree in international affairs from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University (1996). She also completed courses at the United States Institute of Peace on the mission structures and functions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and on conflict management. Her language skills include French, Russian and Serbo-Croatian.