Our international Board of Trustees has 11 members, each with a
specific interest and expertise in conflict-related issues and
peacebuilding.
Richard Dales (Chair), UK
J. R. Nereus O. Acosta
Rosemary Bechler, UK
Edward Clay, UK
Paulina Lampsa, Greece
Craig McGilvray (Honourary Treasurer), UK
Frida Nokken, Norway
Brendan
O'Leary, USA
Will Samuel, UK
Pierre Schori, Sweden
Stephen Stedman, USA
Martin Woollacott, UK
Michela Wrong, UK
Richard Dales (Chair of
Trustees)
Sir Richard Dales is a retired member of HM Diplomatic
Service, former High Commissioner to Zimbabwe and Ambassador to Norway. His
distinguished diplomatic career took him to many countries, including Cameroon,
Denmark and Bulgaria. From 1974-77 he was the Assistant Private Secretary to
the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary and from 1995-98 he was the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office Director for Africa and the Commonwealth.
J. R. Nereus O. Acosta
Dr. J.R. Nereus Acosta is the current Secretary General of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats and the former Secretary General of the Liberal Party of the Philippines. He served as representative of Bukidnon province in Northern Mindanao to the House of Representatives for three consecutive terms (1998-2007). Apart from sponsorship of major environmental legislation on clean water, solid waste management and biodiversity protection, he was the principal author of the groundbreaking Clean Air Act that has become a model of environmental legislation in Asia. Dr. Acosta served as Chairman of the Committee on Ecology and Vice-Chairman of the Committees on Science and Technology, Human Rights, and Foreign Relations of the House of Representatives.
Dr. Acosta is now Associate Professor at the Asian Institute of Management and the Ateneo de Manila University. He continues to be active in microfinance, rural development and environmental protection projects in his native Bukidnon.
Rosemary Bechler
Dr Rosemary Bechler is a freelance writer,
journalist and editor; and holds a doctorate from Cambridge University. She has
worked as International Editor of openDemocracy.org, editor of numerous British
Council publications, as well as the New Politics Network’s journal ‘New Times’.
From 1993 to 1995 she was Secretary of Security 2000, a project designed to
frame debate on security in a post-Cold War society, and was the Secretary of
the British Peace Assembly. She comes to Alert’s board from her role as Chairperson
at Peaceworkers UK – an organisation she helped to establish.
Edward Clay
Sir Edward Clay served as High Commissioner in Kenya (2001-5), Cyprus (1999-2001) and Uganda (1993-7, also non-resident ambassador to Rwanda and Burundi).
Between 1997 – 9 he was Director in the FCO responsible for consular, visa, information and news, cultural and parliamentary work, and for managing the FCO’s relationships with the British Council, BBC World Service and the Wilton Park Conference Centre.
He is an associate of the Centre for Political and Diplomatic Studies.
He is particularly interested in development issues, and their relationship to governance. He is trustee or patron of a number of NGOs.
Paulina Lampsa
Paulina Lampsa has been an
advisor to George Papandreou – former Foreign Minister of Greece and
leader of the opposition (PASOK) party – on conflict management issues
since 1990. She is a member of the Central Committee of PASOK and of the
party’s International Relations Department. She was an honorary candidate
in the June 2004 elections for the European Parliament. Since 1997 she has been
an active member of the Greek-Turkish Forum, an unofficial group that works on
developing rapprochement between Greece and Turkey. She has participated in
almost all four-party second track diplomacy initiatives on the Cyprus problem,
involving Greek-Cypriots, Turkish-Cypriots, Greek and Turks.
Craig McGilvray (Honourary Treasurer)
Craig
McGilvrary has substantial financial management and strategy experience, gained
through his financial directorship of Stiell Limited 1998-2002 and Alfred
McAlpine, the construction, facilities management and infrastructure providers,
where he was the Managing Director, Corporate Division and was
responsible for leadership, strategy and growth of McAlpine’s Facilities
Management Business.
Frida Nokken
Frida Nokken has been the
Secretary General of the Nordic Council since 1999. The Council is a body for
cooperation between the parliaments and governments in the Nordic countries,
working on a range of political issues including foreign and security policies.
She was member of the Board of the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo
(PRIO) from 1992 until 2000, and was Chairwoman 1995-2000. She has degrees in
political science from the Universities of Oslo and Bergen and made her career
in management and leadership in the Norwegian government administration,
including Director General of Customs and Excise from 1995 to 1999.
Brendan O'Leary
Brendan O'Leary is Director
of the Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict and Lauder
Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He was
educated at Oxford and the London School of Economics (LSE), and previously
chaired the Department of Government at LSE. He has recognised expertise in
national
self-determination, power-sharing and electoral systems, and served as a
constitutional advisor to the Kurdistan Government in Iraq. Prof O'Leary has
previously acted as a constitutional advisor in Northern Ireland, Somalia, and
South Africa and has advised the UN, the EU, the UK and US governments on
conflicts in Europe and Asia. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of
fifteen books, including The Northern Ireland Conflict, The Future
of Kurdistan in Iraq and the up-coming Terror, Insurgency and the
State, as well as over a hundred major articles and chapters in refereed
journals and volumes.
Will Samuel
Will Samuel is Vice Chairman of Lazard in London where he is principally responsible for Finance Institutions clients including Legal & General, Standard Life, Standard Chartered, Foreign and Colonial. Previously, he was Co-Chief Executive Officer of Schroder Salomon Smith Barney. In addition, he is Chairman of Galiform plc, Deputy Chairman of Inchcape plc, and Chairman of Ecclesiastical Insurance Group and is a non-executive director of Edinburgh Investment trust.
Pierre Schori
Pierre Schori is a Swedish diplomat with vast experience in foreign affairs, development cooperation and peacekeeping operations. After a long career at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Pierre was Minister for International Development Cooperation, Migration and Asylum Policy, and Deputy Foreign Minister from 1994-9. From 2000-4, Pierre was appointed Swedish Ambassador to the United Nations and in 2000-2 was the head of the EU Election Observation missions in Zimbabwe. He served from 2005 to 2007 as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of Mission in Côte d’Ivoire, responsible for the 10,000 civil and military personnel that integrated the complex peacekeeping mission. From 2007-9, he was Director General of the Madrid/based think tank FRIDE. Pierre has also been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Adelphi University, New York from 2004 to 2005 and guest professor at the University for Peace in Costa Rica.
Stephen Stedman
Dr Stephen J. Stedman is a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, California. In 2003-4 he was the research director of the U.N. High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. In 2004-5, following completion of the panel's report – A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility – he was a UN Assistant Secretary-General with the task of helping gain worldwide support in implementing the panel's recommendations. His writings focus on how civil wars end and on the architecture of the international system. Dr. Stedman joined Alert's Board of Trustees in 2007.
Martin Woollacott
Martin Woollacott has
been a foreign affairs journalist at The Guardian newspaper for almost
40 years. He has reported from the Far East, covering the last years of the
Vietnam War, the Bangladesh war and the Indian Emergency; the Middle East,
covering the Iranian revolution and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon; as well as
reporting as a travelling senior correspondent from Iraq, Bosnia and Sierra
Leone during the interventions in those countries. Although retired from the
newspaper since 2004, Mr. Woollacott continues to write regular columns on
international affairs. He is a member of the board of Institute for War &
Peace Reporting since 1993 and joined Alert's Board of Trustees in 2005.
Michela Wrong
Michela Wrong has spent 16 years reporting Africa. As a Reuters correspondent, based in first Cote d'Ivoire and then Zaire, she covered the turbulent events of the mid 1990s, including the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko and genocide in Rwanda. She then moved to Kenya, where she became Africa correspondent for the Financial Times. In 2000 she published her first book, “In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz”, the story of Mobutu, which won a PEN prize for non-fiction. Her second book, “I didn’t do it for you”, focused on the Red Sea nation of Eritrea. Her third book, “It’s Our Turn to Eat”, tracks the story of Kenyan corruption whistleblower John Githongo. Described as reading “like a cross between Le Carre and Solzhenitsyn”, it was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. She has also published opinion pieces and book reviews in the Observer, Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman, Spectator and Standpoint magazines.
