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
Pumla Gobodo-Madikezela, South Africa
Paulina Lampsa, Greece
Craig McGilvray (Honourary Treasurer), UK
Frida Nokken, Norway
Brendan
O'Leary, USA
Will Samuel, UK
Stephen Stedman, USA
Martin Woollacott, 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.
Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
Pumla
Gobodo-Madikizela served on the Human Rights Violations Committee on South
Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and was responsible for
coordinating the public hearings process for victims of human rights abuses in
the Western Cape. She is currently senior consultant for the Institute for
Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, and associate professor of psychology
at the University of Cape Town, where she directs the new Narrative, Trauma,
and Forgiveness Research Unit. She is the author of the critically acclaimed
book, A Human Being Died That Night: A Story of Forgiveness, which won the 2004
Alan Paton Award in South Africa, and the 2004 Christopher Award for adult
non-fiction in the United States.
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.
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.
