Senior Management Team

Dan Smith – Secretary General
Dan Smith has been the Secretary General of International Alert since December 2003 and is a member of the Advisory Group for the UN Peacebuilding Fund. Having served as Associate Director (1988-91) and then Director (1991-3) of the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam, Dan Smith took up the Directorship of the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) in 1993. He held this position until 2001, and continued as a Senior Adviser at PRIO for the following two years before moving to International Alert. Chair of the Board at the London-based Institute for War & Peace Reporting from 1992 to 2006, he has also held fellowships at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo (2001), and the Hellenic Foundation for Foreign and European Policy in Athens (2003).

He is the author/co-author of ten books and editor/co-editor of six on peace and conflict issues, including The State of the Middle East: An atlas of conflict and resolution (2006), and successive editions of The State of the World Atlas and of The Atlas of War and Peace. He has produced over 100 journal articles and chapters in anthologies, as well as several reports including the pathbreaking A Climate of Conflict (2007) on the links between climate change, peace and war, and the overview report of the Joint Utstein Study of Peacebuilding – Towards a Strategic Framework for Peacebuilding: Getting Their Act Together (Oslo, Norwegian MFA, 2004). He has penned three crime novels and two short stories.

Dan Smith was awarded the OBE in 2002.

Phil Champain – Director of Programmes (Asia and Eurasia)
Phil Champain joined International Alert in 1997 and has worked in Angola, the Caucasus, Liberia and Sri Lanka, brokering dialogue between different stakeholders in conflict. A graduate of Cambridge University and Bangor University in North Wales, he was a teacher for seven years, after which he worked for the World Wide Fund for Nature where he trained teachers on education for sustainability. He has a further professional qualification in the Design of Conflict Resolution Training from the Eastern Mennonite University, USA and is a specialist in teambuilding, facilitation, mediation and training.

Phil Vernon – Director of Programmes (Africa and Peacebuilding Issues)
Phil Vernon has experience in development, humanitarian and peacebuilding work in Africa since 1985, most of that time affiliated with or working for CARE International in Sudan, Rwanda, Lesotho, Mali, Ghana, Benin, Togo and Uganda. Initially a forester by training, with an MSc from the University of North Wales, his interest in conflict and peacebuilding was stimulated by living in Rwanda from 1992-94. From 2000-4 he was country director of CARE Uganda, and played an active role in research and advocacy on the Northern Uganda conflict, by helping to establish and lead the Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda coalition. He joined Alert in September 2004, where he provides support and leadership to the Great Lakes, West Africa and Peacebuilding Issues teams.

Sue McCready – Chief Operating Officer
Sue McCready has been Chief Operating Officer at International Alert since late 2002. Her business and managerial skills have been gained during the course of a varied career in international development spanning more than 20 years in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. Sue has lived and worked extensively overseas in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She has managed Field Programmes and has also worked as a Senior Manager based in the UK.

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Last updated: April 2007