Our Special Advisors
Lord John Alderdice, FRCPsych
John was Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly 1998– 2004, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland 1987–1998, and since 1996 has sat in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat. Alderdice, unlike others in the unionist community, was willing to talk with Sinn Féin, after the IRA called a ceasefire in 1994.
Louisa Chan-Boegli, Dr.
is the Director of Geneva Process and a medical doctor trained in the US and UK. With Oxford Process, she developed a network of contacts in preparation for dialogue in Hong Kong during and in the aftermath of the 2019 city-wide protests. Out of this collaboration, Geneva Process was founded in 2019. The two sister organisations continue their joint efforts in a number of initiatives.Louisa currently serves on the Executive Board of the PeaceNexus Foundation in Switzerland.
John Brand
John is a lawyer and international mediator. Over the past twenty years, he has mediated numerous commercial disputes, as well as facilitating transformation processes in Northern Ireland, the Basque Country and South Africa.
Brian Currin
Brian is a Human Rights lawyer and international mediator. He played central roles in the political transformation process in South Africa during the late 1980s and 1990s, the peace process in Northern Ireland and the negotiated solution for the conflict in the Basque Country.
Clare Lockhart
Clare is co-founder and director of Institute for State Effectiveness, which focuses on the functions of the state and approaches to enhancing the compact between citizens and state. She is co-author of “Fixing Failed States” and author of several articles on state, peace-building, institution-building and citizenship.
Malcolm Rifkind
Malcolm served as a Minister for the UK government for 18 years. He was Minister of State in the Foreign Office from 1982-86 and from 1995-97 as Foreign Secretary. From 1992-95 he was Secretary of State for Defence. He is member of the OSCE Panel of Eminent Persons advising on the European Security Policy.
Richard Barrett
Richard is an internationally recognised counter-terrorism expert. He is a Senior Advisor to The Soufan Group and worked for the British government for many years before leading the Monitoring Team in support of the UN Security Council's work in responding to the threat from al-Qaeda post 9/11.
Hrair Balian
Hrair has been The Carter Center’s director of the Conflict Resolution Program since 2008. He also taught an advanced international negotiations seminar as an adjunct professor at the Emory University Law School. Since 1991, Hrair has worked in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet states, the Middle East, and Africa, serving in intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations.
Daniel C. Kurtzer
He is professor of the S. Daniel Abraham Chair in Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He served in the United States Foreign Service for thirty years, including postings as the U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Egypt.
Mariano Aguirre
Mariano is an independent analyst on international politics, associated fellow Chatham House. He has been senior advisor on peacebuilding at the Office of the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Colombia, director of the Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution and Programme Officer on peace and security with the Ford Foundation.
Andrew Whitely
Andrew is the founder and executive director of Geo-Political Advisory Services. He was previously Policy Director and interim Chief Executive of The Elders. Earlier, he worked as a journalist with the BBC and Financial Times and then with the United Nations. He was founding director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division.
Lawrence Kershen
Lawrence has mediated in commercial and other fields since 1994, and delivers mediation and negotiation training internationally. He worked as a barrister and QC for more than 30 years. He is an accredited Restorative Justice facilitator with a particular focus on environmental conflict resolution. From 2007-17 Lawrence chaired Search for Common Ground in the UK.
Tania Songini
Tania is a Non-Executive Director and Audit Committee Chair on the board of companies working in renewable energy, infrastructure and development. An accomplished finance director, for 15 years she worked as CFO/Finance Director at Siemens. Tania is an accredited mediator and practising Community mediator.
Mikael Linton-Wahlgren
Mikael is an accredited mediator and has over 25 years’ experience of arbitration and mediation, specialising in international and Swedish commercial law. He has acted as senior legal adviser and chief legal Counsel for several businesses, including Rolls Royce.
Kavil Mohan
Kavil Mohan is a counter-insurgency and counter- terrorism expert with vast Military and Special Forces experience. He has provided security assessments to the private sector in the Middle East and North Africa. He has extensively worked for the United Nations, heading their Disarmament programme for Disbanding Illegal Armed Groups in Afghanistan.
Matt Waldman
Matt is a specialist in the mediation of armed conflict. He is a senior adviser to the United States Institute of Peace and European Institute of Peace. He previously served as special advisor to United Nation’s envoys in Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia and Yemen. Matt is affiliated with the Oxford University, and has previously held fellowships at Harvard, Tufts and Cambridge.