Brigalia Bam
Gidon Bromberg
Scilla Elworthy
Gernot Erler
Carmen Maria Gallardo Hernandez
Peter Gastrow
Ambassador Thomas Greminger
Ambassador Ortwin Hennig
Mahmoud Labadi
Nick Mabey
Ahmet Oren
Paul Stares
Paul van Tongeren
Dmitri Trenin
Sundeep Waslekar
Zhou Xingbao
Brigalia Bam (Chairperson, Independent Electoral Commission)
Educated in South Africa and abroad in teaching, social work, communications and management, Dr. Brigalia Bam has led an active public life. Her first formal employment was as a teacher and she has held a variety of posts throughout the world, which have included:
- Africa Regional Secretary and Co-ordinator of the Women Workers’ Programme for the International Food and Allied Workers’ Association;·
- National Executive Secretary of the World Affiliated YWCA of South Africa;
- Executive Programme Secretary for the Women’s Department of the World Council of Churches.
At the time of her appointment as a commissioner in 1997, Dr Bam was General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. She has served on several public bodies, inter alia as a member of the South African Human Rights Commission. In addition she is Founder and President of the Women’s Development Foundation and has numerous other memberships and interests. She has extensive experience in lecturing and in radio and television broadcasting and has published widely.
Gidon Bromberg (Israeli Director, Friends of the Earth Middle East)
Mr. Bromberg is the founder and Israeli director of “Friends of the Earth Middle East” (originally “EcoPeace”). He has spearheaded the advocacy campaigns of the organization both in Israel and internationally and developed the cross border community peace building program "Good Water Neighbors" that is seen as a model for other programs in conflict areas. Mr. Bromberg speaks regularly on water, peace and security issues; including at the UN Commission for Sustainable Development; before the US House of Representatives, International Relations Committee; the European Parliament; and before the advisory meeting to the UN High Level Panel on Security. He is a member of the Israeli inter-ministerial committee on the future of the Dead Sea, of the Israel UNESCO World Heritage Committee and the inter-ministerial committee for Sustainable Development in Israel.An attorney by profession having previously worked in public interest environmental law and a member of the Israel Bar Association; he also holds a bachelor of Economics and a Law degree from Monash University in Australia. As a fellow of the New Israel Fund he completed a master's degree in international environmental law at the American University in Washington DC. He has published over twenty academic and popular publications concerning Middle East environmental policy and water security issues. In April 2007 Yale University awarded him a 2007 fellowship for global leadership called the World Fellows program.
Scilla Elworthy (Founder Oxford Research Group, Founder Peace Direct)
Dr. Scilla Elworthy holds a PhD in political science and is the former Director of the Oxford Research Group (ORG), which she founded in 1982 to analyze how and by whom nuclear weapons decisions are made worldwide. It is for this work that she was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 and nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Gernot Erler (Minister of State, Federal Foreign Office)
Mr. Erler
has been the Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office
since November 2005. Prior to his current position, he served as
Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the Social Democratic
Party (SPD) in the German Bundestag since 1998.
Mr. Erler has also been a Member of the German Bundestag since 1987, where he has
held various political positions within the party caucus. He has
written
and published extensively on world politics including Russia, and
Eastern Europe. His latest book is: Russland kommt – Putins
Staat, Der Kampf um Macht und Modenisierung (Eng.: Russia is coming – Putin’s
Country, The Fight for Power and Modernization). Mr. Erler has also
written: Global Monopoly – Weltpolitik nach dem Ende der Sowjetunion
(Eng.: Global Monopoly – World Politics after the End of
the Soviet Union).
He has degrees in History, Slavic Languages,
and Political
Science from the University of Berlin and Freiburg.
Carmen Maria Gallardo Hernandez (Vice-Chairperson of the UN Peace Building Commission; Ambassador and Permanent Representative of El Salvador to the UN)
Carmen Maria Gallardo Hernandez is the current
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of El Salvador to the United
Nations.
She also serves as Vice-Chairperson
of the UN's newly created Peacebuilding Commission. Ambassador
Gallardo Hernández served previously as the Coordinator
for International Cooperation for El Salvador's Supreme Court
and between 1995 and 1996 she served as the Executive Director
of the
Salvadoran Foundation for Peace (FUNDAPAZ), an NGO formed after
the country's peace accords brought to an end the 12-year civil
war in 1992. Previously Ambassador Gallardo Hernández
served as Salvadoran Ambassador to France and Portugal (and as
El Salvador's
permanent delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris. She has received
numerous accolades over the years including being named professional
of
the year by the El Salvador Bar Association in 1997 and a “Doctor
Honoris Causa” in international relations from El Salvador’s
Technological University in 1998. The Ambassador has a Masters
degree in Parliamentary Interpretation from the University of
Geneva and a Bachelors degree in Clinical Psychology from the
Universidad
Iberoamericana in Mexico City.
Peter Gastrow (Institute for Security Studies, Cape Town Director)
Mr. Gastrow studied Economics and Law at Natal University in Durban before establishing his own legal practice as an advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa. He served as a member of parliament and in 1991 participated in the creation of the National Peace Accord. He was a member of the National Peace Committee and the National Peace Secretariat, the bodies charged with implementing the National Peace Accord in South Africa. Prior to the first democratic election in 1994, he chaired one of the Councils of the transitional government. After the elections he was appointed the special adviser of the new Minister for Safety and Security to assist with the transformation of South Africa’s Police Service.In 1998 Mr. Gastrow joined the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), an independent non-governmental applied policy research institute, as the Director of its Cape Town office. He has researched and published on issues relating to governance, conflict, and organized crime and policing.
Thomas Greminger(Head of Political Affairs Division IV / Human Security; Chairman of the Centre for Peace Promotion (Swiss Peace))
Ambassador Greminger
joined the diplomatic service of the Swiss Federal Department
of Foreign Affairs in 1990 after completing his studies in history,
economics and political science at the University of Zurich (PhD).
He started his diplomatic career as an attaché at the Swiss
Embassy in Tel Aviv. In 1992 he became diplomatic adviser for development
policy at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
He was a co-author of the Federal Council's Guidelines North-South
and deputy-head of the division in charge of their implementation
in SDC. In 1996, he was promoted to head of the Development Policy
and Research Division of SDC and Secretary of the Federal Council's
Consultative Commission for International Cooperation. From 1999
to 2001, he was chargé d'affaires of the Swiss Embassy in
Maputo and country-director of Switzerland's development cooperation
program in Mozambique. On his return to headquarters he became
deputy-head of Political Affairs Division IV, in charge of the
Peace Policy and Human Security Section.
Ortwin Hennig (Ambassador, Vice President and Director of the Conflict Prevention Program, EastWest Institute)
With an academic background in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin and the London School of Economics and as an alumnus of the NATO defense college in Rome, Ambassador Hennig has specialized in arms control and security policy matters. Next to his diplomatic postings in Kabul, Afghanistan; in Moscow, during Soviet times and after; in Brussels with the German Representation to the European Commission; and in Vienna with the German Representation to the OSCE, Ambassador Hennig has also served the Office of the German Federal President as a foreign policy advisor. His last assignment before joining EastWest Institute was as Commissioner for Civilian Crisis Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict Peace Building for the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. Ambassador Hennig has published on arms control, the OSCE and conflict prevention.
Mahmoud Labadi (Foreign Relations Commission, Palestinian Authority)
Formerly the Spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Editor-in-Chief of “Palestine Bulletin” a PLO Bi-weekly in Lebanon, Mr. Labadi is a distinguished writer and journalist. After his return to the West Bank in 1995, Mr. Labadi worked for the Palestinian Authority as Director General in the Ministry of Economy and trade in Ramallah. He held the post of “Director General” of the Palestinian Legislative Council until 2005 and was a candidate for the Palestinian Legislative Election in January 2006. The author of several books, including three about the media, a novel in Arabic, and a personal account about the war in Lebanon, Mr. Labadi previously wrote for the Palestine Times Daily. He now works for the Foreign Relations Commission of the Palestinian Authority. Mr. Labadi holds a MA in Economics and did his studies in Bonn and Leipzig in Germany. Mr. Labadi speaks fluent Arabic, English, French, German and some Hebrew.
Nick Mabey (Chief Executive of E3G)
Until December 2005 Mr. Mabey was a senior advisor in the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit leading work on a variety of policy areas, including: energy, fisheries, unstable states and organized crime. Mr. Mabey was previously Head of Sustainable Development in the FCO’s Environment Policy department, and the FCO lead on the Johannesburg Summit where he was responsible for establishing a number of innovative international partnerships including REEEP and the Travel Foundation. An economist and engineer by training, before he joined government Mr. Mabey was Head of Economics and Development at WWF-UK. He came to WWF from academic research at London Business School on the economics of climate change, published in the book “Argument in the Greenhouse”. This followed research at MIT into energy system planning and a period in the energy industry working for PowerGen and GEC Alsthom. Mr. Mabey trained as a mechanical engineer at Bristol University specializing in energy systems, and holds a masters degree in Technology and Policy from MIT.
Ahmet M. Oren (CEO of Ihlas Holding A.S., EWI Board Member)
Mr. Oren was born in 1972 in Istanbul, Turkey. He began working for Ihlas Holding after studying economics and has served in various IT and media related positions within the group. He is currently the CEO of Ihlas Holding and Chairman of Ihlas Media Holding. Mr. Oren is a board member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and a member of several international groups such as The World Economic Forum, The American-Turkish Council, Turkish-German Businessmen’s Cultural Foundation and the Turkish Association of Journalist. He is also the Honorary Consul of Latvia for New York State.
Paul B. Stares (General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Preventive Action, Council on Foreign Relations)
Mr. Stares was the former vice president of USIP’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. He currently focuses on conflict prevention strategies for key areas of concern at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has authored or edited nine books in addition to numerous book chapters, articles, and op-eds in leading U.S. and European newspapers. In 2006, Mr. Stares led the Iraq Study Group’s Strategic Environment Expert Working Group. Prior to joining USIP, Mr. Stares was associate director and senior research scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. From 1996 to 2000 he worked in Japan, first as a senior research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs and then as director of studies at the Japan Center for International Exchange. At various times, Mr. Stares has been a senior fellow and research associate in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution as well as a NATO fellow, a scholar-in-residence at the MacArthur Foundation Moscow Office, a Rockefeller International Relations Fellow, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. He has also held academic posts at the University of Sussex and the University of Lancaster in Great Britain, where he received his Ph.D.
Paul van Tongeren (Secretary General of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict)
Mr. van Tongeren worked for more than twenty years as a program manager for the Dutch National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO). He has been involved in the activities of numerous Dutch NGOs in the field of development cooperation, peace and environmental organizations. In 1997 Paul founded the European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation and the European Centre for Conflict Prevention (ECCP), based in the Netherlands of which he is the Executive Director. In response to the call of the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his report Prevention of Armed Conflict, the ECCP facilitated the establishment of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC). GPPAC is the worldwide civil society-led network to build a new international consensus on peacebuilding and the prevention of violent conflict. More than 1000 organizations worldwide were involved in drafting “People Building Peace: A Global Action Agenda for the Prevention of Violent Conflict” which was presented to the UN in July 2005 during a global conference organized by GPPAC in partnership with UNDPA at UN Headquarters.
Dmitri Trenin (Deputy Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center)
A senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, and chair of its Moscow Center’s Foreign and Security Policy Program; Mr. Trenin has been with the Center since its inception in 1993. From 1993-1997, he held posts as a senior research fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome, a visiting professor at the Free University of Brussels and a senior research fellow at the Institute of Europe in Moscow. He served in the Soviet and Russian armed forces from 1972 to 1993, including working as a liaison officer in the External Relations Branch of the Group of Soviet Forces Germany and as a staff member of the delegation to the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms talks in Geneva from 1985 to 1991. Mr. Trenin also taught at the Defense University in Moscow. Among the books he authored are “Getting Russia Right” (forthcoming, Fall 2007), “Russia's Restless Frontier: The Chechnya Factor in Post-Soviet Russia” (with Aleksei V. Malashenko) and “The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization”, all published by the Carnegie Endowment.
Sundeep Waslekar (President, Strategic Foresight Group)
Under the auspices of the Strategic Foresight Group, Mr. Waslekar has advised significant business and government audiences. His strategic insights have been sought by the international media (e.g.: International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, BBC, and CNN), including a large number of newspapers in Asia and the Middle East. He has a reputation for conceptualizing initiatives for positive change. Mr. Waslekar has recently emerged as a voice of reason, capable of constructing common ground between Western and Islamic countries on critical issues. His initiatives engaging former and serving Heads of Government and cabinet ministers, have attracted the cooperation of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament and the League of Arab States. He has chaired sessions on the relations between Western and Islamic countries at the summits of the World Economic Forum, involving high government representatives from the United States and the countries in the Middle East. Mr. Waslekar has been involved in numerous diplomatic activities including exercises for de-escalation of tension between India and Pakistan. He was educated at Oxford University, UK, on a scholarship awarded in a worldwide competition.
Zhou Xingbao (Vice-Chairman and Secretary General of the China National Committee Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific - CSCAP)
Mr. Zhou Xingbao was born in 1941, in Shanghai, China. After University graduation as a research student, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1965 working in the department of Translation and Interpretation. Since then Mr. Zhou has been a Researcher in various organizations including the China Institute of International Studies and the Center for Asian Studies at the University of Texas. Prior to his current appointment as Vice-Chairman and Secretary General of the China National Committee Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP), Mr. Zhou served as a First Secretary at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, and as Consul General at the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Toronto, Canada.
