Our Trustees

Our international Board of Trustees has 12 members, each with a specific interest and expertise in conflict-related issues and peacebuilding.

Philip Deer (Chair), UK
Count Claes Cronstadt, Sweden
Sir Richard Dales, UK
Dr Frances Deng, Sudan
Dr Pumla Godobo-Madikezela, South Africa
Brig Gen Henny van der Graaf, The Netherlands
Dr Kamal Hossein, Bangladesh
Ambassador Swanee Hunt, USA
Paulina Lampsa, Greece
Leah Levin OBE, UK
Craig McGilvray (Honorary Treasurer), UK
Wiberto Tañada, The Philippines

Philip Deer (Chair of Trustees)
Philip Deer's distinguished career has been as a senior executive in the international banking sector, including such multinationals as National Westminster Bank, Westpac Banking Corporation and JP Morgan. He brings to International Alert's Board extensive strategic, managerial and operational experience in London, Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and New York.

Count Claes Cronstedt
Count Cronstedt is an international partner at the Baker & McKenzie law firm in Sweden. He has a deep commitment to the field of conflict prevention and resolution and believes that the corporate sector has a vital role to play in building sustainable development. He is also a member of the board of Swedish Amnesty International Business Group and the former chairman of the Raoul Wallenberg Association in Sweden.

Sir Richard Dales
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.

Dr Francis Deng
Dr Francis Mading Deng is Research Professor of International Politics, Law and Society at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, where he is also the Director of a newly established Center for Displacement Studies. He has served as Human Rights Officer in the United Nations Secretariat, as Ambassador of Sudan to Canada, the Scandinavian countries and the United States of America, and as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Since 1992 he has also served as the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons and is co-founder of the Brookings Institution Project on Internal Displacement. He has authored or edited over twenty books in the fields of law, conflict resolution, forced migration, human rights, anthropology, folklore, history and politics.

Dr Pumla Godobo-Madikizela
Pumla Godobo-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.

Brig Gen Henny van der Graaf
Henny J. van der Graaf is a retired Dutch General. He was team leader of the South Eastern Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, based in Belgrade, advising and supporting SEE countries in curbing small arms and light weapons. In the 1990s he worked for the UN/UNDP on Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programmes in West Africa, Albania, Philippines and Bangladesh. In December 2001, he completed two years in Cambodia as Special Advisor of the European Union of its Assistance Programme in curbing Small Arms and Light Weapons in Cambodia. A member of the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters from 1992-1998, he also acted as EU/UN Elections Monitor in Cambodia, South Africa and Mali.

Dr Kamal Hossain
Dr Kamal Hossain is a barrister, much of whose work involves international law, constitutional law, and human rights. He served the Government of Bangladesh as Minister of Law (1972-1973), Foreign Affairs (1973-1975), and Petroleum and Minerals (1974-1975). More recently, he has been the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan (1998-2003) and is currently a Member of the UN Compensation Commission. At present he is Chairman, Advisory Council, Transparency International; Vice-Chairman, International Law Association; Chairman, Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust.

Ambassador Swanee Hunt
Swanee Hunt is the Founder and the Chair of Women Waging Peace, a global policy orientated initiative working to integrate women into peace processes. During her tenure as U.S. Ambassador to Austria (1993 – 97), she hosted negotiations and several international symposia to focus efforts on securing the peace in the neighbouring Balkan states. She is a member of the US Council of Foreign Relations. Director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and President of the Hunt Alternatives Fund. She has written many articles for American and international newspapers and professional journals. She is syndicated columnist for the Scripps Howard news service.

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.

Leah Levin, OBE
Leah Levin has been actively involved in the field of human rights for many years. Her work with Anti-Slavery International included the development of a research and advocacy programme on the exploitation of child labour. Author of Human Rights: Questions and Answers (pub. UNESCO, 3rd Ed. 1996, translated into 29 languages), Mrs Levin was Director of Justice (the British Section of the International Commission of Jurists), 1982-92. She has worked with International Alert since its inception in 1985, as Trustee, Special Advisor and as Acting Secretary-General.

Craig McGilvray (Honorary 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 has been Managing Director, Corporate Division since 2003 and is responsible for leadership, strategy and growth of McAlpine’s Facilities Management Business.

Wigberto Tanada
Former Senator Wigberto "Bobby" E. Tanada is one of the leading lights of the human rights and democracy movements in the Philippines and in the Asia-Pacific region. As a senator, Mr Tanada chaired the Philippine Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights and led the crafting of two landmark reports on the country's human rights situation since the Revolution of 1986. He is currently chair of the Philippine Working Group on the ASEAN Mechanism for Human Rights, and a convenor of the Asian Peace Alliance, a network of peace advocates, scholars, civil-society organizations and social-political movements from 15 Asia-Pacific countries. He is also chair of the Agrarian Justice Foundation, Inc. and is a lead convenor of the Gathering for Peace, the broadest Philippine coalition ever organized after 9/11 by peace and human rights advocates and president, since 1999, of the country's longest-serving NGO; the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement.

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