As a Swiss nonprofit Foundation, HD is supervised by a Board, which serves on a voluntary basis. It sets the mission and the general policy of the Foundation and provides overall supervision of the development and implementation of the organisation’s programme and administration, as managed by the Senior Management Team and staff.
HD’s Board meets twice a year and has set up three committees: an Audit & Finance Committee which reviews the financial management of the organisation; an Operations Committee which is responsible for reviewing HD’s programme of work; and a Nominations Committee in charge of identifying suitable candidates for membership.
Mr Espen Barth Eide is a Member of the Norwegian Parliament where he represents the Labour Party. Prior to his election in September 2017, Mr Eide was United Nations Special Adviser on Cyprus from 2014 to 2017, as well as Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board of the World Economic Forum in Geneva from 2014 to 2016. He previously served as Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2013. During his 10 years in the Norwegian government (2000-2001 and 2005-2013), he also held the positions of Minister of Defence, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Deputy Minister of Defence. Before joining the government, Mr Eide was a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and also directed NUPI’s Department of International Politics.
Ambassador Pierre Vimont is a Senior Associate at Carnegie Europe, where his research focuses on the European Neighbourhood Policy, transatlantic relations, and French foreign policy. From 2010 to 2015, Ambassador Vimont served as Executive Secretary-General of the European External Action Service of the European Union. Prior to this, he worked for thirty eight years in the French diplomatic service. During this time, he served as Ambassador to the United States (2007 to 2010); Ambassador to the European Union (1999 to 2002); and Chief of Staff to three former French Foreign Ministers. Ambassador Vimont holds the title of Ambassador of France, a dignity bestowed for life on only a few French diplomats, and he is also a Knight of the French National Order of Merit. Ambassador Vimont joined HD’s Board in 2015 and was elected as its Chair in 2016.
Sarah F. Cliffe is the Director of the Center on International Cooperation at the University of New York. Prior to that, she was Special Representative for the World Bank’s World Development Report on Conflict, Security and Development as well as Special Adviser and Assistant Secretary-General of Civilian Capacities to the United Nations. Ms Cliffe has worked for the last twenty-five years in countries emerging from conflict and political transition, including Afghanistan, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea Bissau, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Liberia, Mali, Rwanda, South Sudan, South Africa, Somalia, and Timor-Leste. At the World Bank, her work covered post-conflict reconstruction, community-driven development, and civil service reform. Ms. Cliffe was the Chief of mission for the Bank’s programme in Timor-Leste (1999 to 2002). She led the Bank’s Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries Group (2002-2007) and was also the Bank’s Director of Strategy and Operations for the East Asia and Pacific Region (2007 to 2009). Ms. Cliffe has also worked for the United Nations Development Programme in Rwanda, the Government of South Africa, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, as well as for a major management consultancy company in the United Kingdom on public sector reform issues. She joined HD’s Board in 2015.
Mr Neil Janin is a Director Emeritus of McKinsey & Company and currently counsels senior executives on matters of strategy and leadership. He is the Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Georgia, and a member of the Board of Ipsos SA, as well as that of a number of non-profit organisations. He spent twenty-seven years with McKinsey & Company, conducting engagements in every area of organisational practice – design, leadership, governance, performance enhancement, culture change and transformation. Before joining the management consulting firm, Mr Janin worked for Chase Manhattan in New York and Paris, as well as Procter & Gamble in Toronto. He has been a Member of HD’s Board since 2013 and chairs its Nominations Committee in charge of identifying suitable candidates for membership.
Mr Armin Slotta has more than 30 years of experience with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) during which he built strong expertise working with multinational organisations and companies, advising leaders and managers worldwide. From 2015 to 2017 Mr Slotta managed PwC Germany’s innovation programme as well as the firm‘s Foreign Business Network which supported German clients in developing and delivering strategies abroad, in particular, in developing markets. Until 2015, Mr Slotta was a member of PwC Germany’s Assurance Leadership Team, during which time he managed several business units, including the network’s Capital Markets and Accounting Advisory Services. From 2013 to 2019, he also served as Vice-President and Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany; and in 2019, he joined the Transparency International Secretariat as a Senior Advisor to the movement’s Business Integrity Programme. Mr Slotta joined HD’s Board in 2018.
Prof Dewi Fortuna Anwar is a Research Professor at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) where she also held the position of Deputy Chairman for Social Sciences and Humanities from 2001 to 2010. A member of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences, Prof Anwar is also the Vice Chair of The Habibie Center (THC) in Jakarta, after having served as Chair for THC’s Institute of Democracy and Human Rights. Between 2010 and 2017, Prof Fortuna Anwar served as Deputy Secretary for Political Affairs to Indonesian Vice President Boediono, and then as Deputy for Government Policy Support to Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla. From 1998 to 1999, she also held the positions of Assistant to the Vice President for Global Affairs/International Relations and Assistant Minister/State Secretary for Foreign Affairs during the Habibie presidency. Prof Anwar sits on the Boards of several organisations including the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Center for Information and Development Studies in Jakarta as well as the organisation Shift and the Asia Society which are both based in New York. Prof Anwar obtained a BA and MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and a PhD in Politics from Monash University in Australia. Prof Anwar joined HD’s board in 2019.
Ambassador Eikenberry is a faculty member of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a Non Resident Fellow at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination, Princeton University. Previously he served as Director of the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University and an affiliate at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Relations Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law, Center for International Security Cooperation and The Europe Center. He was the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2009-2011, where he led the civilian surge directed by President Obama to set the conditions for transition to full Afghan sovereignty. His 35-year military career included senior command and political-military postings in Afghanistan, Europe, the People’s Republic of China, Korea, Hawaii, and the continental United States. Amb Eikenberry graduated from the United States Academy at West Point, and received a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Harvard and a Master’s degree in Political Science from Stanford. He earned the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Interpreter’s Certificate for Mandarin Chinese from the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence Chinese Language School in Hong Kong and has an advanced degree in Chinese History from Nanjing University. He joined HD’s board in 2020.
Grace Forrest is a Founder of the Walk Free Foundation, a Director of the Minderoo Foundation, and currently works as a communications strategist on the Global Slavery Index. She previously worked as a researcher at the Legatum Institute, specialising in modern slavery and mass movements of people. Ms Forrest has spent extensive time on the ground working with modern slavery survivors and documenting the reality of modern slavery throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East. She is also a member of the Council of Advocates of the Freedom Fund, an Ambassador for the Humanitarian Group and The Freedom Hub, as well as a member of the Board of Advisors of Freedom United. Ms Forrest has represented the Walk Free Foundation around the world, including in meetings at the United Nations and with His Holiness the Pope at the Vatican. She joined HD’s Board in 2017.
Ms Ameerah Haq was Vice Chair of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations for the United Nations (UN) as well as UN Under-Secretary-General for Field Support from 2012 to 2014. She has over 39 years of UN experience including 19 years of field experience. She was the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) in the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste. Ms Haq has also served as Deputy SRSG and UN Resident Coordinator in Sudan, Deputy SRSG and UN Resident Coordinator in Afghanistan, as well as UN Resident Coordinator in Malaysia and Laos. She has also held senior positions within the UN Development Programme. Ms Haq is a mother to a son aged 35 and a daughter aged 33. Following her retirement, Ms. Haq has been a guest lecturer at many universities in the US and Europe, as well as speaking at many think tanks and research institutions. As of December 2019, Ms Haq is the Chair of the Global Board of BRAC, an NGO started in Bangladesh by the late Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, and currently the largest international NGO in terms of staff. She joined HD’s Board in 2015.
Dr Kellenberger was President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 2000 to 2012. A former State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Head of the Directorate of Political Affairs in the Swiss Foreign Ministry from 1992 to 1999, he has also served in Swiss embassies in Madrid, Brussels and London. Between 1984 and 1992, he headed up the Office for European Integration, serving first as a Minister and later as an Ambassador with responsibility for relations with the European Union and the European Free Trade Association. Dr Kellenberger teaches at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and in the Law Faculty at the University of Salamanca in Spain. In addition to being a member of HD’s Board since 2012, Dr Kellenberger is President of the Board of swisspeace, an Honorary Member of the American Society of International Law, as well as a member of the Advisory Panel for Swiss Re and of the Council for the Future of Europe. Dr Kellenberger was awarded the Grosses Verdienstkreuz mit Stern in 2012 and appointed Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur in 2013.
Dr Joanne Liu has served as International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from 2013 to 2019. At the helm of MSF, she has been a leading voice on medical humanitarian crises, namely in Ebola outbreak of West Africa, attacks on hospitals and forced displacement crisis. Dr Liu’s role builds on a career of fieldwork with MSF, including over 20 medical-humanitarian field assignments. She trained at McGill University School of Medicine, and holds a Fellowship in Paediatric Emergency Medicine, as well as a Master’s in Health Leadership. Dr Liu’s operational work has ranged from introducing comprehensive care for survivors of sexual violence, to developing a telemedicine platform for connecting doctors in rural areas with specialists worldwide. Dr Liu remains a practicing doctor, both in the field with MSF and also through hospital shifts in her home town of Montreal. She believes strongly in MSF’s unique ability to operate in the field whilst delivering high-quality, patient-centred care. Dr Liu joined HD’s Board in 2019.
Professor ‘Funmi Olonisakin is Vice-President and Vice-Principal International of King’s College London, where she teaches Security, Leadership and Development. She also served as Director of the African Leadership Centre, which she founded in order to build the next generation of African scholars and analysts generating cutting-edge knowledge for security and development in Africa. Prof Olonisakin also served as Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Group at King’s College from 2003 to 2013. Prior to this, she worked in the Office of the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General (UNSG) on Children and Armed Conflict. She is also one of seven members of the Advisory Group of Experts on the Review of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture by the UNSG, and sits on the Advisory Group of Experts for the UN Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security. In January 2016, Prof Olonisakin was appointed as Extra-Ordinary Professor in the Department of Political Sciences of the University of Pretoria. She has positioned her work to serve as a bridge between academia and the worlds of policy and practice. Her most recent research has focused on “Reframing narratives of Peace and State Building in Africa” and on “Future Peace, Society and the State in Africa”. She has been a Member of HD’s Board since 2013 and also chairs the International Advisory Council of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute.
Ms Margot Wallström was elected to the Swedish parliament in 1979 before serving as Minister for Youth, Local Authorities and Consumer Affairs from 1988 to 1991, Minister of Culture from 1994 to 1996, and Minister of Social Affairs from 1996 to 1998. Before taking up her appointment as EU Commissioner in 1999, she worked for Worldview Global Media in Colombo, Sri Lanka. From 1999 to 2004, Ms Wallström served as the European Commissioner for the Environment and then as first Vice President of the European Commission from 2004 to 2010. In 2007, Ms Wallström became Chair of the Ministerial Initiative of the Council for Women World Leaders. In 2010, former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon appointed her the first Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict until 2012. She then served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden from 2014-2019. Ms Wallström joined HD’s board in 2020.
Dr Javier Solana was the Secretary General of the Council of the European Union (EU) and High Representative for the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy from 1999 to 2009, as well as Secretary General of NATO from 1995 to 1999. Prior to that, Dr Solana was Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1992 to 1995. Dr Solana currently serves as President of the ESADEgeo-Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, Distinguished Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, Chairman of the Aspen Institute in Spain, Senior fellow at the Hertie School of Governance, and visiting Professor at the London School of Economics.
Mr Andrew Forrest is a Co-founder and Chairman of the Minderoo Foundation, a philanthropic entity through which he is now invested in both local and international ventures that protect and support under-privileged people and communities. Mr Forrest is also the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of the Fortescue Metals Group, the iron ore company of which he remains Chairman. He is also an Adjunct Professor of the China Southern University and a longstanding Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. In addition, Mr Forrest co-chairs the Senior Business Leaders’ Forum, the leading formal dialogue platform for China and Australia’s most senior business leaders. He is also a Councillor of the Global Citizen Commission which reported, and made a series of recommendations, on human rights to the United Nations Secretary General in April 2016.
About
The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) is a Swiss-based private diplomacy organisation founded on the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. Our mission is to help prevent, mitigate, and resolve armed conflict through dialogue and mediation.
Foundation Board
As a Swiss nonprofit Foundation, HD is supervised by a Board, which serves on a voluntary basis. It sets the mission and the general policy of the Foundation and provides overall supervision of the development and implementation of the organisation’s programme and administration, as managed by the Senior Management Team.
Staff
HD’s team has grown from a small group of 6 people in 1999 to more than 300 from over 40 different nationalities today, supervised by a 11 member Senior Management Team. The organisation is made up of individuals driven by meaningful objectives who are dedicated to making a difference through peace and mediation efforts.
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