Our Team.
Executive Director
Sara Hassan
Sara is an experienced Middle East conflict and diplomacy specialist. She previously managed the Middle East programme at the Oxford Research Group and spent time as a mediation adviser on Syria and Yemen. She also managed numerous track II diplomacy projects. She was a Middle East risk analyst then senior risk Middle East analyst with leading city-based advisory firm IHS Global Insight (now Standard and Poor’s S&P Global) where she advised companies, banks, governments and NGOs on risks in the region. She has worked for a number of think tanks including the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) on their Armed Conflict Programme. Sara also trained as a journalist with Reuters, and in addition writing on security has written for a number of oil and gas publications. Sara is fluent in Arabic and has an MA in Conflict, Security and Development from the Department of War Studies, King's College London.
Senior Mediation Adviser
Nita Yawanarajah
Nita Yawanarajah has worked in the field of international conflict resolution for over 25 years. She was the Head of Good Offices at the Commonwealth Secretariat from 2009 to 2016 where she carried out preventive diplomatic missions to catalyse the democratic transitions in the Maldives and Swaziland. She served with the United Nations from 1993 to 2009. Her assignments included peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Eretria, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Rwanda. She also participated in UN’s peacemaking efforts for Darfur and Western Sahara. Nita was a founding member of the UN’s Mediation Support Unit at UNHQ, New York. Nita is currently completing a doctoral degree at the Department of War Studies in King’s College, London on the subject of international mediation.
Senior Consultant
Professor Oliver Ramsbotham
Oliver Ramsbotham is Emeritus Professor of Conflict Resolution at the University of Bradford and President of the Conflict Research Society. He is the former Chair of the Oxford Research Group. He is co-series editor of the Routledge Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution. Recent books include Contemporary Conflict Resolution (with Tom Woodhouse and Hugh Miall 4th edition), Transforming Violent Conflict: Radical Disagreement, Dialogue and Survival and When Conflict Resolution Fails: Engaging Radical Disagreement in Intractable Conflicts. His 'collective strategic thinking' (CST) methodology has been applied in Israel-Palestine and Yemen under the aegis of the Oxford Research Group.
Senior Adviser Randa Ashmawi
Randa is an award-winning journalist, political commentator and consultant on MENA diplomacy and inter-cultural affairs. Working closely with the Arab League, she was a pioneer of the initiative that became known as 'the Arab/South American rapprochement.' This intergovernmental initiative brought together countries that previously had little mutual understanding or practical experience of working together. Randa is a campaigner for interfaith understanding and religious tolerance and speaks on high-level panels including at the UN Alliance of Civilizations Forum. Born in Egypt, Randa was raised in Brazil before completing her studies in France and Switzerland. She is fluent in English, Arabic, Portuguese, French, and Spanish.
Africa Adviser
Pietro Musilli
Pietro Musilli has 10 years of experience in policy and journalism in Africa. He started his career as a political and business journalist specialising in African affairs. He covered the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. He subsequently specialised in lusophone and francophone countries in Africa. He has also worked extensively on the conflict in the Sahel and has focused on militias and conflict dynamics in Mali. He also worked on conflict, economic and energy issues in Mozambique. He holds a master’s degree in social anthropology from the EHESS in Paris and an undergraduate degree in Ethnology and Social Anthropology from the University of Rome La Sapienza.