Witness Seminar Participants

Amitav Banerji: Amitav Banerji is currently the Director of Political Affairs, which he took office in January 2009. He is also the chief political adviser to the Secretary-General and is responsible for managing the Commonwealth’s political activity and the division supporting this work. He has been the Director and Head of the Secretary-General’s Office, in which he offered policy advice over the entire range of issues confronting the Commonwealth. Between 1979 and 1982 he was the Private Secretary to the Indian Foreign Minister, and has had diplomatic assignments countries including Spain, Pakistan, Malaysia, and the India Permanent Mission to the UN in New York. Banerji joined the Commonwealth in 1990. Prior to his current assignment he was Special Adviser in the Political Affairs Division. He is a career diplomat from India and is fluent in six languages.

Madhuri Bose: Madhuri Bose is the CPPRD Programme Director in the Human Rights Division in the Commonwealth Institute. She is a Rights Specialist and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. Madhuri is also a Rights Specialist and member of the Steering Committee of the NSF, an organisation he helped found. She has been working for the UN and the Commonwealth since 1983.

Richard Bourne: Richard Bourne is the head of the Commonwealth Policy Studies Units from its foundation up to July 2005, and is a senior fellow of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. He has been involved in Commonwealth activities since the end of 1982 when he became deputy director at the Commonwealth Institute, Kensington. In 1989 he moved to establish the non-governmental Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and in the 1990s he was a special adviser to the Commonwealth Secretariat for the Iwokrama Rainforest Programme in Guyana. He has held posts at the Surrey University and the London Institute of Education, and ran the Commonwealth Non-Governmental Office for South Africa and Mozambique from 1995-1997.

Professor Stephen Chan: Stephen Chan is Professor of International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He worked for the International Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat between 1977 and 1983, and helped pioneer modern electoral observation at the Zimbabwean independence elections. Stephen has twice been Dean at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London – where he also holds the Chair in International Relations. He has held senior positions at other British universities and been Honorary Professor at the University of Zambia; twice Visiting Fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford; and held visiting appointments at African, American, European, New Zealand, and Taiwanese universities. He remains active in diplomatic work and is the only academic member of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office ‘Ginger Group’ on Africa. He has also worked closely with the UK Ministry of Defense, has consulted for the U.S. State Department and other governments, and been active in several plausibly-named ‘back channel’ diplomatic maneuvers in Africa, China, and the Middle East. He was prominent as a young editor and publisher of poetry and newspapers before leaving New Zealand in 1976 for graduate studies at King’s College in the University of London. Stephen has published 28 scholarly books, 5 volumes of poetry, and 2 novels.

Cheryl Dorall: Cheryl Dorall has been a journalist for over 40 years, starting in newspapers in Malaysia where she edited the Sunday Star, a major national and campaigning newspaper in the 1980s. In 1988 she joined the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong as assistant editor and in 1989 the Commonwealth Secretariat in London as deputy director of its media and information services. She has been deputy spokesperson for seven Commonwealth summit conferences and participated in 10 election observer missions in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Since 2001 she has been a freelance journalist and been communications consultant to the Caribbean Development Bank and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

Antony Ellman: Antony Ellman is a tropical agriculturalist trained in agriculture and social anthropology. He has some 40 years experience of small farmer development schemes in Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and many other countries of Africa, Asia, South Pacific, Caribbean and Central America. He has worked for FAO, UNHCR, DFID, NRI, CDC, Commonwealth Secretariat, Tanzania Government, Oxfam and several other NGOs. He was agricultural adviser to Sir Bob Geld of following the Band Aid/Live Aid concerts. In 1990 he served on a TAA committee investigating future prospects for UK tropical agriculturalists. Since 1996 he has been a freelance consultant working mainly on access of small farmers to fair trade markets.

John Fowler: John Fowler is currently the Development Director at Children and Families, which is a charity in Sheerness. He has held many public sector jobs including work for the Commonwealth Secretariat and The Prince’s Trust. He has recently set up the largest Sure Start Children’s Centre in the United Kingdom, which won the Kent Business of the Year in 2005. He has set up the Credit Union of for Kent (Kent Savers), is a trustee for Maidstone CAB and is a member of the ISP Foundation working for children leaving care. Fowler has taken on more responsibility to develop activities in Children and Families, particularly to extend the work of the C&F Family Foodbank which is operating through Children’s Centres, currently in Swale.

Max Gaylard: Max Gaylard was born in 1946 in Nambour, Queensland, where he received his primary and secondary schooling, and is a graduate of the University of Queensland and the Australian National University. Gaylard also served with the Australian military forces from 1968 to 1970. An Australian national, Mr Gaylard began his career with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and also served with the Commonwealth Secretariat before he joined the United Nations.  Max was appointed as the Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, at the level of Assistant Secretary-General in 2008.  In this capacity, Mr. Gaylard also serves as United Nations coordinator for humanitarian and development activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. He previously served as Director of the United Nations Mine Action Service, and before that spent significant periods of time as a senior United Nations humanitarian and coordination official in Somalia, Sudan and northern Iraq.  In these capacities, he served in some of the most challenging field stations for the United Nations and gained relevant expertise in coordinating the United Nations country team’s response to pressing humanitarian and developmental needs.

Simon Gimson: Simon Gimson took office as Director of the Secretary-General’s Office in January 2009. He is a diplomat of New Zealand, with a career focus on multilateralism, politics, and communications. As Director, Simon’s role is to advise the Secretary-General on the full range of issues of relevance to the Commonwealth and the Secretariat. He also provides leadership and management of the office that supports the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General in their public duties and other official responsibilities. Simon joined the Commonwealth Secretariat in mid-2004 as Deputy Head in the office of the Secretary-General, responsible for providing policy advice to the Secretary-General on political, economic and constitutional affairs. Simon has had diplomatic postings in the past to Papua New Guinea, Britain and France. His career, prior to joining the Secretariat, included appointments as Special Assistant to The Queen’s Private Secretary, Permanent Representative to UNESCO, Deputy Head of Mission at the New Zealand Embassy in Paris, and Representative to the International Wine Organisation. He was also at one time the Press Secretary and speech writer for the New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. His career began with responsibility for managing official aid programmes in Pacific small states.

Derek Ingram: Derek Ingram is a British journalist and author, and is widely-regarded as the best writer on issues related to the Commonwealth of Nations. He was the co-founder of the Commonwealth Journalists Association in 1978, and served as President of the CJA from 1980 until 1990, when he was elected President Emeritus. He worked for the Daily Mail for seventeen years, including working his way up to Deputy Editor. A disagreement with the chairman, Viscount Rothermere, caused him to resign from the paper. In 1967, he founded the Gemini News Service, which he edited until 1993, and which reported stories from developing countries, particularly in the Commonwealth. Ingram is a member of the Round Table Moot, having first attended a meeting of the Moot in 1971. Until 2007, he wrote the Commonwealth Update in The Round Table Journal. He has written extensively in the journal, including its coverage of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings, having attended every one since 1971. He is also a Vice-President of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

Caitlin Jones: Caitlin Jones works for the Head of Commonwealth Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Rupert Jones-Perry: Rupert Jones-Parry was Head of Publications at the Commonwealth Secretariat. Prior to that, he worked in senior positions for several major UKL publishers in the field of international education.

Joel Kibazo: Joel Kibazo is a public affairs and communications consultant. He has been a journalist for the Financial Times, where he reported on Africa’s business and financial sector, and a presenter for BBC programmes and other international broadcasters. Kibazo has also been the Director of Communications and Public Affairs and Spokesman for the Commonwealth Secretariat between 2000 and 2006. He is the founder and CEO of JK Associates, a public affairs communications consultancy offering specialized services in Africa. Joel is a member of the CNN Africa Journalist of the Year Panel, a council member of the Royal Africa Society and a policy committee member of the Centre for the study of African economies at St. Anthony’s College at the University of Oxford.

Vijay Krishnarayan: Vijay Krishnarayan is the Director of the Commonwealth Foundation. He has supported civil society organisations in the United Kingdom, Caribbean and the wider Commonwealth over the last 25 years. Before joining to Commonwealth Foundation in 2006, he spent over a decade in the Caribbean, most notably as Managing Partner for the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute, one of the regions sustainable development think tanks. From 2006-2012 he served as the Foundation’s Deputy Director, in which he had oversight of the Foundation’s grants and programmes and helped build the civil organisation’s communication capacity. He led the Foundation’s coordination of civil society inputs to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings in 2007 (Kampala), 2009 (Port of Spain), and 2011 (Perth). He was also at the forefront of Commonwealth organisations’ work to re-engage with their counterparts in Zimbabwean civil society.

Edwin Laurent: Edwin Laurent is Head of Trade and Regional Cooperation at the Commonwealth Secretariat. He has served in Saint Lucia’s Ministry of Finance and as Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism. He has held a number of diplomatic postings including Permanent representative to the WTO, the FAO, the OPCW, and Ambassador to France, Germany and to Belgium. He was the first Eastern Caribbean States Ambassador to the EU and later the Windward Islands’ Governments Special Envoy to the EU on bananas. Whilst in Brussels, he chaired various ACP Ambassadorial bodies, including the Committee on Trade and Commodities and was the lead Ambassadorial negotiator and spokesman on certain subjects. He was educated at the Universities of the West Indies, Manchester and the Johns Hopkin’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C.

Hilary McEwan: Hilary McEwan is responsible for the Archives and the Record Management of the Commonwealth Secretariat. She undertakes the annual appraisal of records for release into the public domain, in accordance with the Secretariats policy on Shared Records. Hilary is also responsible for the promotion and the preservation of the Archives and handles enquiries concerning the collection and the history of the Secretariat. She is currently working on the implementation of an organization wide Records Management Programme.

Sir Peter Marshall: Sir Peter Marshall had a distinguished career in the UK Diplomatic Service before becoming Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General in 1983, a post which he held until 1988. He was Chairman of the Commonwealth Trust and Royal Commonwealth Society from 1988 to 1992 and Chairman of the Joint Commonwealth Societies Council from 1993 to 2003. In addition to the Commonwealth-related articles below, he has published Positive Diplomacy which was published by Macmillan in 1997.

Professor Stephen Matlin: Professor Stephen Matlin has been Executive Director of the Global Forum for Health Research since January 2004. He was educated as an organic chemist and then worked in academia for over 20 years (Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, University College, Cardiff 1972-75; Lecturer and Reader in Organic Chemistry, The City University, London 1975-88; Professor of Biological Chemistry, The City University, London 1988-90; Professor of Biological Chemistry, Warwick University, Coventry 1990-95) with research, teaching and consultancy interests in medicinal, biological and analytical chemistry. He then moved into work in the field of international development, with periods as Director of the Health and Education Division in the Commonwealth Secretariat, London (1995-2001), as Chief Education Adviser at the UK Department for International Development, London (2001-2002) and as a freelance consultant in health, education and development (2002-2003), before moving to Geneva to head the Global Forum for Health Research.

Stuart Mole:  Stuart Mole worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat for sixteen years from 1984 to 2000, first as Special Assistant to Sonny Ramphal and then as Head of Office/Director for Chief Anyaoku. He was Director-General of the Royal Commonwealth Society from 2000-2009 and is currently a member of the Editorial Board of ‘The Round Table’, Vice-chair of the Commonwealth Association and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter.

Professor Philip Murphy: Philip Murphy was appointed Director of The Institute of Commonwealth Studies in September 2009. Prior to this role, he was the Professor of British and Commonwealth History at the University of Reading. Professor Murphy has published extensively on decolonisation and the development of the modern Commonwealth. Intelligence history is one of his major interests, and he has produced pioneering work in the area of Commonwealth intelligence liaison. At Reading, Professor Murphy established one of the first courses in the UK on the intelligence community and British politics in the 20th century. He is currently co-editor of the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, and is writing a book for Oxford University Press on the monarchy and the post-war Commonwealth.

Dr Sue Onslow: Dr. Sue Onslow is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in the School of Advanced Studies, University of London. She is a leading British oral historian and is currently working on the AHRC-funded oral history of the modern Commonwealth. She is on the Editorial Board of the Cold War History journal. She is also a member of Chatham House, a member of the Advisory Board for the Marjan Project for Conflict and Wildlife Conservation (King’s College) and on the board of the Young People in International Affairs at Monash SA University, South Africa. She has published extensively on post-war British foreign policy, South Africa, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and the Cold War in the region. She is preparing a monograph on South Africa and the Rhodesian UDI period, to be published in 2012; and an oral history of the Rhodesian security forces in the Rhodesian bush war.

Patsy Robertson: Patsy Robertson, is a former Jamaican journalist and diplomat who has been involved in Commonwealth affairs for many years, serving three Secretary-Generals, first as Press Officer and then as Director of Information in the Commonwealth Secretariat.  She was the official Commonwealth spokesperson from 1983-1994.  After leaving the Secretariat in 1994, she joined the United Nations as senior media adviser to the Secretary-General of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995, and returned to the UN to fill the same role for the Beijing+5 conference in New York in 2000 and for the General Assembly Special Session on Children in 2001 and 2002. Jamaican-born, Patsy Robertson was educated in Jamaica and the United States. She is an active member of several civil society organisations and is a founder member of the Commonwealth Journalists Association, as well as a Trustee of the Thomson Foundation and the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum. She is currently Chair of the Commonwealth Association of former employees of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Foundation.

Kayode Samuel: Kayode Samuel is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and the CEO of Development Alliance West Africa. Kayode started his working life as a journalist with Vanguard Newspapers where he rose to become Features Editor. He has also worked with the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation and TechnoServe, an international development organization. He was Secretary/Member of the External Stakeholders Review Team which surveyed the community relations projects of the Shell Petroleum Development Company for 2002-2003 and was also a member of the team that developed a Long-Term Stakeholder Strategy for the Nigerian operations Chevron Corporation, an oil company. In 2009, he resigned from the service of the Ogun State Government having been Commissioner for Information and Orientation and Chief of Staff to the Governor. He once served as a Special Assistant in the Presidency. In 2010, he led a survey of internally generated revenue in the six states of South West Nigeria and Kwara State for the British Department for International Development (DID). He was also lead facilitator for the South-South states on a UNDP voter education and awareness initiative towards the 2011 elections in Nigeria. He is a member of the Governing Council of the Yoruba Academy and the Ekiti State Think Tank. He maintains extensive links with international development organizations and is a Consultant to the Ford Foundation.

Dr Patrick Salmon: Dr. Patrick Salmon is the Chief Historian at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a visiting professor at Newcastle University. His research focuses on the history of Scandinavia and twentieth century international relations. In 2001 he was a fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute. Dr. Salmon is also a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He is the author of Scandinavia and the Great Powers 1890-1940 and co-editor of Documents on British Policy Overseas and Slavery, Diplomacy and Empire Britain and the Suppression of the Slave Trade, 1807-1975.

Sir Anand Satyanand: Sir Anand Satyanand is the 19th Governor-General of New Zealand. He attended Sacred Heart College in Auckland, with hopes of entering medical school at the University of Otago. He later took up law, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Auckland in 1970. He worked as a lawyer for the next 12 years, initially for Greig, Bourke and Kettelwell. Later he worked as a barrister for the Crown Law Office. He served on the Council of Auckland District Law Society from 1979 until his appointment as a judge of the District Court of New Zealand in 1982. In 1995 he was appointed an ombudsman and he served two five-year terms. Between 2005 and his appointment as Governor-General in 2006, he chaired the Confidential Forum for Former In-Patients of Psychiatric Hospitals. He was appointed Governor-General by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, and was the first Governor-General of Indian descent and of Roman Catholic religious affiliation. Satyanand was also the first Governor-General not to hold knighthood before entering office, but was knighted two years later, in 2009.

HE Kamalesh Sharma: Kamalesh Sharma, an Indian diplomat, became Commonwealth Secretary-General on 1 April 2008. Sharma served as India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva from 1988 to 1990. In the late 1990s, he was closely engaged in the process which led to the formulation and adoption of the Millennium Development Goals. From 2002 to 2004, he served as the special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to Timor Leste, with the rank of Under Secretary-General. Mr. Sharma previously served as India’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, where he was closely involved in Commonwealth activities. In that capacity, since 2004 he has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Foundation. He represented India at the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) meeting in London in February and November 2005. Mr. Sharma also led the Indian delegation at the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers Meeting held on the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta in November 2005. Mr. Sharma’s special interests lie in the empowerment of young people, the advancement of women’s rights, the challenge of poverty eradication and economic growth. Mr. Sharma has been a member of the Indian Foreign Service since 1965, and has served at ambassadorial level in five missions.

Dr Purna Sen: Dr. Purna Sen is head of human rights for the Commonwealth Secretariat. She was previously with Amnesty International as director for the Asia-Pacific program and has taught gender and development at the Development Studies Institute (DESTIN) at the London School of Economics (LSE). For more than 20 years, her work has included research, publications and activism for violence against women, culture and human rights, particularly in relation to sexual violence, trafficking, civil society organizing against violence and social development issues and race equality in the UK. She has worked in a number of countries including India, Jordan, Morocco, Indonesia and the Nordic countries. In 2010, Dr. Sen was selected as one of the internationally-renowned experts that would make up a Technical Advisory Group, for the purpose of advising the UN’s Global Commission on HIV and the Law.

Lucy Steward: Lucy Steward is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. She worked as a teacher, college lecturer and science curriculum officer in her home country before leaving for the CARICOM Secretariat in Guyana where she worked as Chief of Education. Later, she worked in London at the Commonwealth Secretariat as Chief Programme Officer with responsibility for education in small states. In 1998 she was appointed Registrar of the Caribbean Examinations Council, a position she held until March 2008. While at the Council she led their responses to the many mandates given by member states as they sought to ensure that students leaving the secondary system were provided with adequate options with regard to their assessment and certification.

Sir Kenneth Stuart: Sir Kenneth Stuart has enjoyed an illustrious career in the field of medicine, both as teacher and administrator in the Caribbean and further afield. He is presently Medical Adviser to the Commonwealth Secretariat, based in London. He is also Honorary Lecturer in Medicine at the Royal Post-graduate Hospital in London. Educated at Wesley Hall Boys’ School and Harrison College, Professor Stuart won the Barbados Scholarship in 1940 and proceeded to McGill University where he acquired the B.A. degree in Classics and Philosophy. Subsequent medical training took him to Queen’s University in Belfast from 1943-1948, where he was awarded the Coulter Scholarship for Clinical Medicine and Surgery in 1948. In December of that year he graduated with M.B., B.Ch. and B.A.O. degrees. After several attachments to hospitals and universities in Britain, Sir Kenneth returned to the Caribbean as Senior Medical Registrar with the University College Hospital of the West Indies in Jamaica from 1952-1953 then became Lecturer in Medicine, 1953-1958 and Consultant Physician. Other positions held at the University of the West Indies were: Senior Lecturer in Medicine, 1958-1962; Reader in Medicine, 1962-1966; Professor of Medicine, 1966-1978; Dean, Medical Faculty, 1969-1971; and Head of the Department of Medicine, 1972-1976. Stuart has also lectured at Harvard University and was consultant to the Pan-American Health Organisation on cardiovascular services in Cuba in 1975. He has authored over sixty (60) authoritative publications on a wide range of medical disorders and holds membership in a number of prestigious medical societies concerned with tropical medicine and hygiene, cardiology and hypertension. He was knighted in July 1977 and holds MD, FRCP, FRCPE, FACP and DTM degrees.

Dame Veronica Sutherland: Veronica Sutherland started her working life as Airey Neave’s junior secretary. She later joined the Diplomatic Service, with postings in Europe, Asia and Africa. From 1995-1999 she served as the British Ambassador to Eire (Republic of Ireland). In 1999 she was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat with responsibility for economic and social affairs. She was the first woman to hold this post and to serve the Commonwealth at such a high rank. From 2001-2008 she was President of Lucy Cavendish College in Cambridge. Dame Veronica was Chairman of the Airey Neave Trust from 2001-2011.

Dr Peter Williams: Peter Williams worked at the Commonwealth Secretariat for ten years, from 1984-1994, first as Director of Education and then as Director of the Human Resource Development Division. He is currently Joint Deputy Executive Chair of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth and Secretary of the Commonwealth Consortium for Education. He was Secretary of the Commission on Commonwealth Studies, attended Commonwealth Education Ministers’ meetings in Barbados (1997), Edinburgh (2003), Cape Town (2006), and CHOGMs/People’s Forums at Edinburgh (1997), Durban (1999), Brisbane (2001), Abuja (2003), Valetta (2005) and Kampala (2007).