2019 Speakers

A Saudi expert on Gulf politics and strategic issues, Dr. Abdulaziz Sager is the founder and Chairman of the Gulf Research Center, a global think tank based in Jeddah with a well-established worldwide network of partners and offices in both the Gulf region and Europe. In addition to having authored and edited numerous publications, Dr. Sager frequently contributes as a commentator on major international media channels such as Al Arabiya, France 24 and BBC. He has also involved in also chaired and moderated the Syrian opposition meetings in Riyadh. Dr. Sager holds a Ph.D in Politics and International Relations from Lancaster University, an MA from the University of Kent, United Kingdom and a BA from the Faculty of Economics and Administration of King Abdulaziz University.

Ahmed Famau is a lead Community Facilitator with Green String Network tackling violent extremism in Kenya’s coastal town of Lamu through initiating trauma-informed workshops that advocate for wellbeing and peacebuilding practice among the youth and National Police Service Commission of Kenya.

Salman Shaikh is the Founder and CEO of The Shaikh Group (TSG). Before establishing TSG, he was the director of the Brookings Institution's Doha Center, where his research focused on conflict resolution, domestic policy, and geopolitics of the Middle East, with a particular focus on the Levant (particularly Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.
Shaikh has extensive experience working the United Nations in a number of offices, including as Special Assistant, Middle East & Asia in the Office of the Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs, Political Advisor to the Secretary-General's Personal Representative for Lebanon during the 2006 war, Special Assistant to the Special Coordinator to the Middle East Peace Process, and Programme Officer for the Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict. Shaikh also served as Director for policy and research in the private office of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bin Nasser al-Missned, the Consort of the former Emir of the State of Qatar. Shaikh is a respected commentator and policy adviser on the Middle East. He has been featured in key publications and broadcasts, including CNN, BBC, Sky New, Al Jazeera, and NBC, and has published commentaries with Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Christian Science Monitor, and elsewhere.

Andrei Grachev is a Russian political analyst and journalist. Andrei Grachev was adviser for Mikhail Gorbachev and official Spokesman of the President of the USSR until his resignation in December 1991. Presently Dr. Andrei Grachev is editorialist for the “Novaya Gazeta” (Russia) and the Chairman of the Scientific Committee of The New Policy Forum He published several books in Russian, French and English. His last book published by Alma Editeurs is “Un nouvel avant-guerre. Des hyperpuissances à l’hyperpoker”.

Dr Benedetta Berti is Head of Policy Planning  in the Office of the Secretary General at NATO. An Eisenhower Global Fellow, a Foreign Policy Reserach Institute Senior Fellow and a TED Senior Fellow, in the past decade Benedetta has held research and teaching positions at  West Point, The Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv University and the Foreign Policy Research Institute, among others. Her research focuses on armed groups, internal wars, and protection of civilians. Dr. Berti is the author of four books, including "Armed Political Organizations. From Conflict to Integration" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013) and her work and research have appeared, among others, in Al-Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, the National Interest, Wall Street Journal and The New York Times; as well as in academic journals including Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Parameters, the Middle East Journal, ORBIS, Democratization, Civil Wars, Government & Opposition and Mediterranean Politics.

Brazilian economist with an M.A. in Public Administration and Public Policy from the University of York (UK) and an M.A. in International Relations from the Institute Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (Spain). Since 2013 he has been leading the establishment of Transparency International’s presence in Brazil and, previous to that, he was the coordinator in Mexico of TI’s Climate Finance Integrity Programme. He is a fellow of the Organization of American States’ “Open Government in the Americas” and the Bertelsmann Foundation’s “Transformation Thinkers”.

Christian Krämer heads the Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq department at KfW Development Bank and is responsible for all projects in this region. He acts as Deputy Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of ProCredit Group, an international active Microfinance institution. He is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of PATRIP Foundation. PATRIP finances projects in fragile context in Central Asia and Africa for the German Federal Foreign Office. Before this he led the KfW’s office for Management Affairs and worked for KfW IPEX Bank (International Project and Export Finance). Christian holds a law degree from the University of Cologne.

Evelyn Njeri Mbugua is a Senior Superintendent of Police and is the Head of Counseling Services within the National Police Service in Kenya. She has been in the Service for 15 years developing and championing psycho-support mechanisms for police officers and their families. Currently, she’s working on implementing a functional psychosocial support system for the National Police Service. As part of this key process, she was involved in the development of the Kenya National Police Service Psychological Counseling Policy. She conceived the partnership with Green String Network on writing curriculum and resource training materials to roll-out the Trauma Informed Resilience for police officers where she’s an advanced Resource Facilitator. The program is called Muamko Mpya: Healing the Uniform. Njeri intends to build on Muamko Mpya program program and strategies to bring together police officers and community members to create their own individual and collective mechanisms towards social healing. She is a certified trainer on Child Protection for United Nations Police, Strategic Command and Leadership. She holds a M.A degree in Leadership and Security Management, an Executive MSc. in Organizational Development and a B.A in Psychology. She has also been a member of the Chartered Management Institute (UK) and holds a level 7 Strategic Management and Leadership Certificate. Evelyn also has professional background training on Holistic Trauma healing, strategic leadership, Child protection, Women in Leadership for Peace and Security among others. She’s a member and Associate Psychologist with the Kenya Psychological Association.

Fauziya Abdi Ali is the Founder and President of Women in International Security (WIIS) Horn of Africa (HoA). Fauziya is a devoted advocate for women engagement in peace and security. Prior to founding WIIS-HoA, she worked on the Kenyan African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) by the New Partnership for Africa (NEPAD) Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC), an instrument for monitoring performance in governance among African Union Member States. The APRM is a self- onitoring instrument of which Kenya was amongst the first four countries to accede to. Post the APRM process, Fauziya continued on to lead a number of initiatives in governance and peacebuilding. She was the deputy chief of party for Somalia’s largest Stabilisation programme. She later spearheaded projects in preventing violent extremism at UNDP, producing works such as the “Journey to extremism” Africa study, first CVE charter and CVE mobile application for Africa tackling extremist narratives. When she is not managing WIIS-HoA, she chairs a national network “sisters without borders”, made up of women leaders working towards peace and security. Due to her work in Preventing violent extremism, she was named a “leading woman” in PVE by News Deeply, a Women and Girls Independent news and information platform covering issues of females in developing world. Fauziya holds a Bachelor of Science, Masters in Business Administration and is a Maurice Greenberg World Fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global affairs at Yale University.

Hilde has spent twenty-five years working for the European Commission, covering external relations and economic and competitiveness issues. From 2014 to 2017, she served as Deputy Head of Cabinet to Vice-President Katainen in charge of Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness. Previously, she headed the Commission's Units for respectively Relations with Russia and with Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, and was in charge of briefing the President of the Commission for meetings with EU Heads of State or Government. Hilde Hardeman holds a PhD in Slavic Philology and History of the University of Leuven after studies at Leuven, Stanford University, and Paris.  She was visiting professor at the College of Europe, and taught History of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at Vesalius College, Brussels. She published on Russian history and minority right issues.

Ion Lazarenco Tiron is an active pacifist fighter who throughout his swimming projects brings awareness of need for Peace on Earth. In 2013 Ion created a project called “Swim for Peace” and his first swim was along River Nistru, Moldova. Ion went with his project worldwide by embracing a series of seven channels known as “Ocean Seven”, becoming the 1^st person swimming all of them from the first attempt. Ion appeals to athletes worldwide to become peace ambassadors for their country.

Jaspher Nyauma Ombati is the Assistant Inspector General of the National Police Service of Kenya. He’s the Director incharge of Directorate of Police Reforms and Transformation charged with the responsibility of coordinating the Police Transformation agenda. He’s worked in the National Police Service for 24 years. Within this period, he’s been part of four key international Peace Keeping Missions in the Republic of South Sudan. He’s undergone various professional trainings including: Strategic Leadership and Command from the UK College of Policing leading to the award of a Level 7 CMI Certificate (QCF); Peace and Conflict Management from UN's Peace Operations Training Institute (POTI); Civil Military Coordination (CIMIC) in Peace Support Operations Environments from the International Peace Support Training Centre (IPSTC) -Nairobi; and Peace Support Operations and the Role of Stability Police Units - offered by the Centre of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU), Vicenza, Italy. He holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Laikipia University, specializing in Strategic Management and another Master’s Degree (MA) in Leadership and Security Management from Kenyatta University's School of Peace, Diplomacy and Security Studies. In addition, he holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Mass Communication from the University of Nairobi’s School of Journalism where he had completed his undergrad studies. Currently he’s pursuing PhD in Security Studies and International Relations at Kenyatta University.

Jean-Marie Guéhenno is a member of the High-level Advisory board on mediation (UN, a senior advisor at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in international affairs, and a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution. After leaving the French court of audit, he was Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping (2000-2008), deputy special envoy for Syria (2012), professor at Columbia University, president of the French commission of the White Paper for defense and security (2012-2013), president of the International Crisis Group (2014-2017).

Jeppe Albers is the Managing Director of the Nordic Safe Cities Alliance. He has founded and led the Nordic Safe Cities programme since 2016 uniting politicians, city practitioners, police and civil society from +30 Nordic Cities to share and innovate policies and projects that safeguards cities and citizens and prevents crime and violent extremism. Jeppe has seven years of experience as an entrepreneur and consultant on various safety, security and social programmes for Nordic authorities and CSO's. He has previously held a position at the Danish Foreign Ministry and holds an Msc in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Copenhagen and Sciences Po Paris.

Michel Duclos is a French diplomat, advising Institut Montaigne. He is the author of the policy paper “Syria: To End a Never-Ending War”, published by Institut Montaigne in June 2016. From 1984 to 1987 he held the position of Deputy Director of the Centre for Analysis, Planning and Strategy within the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, between 2000 and 2002 he was an Ambassador to the Political and Security Committee in Brussels, following that and until 2006 he was the Deputy Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations. Between 2006 and 2009, Michel Duclos was Ambassador in Syria, and later in Switzerland, from 2012 to 2014. Michel Duclos graduated from the French National School of Administration.

Nabila Ramdani is an award-winning French freelance journalist, columnist, and broadcaster of Algerian descent who specialises in Franco-British politics, Islamic affairs & the Arab World. She writes columns for The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph & the London Evening Standard. Nabila can regularly be seen and heard on the BBC, Sky News, Channel 4, ITV, CNN & Al Jazeera. She has interviewed world leaders including the current President of France, Emmanuel Macron.

Dr. Najmuddin Najm is Chief Executive Officer of the Aga Khan Foundation in Afghanistan.  As CEO, he is responsible for leading a team of more than 2,000 staff delivering economic, social and cultural development programmes that annually reaches over 2.5milllion people across the country.  Previously, for over 16 years he has held various positions across the agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network in Afghanistan including, Border Districts Programme Manager with Aga Khan Health Services, and Regional Director of the Foundation’s Badakhshan Programme.

Dr. Najm holds a Bachelor’s degree from Balkh Medical College, Afghanistan, and a Master’s in Conflict, Security and Development from the University of Bradford, UK.  He is a graduate of the Programme for Leadership Development from the Executive Education Department of IESE Business School of Navara University, Spain.

Nuriia Karakulova is a young talented and knowledgeable professional having 5 years of experience in CVE projects, in peacebuilding, public participation and empowerment of communities. Nuriia works for Search for Common Ground – Kyrgyzstan since 2014 and she coordinates the countrywide youth PVE program #JashStan: supporting the wave of youth peace leaders in Kyrgyzstan. She has been deeply committed to and involved in the small initiatives of youth in PVE in 4 Central Asian countries. Nuriia is one of youth representative in Central Asia who has been deeply committed to the Youth Declaration on Youth, Peace and Security in Central Asia (#StanforPeace). She holds her Bachelor Degree in International Relations (Specialization: Regional Conflict Prevention) from Kyrgyz National University and her Master's in Political Science from the University of Lille2 in France.

Since September 2019, Pia Fuhrhop heads the Berlin Office of IFSH. Previously she has worked as foreign policy advisor to Omid Nouripour, Member of the German Bundestag. She has held research positions with Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin and worked as a consultant for the German Ministry for Development and International Cooperation. In her various capacities Pia Fuhrhop has worked extensively on transatlantic crisis management in Syria, Afghanistan and the Balkans. She also has written and researched on German foreign and security policies, particularly Germany’s crisis management capacities and reform of the armed forces. She also holds a PhD from Free University Berlin, awarded for a dissertation on European influence on US crisis management policies. In the context of her doctoral studies, she was a visiting fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) in Washington DC.

Robert Malley is the President and CEO of International Crisis Group. Prior to taking on this role in 2018, Malley served in senior Middle East-related roles in the U.S. administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Before joining the Obama administration, he was for more than a decade Program Director for Middle East and North Africa at Crisis Group, leading the independent conflict prevention organisation’s regional research, analysis, policy prescription and advocacy. He studied at Yale University, Harvard Law School and Oxford University.

Rym Momtaz is POLITICO’s correspondent in France, where she focuses on the intersection of French and European politics and covers France’s European and Foreign Policy. Previously, she was a producer at ABC News. She covered major news stories across Europe, the Middle East and the U.S. including Macron’s rise to power, and the 2015 attacks in Paris, Brussels and Bamako. In 2010-2011, she served at Lebanon’s mission to the UN during the country’s mandate on the Security Council.

Scott Weber is the President of Interpeace, an international organization for peacebuilding. Initially created by the United Nations in 1994 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Interpeace supports locally-led peacebuilding initiatives in more than 21 countries worldwide. As President, Mr. Weber is responsible for strategy, positioning and resource mobilization to grow the organization’s impact, influence and reach. Prior to joining Interpeace, Mr. Weber worked in the Office of the United Nations Director-General in Geneva and in disaster preparedness. Mr. Weber is French and American and holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, Economics and Russian from Georgetown University and Certificates of Executive Education in Leadership from Harvard University’s JFK School of Government and Oxford University’s Saïd Business School.