Berlin
Office
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Dr.
Oliver Wils
Executive Director
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Oliver is
the executive director of the BFPS. Besides his regular management
tasks he takes a special interest in the Peace Envoy Programme
and project development in the Middle East. Currently he is also
responsible for the “Resistance/Liberation Movements and
Transitions to Politics” project. Oliver joined the Berghof
Center in January 2003 and shifted to his current position when
the BFPS was establishment in October 2004. Before that he worked
as a consultant in development cooperation. Oliver is a political
scientist and has specialised in the Middle East, where he lived
for some time; in 2001 he completed his
PhD on networks of economic elites in Jordan. |
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Dr.
Norbert Ropers
Director BFPS
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Norbert
is one of the shareholders (together with Johannes Zundel, the
CEO of the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies) and a director
of the BFPS. Norbert initiated the establishment of the Berghof
Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management in 1993
and served as its director till 2004. Before that he worked
on peace, security, development and global issues at the Institute
for Development and Peace (University of Duisburg), the Royal
Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House, London) and
the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF). As a practitioner
Norbert has a background in adult education and intercultural
communication, served as head of the academy of the Gustav-Stresemann-Institute
in Bonn and initiated a pan-European youth exchange consulting
organisation. His current practical focus is on dialogue facilitation,
peace mediation and systemic approaches for conflict transformation
with a particular interest in South and Southeast Asia.
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Barbara
Unger
Senior Co-ordinator,
Deputy Director BFPS
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Barbara
is senior coordinator and deputy director of the BFPS. She coordinates
the consulting services of BFPS and is responsible for our programme
activities in Latin America. Apart from other responsibilities,
her recent activities include providing trainings, consultancy
services and backstopping for GTZ programmes, as well as lessons
learned and practitioners’ guidelines. Barbara joined
the BFPS in
2006; prior to that she coordinated zivik, a funding mechanism
for conflict resolution activities, and worked as an independent
trainer and consultant, as well as programme officer in development
and consulting institutions. A political scientist focusing
on development and gender issues with a specialization from
the German Development Institute, Barbara’s current practice
and research interests in conflict transformation comprise systemic
approaches, peace support structures and dealing with the past.
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Dr.
Oliver Wolleh
Special Co-ordinator
Georgia/Abkhazia
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Oliver
has been appointed as the envoy in the newly established Peace
Envoy Programme for the Caucasus. He has been coordinating and
facilitating the Georgian-Abkhazian dialogue project since 2002
on behalf of the Berghof Research Center and the Berghof Foundation
for Peace Support. His current practical focus is on approaches
for conflict transformation in asymmetric conflicts, strategies
of confidence-building, dialogue facilitation and power-sharing
models.
Oliver
is an associated researcher at the Berghof Center for Constructive
Conflict Management which he joined back in 1994. He has an
M.Sc. degree in political science from the London School of
Economics and Political Science and completed his PhD at the
Freie Universität, Berlin on peace-building strategies
in Cyprus in 2000. Since 2000 he has been lecturing "Conflict
Management" and "Mediation and Negotiation Skills"
at the Alice-Salomon University of Applied Science for the English
language masters programme "Intercultural Conflict Management".
His
areas of academic interest are practice and transformation processes
in deep-rooted asymmetric conflict, power-sharing models, methods
and structures of dialogue processes (track 1.5 to track 3).
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Daniela
Körppen
Researcher - Systemic
Conflict Transformation
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Daniela
works as a researcher for the BFPS. She is coordinating an action
research project on systemic conflict transformation, which explores
the potential of systemic thinking for conflict transformation
strategies. The main idea of this project is to further develop
the framework of a systemic approach to conflict transformation.
She takes special interest in practice oriented research and in
developing methodologies for conflict analysis and evaluation.
In her PhD project she is working on the
development of a systemic-constructivistic framework for the analysis
and transformation of conflicts, focusing on governance issues
in the Sudan. Daniela joined the BFPS in 2005. She graduated in
Sociology and Latin American Studies (M.A.) and in Peace and Conflcit
Studies (M.A.) She has several years of work experience as a journalist.
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Susanne
Breda
Co-ordinator
Finance
& Administration
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bio
note forthcoming |

Yasmin
Behrens
Assistant
Finance
& Administration
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bio
note forthcoming |

Claus-Dieter
Wild
Programme Officer
Resource Management
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Claus-Dieter
is the programme officer and supervises the centre's library and
IT system. Furthermore he serves as a resource officer for our
capacity-building programme in Sri Lanka. Claus-Dieter joined
Berghof in 1999. Previously he worked as a freelance facilitator
in political education and as a mediator in the community sector.
He graduated in political science at the Free University Berlin.
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Projects |
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Ulrike
Hopp
Senior
Programme Coordinator
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Ulrike
has been the deputy director of the Sri Lanka office since 2005.
She looks at her work from the angle of organisational learning
and takes great interest in building capacities for institutional
and social change processes. As an economist, Ulrike integrates
both her educational background in management and her professional
experience in development assistance. Ulrike has been with the
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
since 1997 and is currently on leave for her position at the
Berghof Foundation. From 2002 onwards, she was the desk officer
for conflict prevention and peace building and authored the
ministry’s concept note for the area (Uebersektorales
Konzept).
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Luxshi
Vimalarajah
Senior Programme Coordinator
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Luxshi Vimalarajah is a senior
programme coordinator at the Berghof Foundation for Peace Support
in Berlin. She has worked for the last five years at the Resource
Network for Conflict Studies and Transformation (RNCST) in Sri
Lanka, a conflict transformation project on tracks 1.5 &
2 implemented by BFPS. She is responsible for the overall strategic
planning and assessment and for conducting programmes with the
conflict stakeholders in Sri Lanka and in the diaspora. Luxshi
has also worked in Nepal and was involved in projects related
to gender and peace-building. Her areas of academic interest
are systemic theory / practice and transformation processes
in deep-rooted asymmetric ethno-political conflict contexts.
She holds an MA degree in Political Science from the Free University
Berlin.
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Judith
Large
Special Adviser |
Judith
is Special Advisor for BFPS. She worked extensively in conflict
zones from the early 1990's, on national and local levels and
through consultancies for UN agencies including WHO, UNHCR and
UNDP/BCPR. This included engagement with community actors and
responses during war in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina,
and contributing to policy formulation for inclusive processes
in post-war recovery. As an advisor to a UK Consortium on Complex
Emergencies she supported development and community agencies
for response to conflict in Gulu, Uganda. Later assignments
took her extensively to Indonesia and broader Southeast Asia.
Judith has been a visiting lecturer in conflict analysis and
mediation at universities in the UK and the Netherlands and
has published on peace processes and human security. She was
with International IDEA (Stockholm) from 2003 to 2006, working
particularly on democracy building and conflict management;
and remains interested in questions of how governance can provide
for human security, and what interventions assist rather than
impede peace agreements and their implementation.
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Clem
McCartney
Programme Associate - Asia
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bio note
forthcoming |

Hannes
Siebert
Senior
Adviser
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In
the framework of a collaborative project of BPS and UNDP Lebanon
Hannes provides technical support and expert advice on the National
Dialogue to the Presidency, Steering Committee and support initiatives
in Lebanon. As an experienced facilitator and negotiator, Hannes
has worked with national stakeholders in the development and
implementation of national peace structures, authentic negotiations
processes and local/regional conflict interventions in several
countries. In his home country, South Africa, he served as director
in the National Peace Secretariat, the multi-party body mandated
to implement the 1992 National Peace Accord. After 1994 he assisted
the Special Presidential Task Force in key in-tractable conflicts,
focusing for example on the de-militarization of militias. In
Sri Lanka, he advised the country’s peace secretariats
and facilitated the creation of the multi-party negotiations
forum, One Text. In Nepal he helped setting up the Nepal Transitions
to Peace Initiative and has been a key adviser to the Nepali
peace process.
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Ariya
Dilokchaichanwuth
Executive
Assistant
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Ariya
Dilokchaichanwuth graduated from Rangsit University, Bangkok,
Thailand in hotel management. After working for Japan Airlines
for ten years she taught hospitality and airline management at
Suan Dusit University, Thailand. She then worked for a human resources
company in Bangkok as a coach in team building and risk management.
In 2008, she joined the Berghof Foundation for Peace Support as
an Executive Assistant to Dr. Norbert Ropers. |

Gregor
Maaß
Project Associate Latin America
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Gregor
joined the BFPS as a project associate in 2007. He is working
on conflict sensitive development approaches and security and
risk management with a focus on Latin America. He has been engaged
in protection for human rights defenders with Peace Brigades International
(PBI). Having graduated in geography, political science and Latin
American studies at Humboldt University and Free University in
Berlin, he specialised in development cooperation through postgraduate
studies at the Centre of Advanced Training in Rural Development
(SLE) in Berlin. |
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Manuela
Leonhardt
Project
Associate Latin America
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Manuela
Leonhardt has over fifteen years of experience in research and
development in a range of conflict-affected countries, working
with multilateral, bilateral and civil society organisations.
Her areas of interest include conflict analysis, early warning,
conflict-sensitive monitoring and evaluation, natural resource
conflict, the role of the private sector in conflict environments,
and post-conflict reconstruction. She is a skilled facilitator
and trainer and has been involved in developing a number of
training manuals. Manuela has recently completed assignments
in Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Niger.
Her latest publications include the “CEWARN Early Warning
and Response Training Manual” (IGAD, 2008), “Peace
and Conflict Assessment. A Methodological Framework for Conflict-Sensitizing
Development Cooperation” (GTZ, 2007) and “Conflict-Sensitive
Business Practice: Guidelines for Commercial Reforestation in
Colombia” (GTZ, 2006). Fluent in German, English, Spanish
and French.
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Wolfram
Zunzer
Project
Associate Aceh/Indonesia
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bio
note forthcoming
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