Staff

Berlin Office
Dr. Oliver Wils Executive Director	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.
Dr. Norbert Ropers Director BFPS	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.
Barbara Unger Senior Co-ordinator, Deputy Director BFPS	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.
Dr. Oliver Wolleh Special Co-ordinator Georgia/Abkhazia	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).
Daniela Körppen Researcher - Systemic Conflict Transformation	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.
Susanne Breda Co-ordinator Finance & Administration	bio note forthcoming
Yasmin Behrens Assistant Finance & Administration	bio note forthcoming
Claus-Dieter Wild Programme Officer Resource Management	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.
Projects
Ulrike Hopp Senior Programme Coordinator	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).
Luxshi Vimalarajah Senior Programme Coordinator	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.
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.
Clem McCartney Programme Associate - Asia	bio note forthcoming
Hannes Siebert Senior Adviser	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.
Ariya Dilokchaichanwuth Executive Assistant	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	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.
Manuela Leonhardt Project Associate Latin America	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.
Wolfram Zunzer Project Associate Aceh/Indonesia	bio note forthcoming