Our People

Ambassador Greminger served as Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from July 2017 until July 2020. As Secretary General, he acted as an effective crisis manager supporting successive Chairmanships in an increasingly polarized environment. In the final months of his term, he dealt with the COVID-19 crisis, working to protect the health and safety of staff while ensuring that the OSCE continued to carry out its critical mandates and maintained business continuity.

Previously, Ambassador Greminger served as Deputy Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. As Head of South Cooperation, he oversaw cooperation with 21 partner countries and regions, entailing an annual budget of USD 730 million and 900 staff in Bern and abroad. In this function, he regularly represented Switzerland at international conferences as State Secretary.

From 2010 to 2015, Ambassador Greminger served as the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the OSCE, the United Nations and the International Organizations in Vienna.From 2004 to 2010, he served as Head of the Human Security Division of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The Division is the Department’s main competence center for peace, human rights and humanitarian and migration policy, with an annual budget of around USD 70 million and 100 staff in Bern and abroad.

Ambassador Greminger also served as Deputy Head of the Human Security Division from 2002 to 2004, and from 1999 to 2001 as Country Director at the Swiss Embassy in Maputo, Mozambique, where he managed Switzerland’s largest development cooperation programme with an annual budget of around USD 30 million and staff.

From 1994 to 1998, he served in different posts in the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, including Head of the Policy and Research Unit.

Ambassador Greminger holds a PhD in history from the University of Zurich. He is Lieutenant Colonel GS (company and battalion commander of infantry unit of the Swiss Armed Forces; G6 and Deputy Chief of Staff of Infantry Brigade). He has authored numerous publications on military history, conflict management, peacekeeping, development and human rights.

Evelyne is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Technology and Global Affairs (CTGA), University of Oxford, and a special advisor of the Oxford Initiative of Global Ethics and Human Rights.

Evelyne has experience working as an expert and consultant for the public sector (Swiss Parliamentary Services, Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan), civil society (Intermon-Oxfam, ‘Theater for Peace’ and others), and international organizations (such as Unicef). Evelyne is also a MAG member of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and a member of the Steering Committee of the Swiss Internet Governance Forum.

She holds a PhD in International Relations with a specialization in Political Science from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva and was a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Political and Social Sciences (SPS), European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy. She previously studied political science, economics and law at the University of Bern and has field research experience in Ethiopia, Mexico and India.

In her role as Vice-President IES, Professor Olonisakin seeks to facilitate the deployment of King’s assets (including knowledge, scholarship and talent in service of society) locally, nationally and internationally, to enable transformative and lasting impact. She is committed to building inter-disciplinary and intersectoral collaboration, and sustaining equitable partnerships to realise positive and lasting impact within and beyond King’s. Producing knowledge that influences change beyond the academy has been at the heart of Professor Olonisakin’s research work. She has positioned her work to serve as a bridge between academia and the worlds of policy and practice.  Her research has been shaped by her interest in deepening understanding of why civil wars relapse, and the drivers of youth vulnerability and exclusion in the developing world. More recently, she has sought to explore the interface between leadership, peace, and security as a basis to unpack and understand the big transnational problems that confront the world today. She has led a number of major research projects including most recently on “future peace, society and the state in Africa”, supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Professor Olonisakin founded the African Leadership Centre (ALC) both at King’s and in Kenya, as a collaboration between King’s and the University of Nairobi in 2010. The ALC aims to develop a new community of leaders generating cutting edge-knowledge for peace, security and development in Africa. Professor Olonisakin has focused on inclusive postgraduate research training at the ALC, combining field-building with community-building while working with inter-generational research teams to translate knowledge generated into multiple forms of collaborative engagement regionally in Africa, and globally.

Previously, Professor Olonisakin worked in the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in New York, between 1999 and 2003. From 2003 until 2013, she was Director of the Conflict Security and Development Group at King’s College London.

In January 2015, United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, appointed Professor Olonisakin as one of seven members of the Advisory Group of Experts (AGE) on the Review of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture; and in 2016, as a member of the Advisory Group of Experts for the United Nations Progress Study on Youth, Peace, and Security. In 2018, she was appointed to the Council of the United Nations University, on which she currently serves as Chair. She was awarded the Fellowship of King’s College in 2020.

University of Pretoria (UP), where she was appointed as an Extra-Ordinary Professor in 2016, conferred the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (honoris causa) on Professor Olonisakin in May 2022 in recognition of her significant contributions to the promotion of peace, security, justice, and international solidarity in Africa, with special reference to women and youth.

Professor Olonisakin was educated at the University of Ife, Nigeria (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and King’s College London, graduating with a BSc. Honours in Political Science (Ife, 1984) and MSc and PhD in War Studies (King’s 1996) respectively. She was a post-doctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Sciences in UP in 1998, and was awarded a McArthur Foundation post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of War Studies from 1998-1999.

Since 2009, AMG has profitably invested more than USD 100 million in some 60 impact ventures in Latin America and Africa, through private debt and equity.
Tim is the Treasurer of the AlphaMundi Foundation 501c3 (AMF) in Washington DC since its inception in 2017, which has allocated some USD 3M in grants to date. He is also the Founder and Chair of the Gender Lens Initiative for Switzerland (GLIS), a working group created in 2021 by the non-profit association Sustainable Finance Geneva (SFG) to enhance Switzerland’s contribution to SDG5. Additionally, in 2022 Tim joined the Board of Directors of the non-profit Latimpacto, the premier network of impact-driven investors in Latin America.

Tim previously worked for a year at MSCI in Geneva as an Emerging Markets index analyst, and for 7 years at UBS Wealth Management in Zurich mostly, where he integrated the Family Office Consulting Group and then became a founding member of UBS Philanthropy Services for UHNWI clients. He also spent time in Bolivia, assessing microfinance programs on behalf of the Swiss Development Agency in 2006, and served as a fundraising advisor to WWF International in 2009-2010.

Tim was listed among the 100 personalities of Switzerland for the transition to sustainability by the national daily Le Temps in 2019. He holds a Degree in Political Science from the University of Geneva and a Private Banking Diploma from UBS, gives occasional lectures on impact investing at various universities, and is fluent in French, English and Spanish. Tim is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Born in Aesch near Basel, Dieter studied law in Fribourg i.Ue and passed his bar exam in Liestal. Representing refugees and migrants from the opening of the legal practice in 1986 he joined the UNHCR Mission in North Iraq for several month in 1991. From 1999 to 2006 he worked for the expert pool of the Swiss FDFA in Kosovo (OSCE Mission) and in Central Asia (Human Security Advisor). In 2005 Dieter was elected Ombudsman for the Canton of Basel-Stadt in a job sharing position. He resigned at the end of 2013 to return to his legal practice. Since 2010 he had different evaluation and programming Mandates for SDC and the Peace and Human Rights Division of the FDFA in Switzerland, Central Asia, Kosovo and Ukraine as well as a teaching assignment for the OSCE Academy in Bishkek.

Dieter is President of humanrights.ch and of the Innovabridge Foundation. He is also member of the board of trustees at the Fondation Oumou Dilly and president of the Aesch Winemakers Cooperative.

Prior to joining the Wyss Foundation, Molly served in the Clinton Administration as Counselor to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. During her tenure at Interior, she oversaw the designation of National Monuments under the Antiquities Act, the principal vehicle used by President Clinton to protect more land in the lower forty-eight states than any President since Teddy Roosevelt.

She also was the lead negotiator on the largest state-federal land exchange in U.S. history–an agreement that officials from Utah and the federal government had been trying, and failing, to accomplish for fifty years. While at Interior, Molly testified numerous times in House and Senate Hearings on land exchange and conservation legislation.

Molly was a tenured professor at the University of North Carolina Law School, and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School.

Molly is a high honors graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a major in economics, and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was a member of the Harvard Law Review. She also clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Harry A. Blackmun.

He served as Fulbright Visiting Professor at the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington DC (2008-2009); Professor of Humanitarian International Law at the Universidad Sergio Arboleda (2009-2014), the Universidad Javeriana and Universidad El Rosario, both in Colombia. He is also Professor at the Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio in Madrid and has been since 2009.

He was Jurist to the Regional Delegation of Venezuela and the Caribbean of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He served as member of the Venezuelan Foreign Service in charge of border affairs as Adviser and Coordinator of the Cooperation Border Programs between 1991-1999, and Deputy Director of the Diplomatic Academy.

Juan Carlos Sainz-Borgo has a Law Degree, a Master’s Degree in International Law and a Doctorate Degree (Cum Laude) from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas and a Master’s Degree from Oxford University (UK). He has published four books on international law and international relations and numerous articles in different publications in the field.

Currently, Hansjörg is an active member of the Board of Directors for several organisations including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, The Grand Canyon Trust, The Wilderness Society, and the Center for American Progress. He is also on the Board of Dean’s Advisors of Harvard Business School.

Since then, she has mostly worked on the nexus between business and peacebuilding, being instrumental for the engagement with the private sector on its role in fragile states. 

She also transformed the approach for the investment of the Foundation’s capital into a mission-aligned portfolio. With her company NexusVesting, Anne operates on projects aiming at improving political leadership, sustainable investment, and waste management. Before NexusVesting and PeaceNexus, Anne worked for the Swiss Foreign Ministry, the European Commission, the Swiss Red Cross and Amnesty International.

She has a master’s degree in political history and political science from EHESS, Paris, and a Master of Arts from the University of Bern. She is fluent in German, English, and French, and speaks some Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.  

Before joining PeaceNexus, Catriona worked as an independent consultant, providing research, analysis and training to organisations working in conflict-affected contexts. From 2005 to 2009, she was the Marie Curie Research Fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), where she conducted projects on EU and UN crisis management and peacebuilding.

From 1995 to 2005, she was the founding Executive Director of the International Security Information Service, Europe, an independent research organisation based in Brussels working on European conflict prevention, peacebuilding and security policy. She has also written extensively on the development of civilian crisis management, peacebuilding capacities and policies, and has provided research support, training facilitation, and policy advice for the European Commission, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the UN Development Programme, several EU Member States, and a range of NGOs.

Catriona holds a PhD in International Relations from Lancaster University, a Masters in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Peter has worked with think tanks, NGOs, multilateral agencies — including the United Nations and the European Union — and the private sector, to deliver high-quality policy, analysis and programming. This has given him a sound background in conflict and peacebuilding, security sector reform, and the rule of law. His 20 years of experience has included complex conflict environments in Africa, including Somalia, Sudan and Sierra Leone, and Central and South Asia.

Peter holds a Masters degree in International Studies from Rhodes University in South Africa.

She has 16 years of international work experience in finance and strategy in the private sector, especially the logistics industry, and with NGOs in Europe and Africa.

Magali has worked for easyJet, LOGWIN, Ernst&Young, BNP Paribas and UNHCR. She has specific expertise in audit, accounting, controlling, budgeting and reporting management. She has successfully led teams and projects in both start-up and established organisations.

Magali specialises in financial controlling, process optimisation and strategy development with deep experiences in Africa. She holds a Masters Degree in Management from EDHEC School of Management in Lille, France. She speaks French, English and Portuguese.

She provides support and facilitates learning for PeaceNexus’ OD partnerships across the different regions, and directly manages PeaceNexus’ OD support to international partners and collective learning initiatives on OD.

Carole started her career in South Africa at the Centre for Conflict Resolution. Subsequently, she moved to Burundi to run the Women’s Peace Centre, created by international peacebuilding NGO Search for Common Ground (SFCG). She was later SFCG’s Director of Institutional Learning and a member of the senior management team in Washington, DC. Upon leaving SFCG, Carole worked as an independent consultant and trainer. After moving back to Switzerland, Carole held the position of Africa Director at Geneva Call and Director of Operations for Justice Rapid Response.

Carole holds a Masters in International Relations from the Graduate Institute for International Studies and a Masters in Gender Studies from the University of Geneva.

Kristyna has previously worked in numerous assistant roles across a variety of businesses in the Czech Republic and Switzerland. She has also been an independent businesswoman.

Kristyna has a diploma from the Business School of Economics and a Diploma in Swiss Accounting Standards.

Prior to working at PeaceNexus, she worked in the film industry as research and production assistant to a documentary film production company that specializes in themes of history, conflict and human rights in Ukraine. She holds a BA in European Politics from King’s College London with a focus on EU relations with Eastern Europe and Russia. She is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

She oversees the Foundation’s conflict sensitivity support to international actors and facilitates learning for PeaceNexus’ conflict sensitivity work across its four focus regions. Héloïse has 15 years experience leading and advising on peacebuilding work and conflict-sensitive humanitarian and development programming in Central Asia, the Caucasus, South Asia and West and Southern Africa. She has worked with numerous local and international organisations on change management and organisational development. She notably managed the global Conflict Sensitivity Consortium, where she supported 35 leading aid agencies in the UK, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka to strengthen their conflict sensitivity at organisational and operational levels. Héloïse holds a Masters degree from the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation and a Bachelors degree from Sciences Po.

Before joining PeaceNexus, Anina worked for Terre des Hommes, the World Economic Forum, and interned at the ABB Group, Bosch and Volkswagen. She also worked as a German teacher in Geneva.

Anina holds a tri-national BSc in International Business Management from the University of Applied Sciences in Basel, the Université de Haute Alsace in Colmar, and the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg in Lörrach. As part of the degree, she spent a semester in Mexico. Anina also holds a Masters in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.

Through her research, she has specialised in gender, conflict and peacebuilding. Anina won the Jorge Pérez-López Student Award for graduate students on her article, “Discourses on Migration – A Cuban Case Study.” She speaks German, English, French and Spanish.

Prior to joining PeaceNexus, Daniela supported strategic planning at the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), and provided research assistance to the Middle East WMD-free Zone Project at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).

She completed a traineeship in the Department of International Trade at the British Embassy to Croatia, and supported national counter-extremism capacity building programmes at Hedayah, the operational delivery arm of the Global Counterterrorism Forum.

Daniela holds a BA in Politics and International Relations from the University of Cambridge.

She has over ten years’ experience in researching and advising on Central Asian peace and security issues.

Before joining PeaceNexus, she worked for the government of Kyrgyzstan as a deputy director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies developing policy briefs on security matters in Kyrgyzstan and beyond.

Chinara also serves as associate professor at the Kyrgyz National University’s faculty of International Relations, having completed her PhD in political sciences in 2014. The topic of her thesis was informal and formal political and social institutions of Central Asia, and their impact on Central Asian regionalism.

Chinara holds a higher education diploma in International Relations from the Kyrgyz National University, a higher education diploma in Law from the Kyrgyz Russian Slavic University and an MA in International Relations from the International University of Japan.

Before joining PeaceNexus, Kanatbek was working, amongst others, at IFRC, OSCE, Saferworld and NDI.

Kanatbek has a vast experience in the areas of management of security and development programs, human rights, democratization and the rule of law, monitoring and evaluation, acquired from working both in non-governmental and international organisations. Earlier he worked as a project manager at Saferworld, Kyrgyzstan, leading a project portfolio on youth empowerment, peacebuilding and conflict prevention. Kanatbek’s strength areas include realisation of not-for-profit projects and volunteering; project conceptualisation, realisation, monitoring and evaluation; conducting research and writing analytical reports and reviews.

Kanatbek holds an MA in Conflict, Security and Development from the King’s College London. He also studied BA in International Relations at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University in Bishkek and Lanzhou University in Gansu, China. Kanatbek is fluent in English, Kyrgyz, Russian, Uzbek and has good knowledge of Chinese.

Nazgul has 12 years’ experience in project management. As a project manager for the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia, she was responsible for managing budgets of over US $1.3 million. She also developed a communication strategy for the World Bank on supporting the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative in mining-affected communities and has led outreach campaigns promoting human rights at grassroots level.

Nazgul implemented the Professional Youth Journalism programme, which was conducted in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Four professional youth journalism schools (Bishkek, Osh, Dushanbe and Almaty) were created under this programme, which trained over 900 young journalists from the ages of 16 to 28.

She holds a Bachelors degree in financial accounting and audit from the Academy of Management under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, and a Masters degree in education management from Arabaev Kyrgyz State University.

She has more than 10 years of professional and academic experience in human rights and conflict sensitivity work.

Before joining PeaceNexus, she provided freelance advisory support to Myanmar human rights defenders and civil society actors. She also worked with Oxfam in Myanmar managing their Responsible Investment programme, which included providing support to civil society in the Myanmar Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative. Prior to that, she managed a consulting firm where she led projects for USAID, UNICEF, ILO, IOM, and other INGOs.

Carol holds a MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in Political Science from Yale University.

Kebe has more than 20 years’ experience, including more than 15 coordinating development, conflict prevention and peacebuilding programs. He has worked with a range of local and international organisations including USAID, the EU, ECOWAS, the Government of Senegal, AED, FHI 360, Oxfam, AJWS, Enda, and AFEX.

As a democracy, rights, governance and peace specialist at USAID, he managed a dozen contracts related to governance and peace, decentralisation, conflict mitigation (using the People to People Approach), and Counter-Trafficking in Persons worth more than US $50 million.

Kebe has also been very active in the fight against illicit arms trafficking in West Africa and has collaborated with over a hundred West African civil society organisations.

He holds a Masters Degree in Engineering and Training Management from the African Centre for Advanced Studies in Management (CESAG) and a Masters Degree in Science and Technology Education from Dakar’s Polytechnic University.

Deborah has been accompanying PeaceNexus’ Western Balkans partners on their organisational development since 2016. Before joining the foundation, Deborah worked for UNRWA in Brussels and the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding in Geneva. She also undertook field research in Burkina Faso in collaboration with the French Development Agency.

Deborah holds a Masters degree in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute Geneva, as well as a Bachelors degree in International Relations from the University of Geneva.

Vladica has been committed to creating and influencing positive change since early university days, where she taught debate and organized international debating competitions, including the 2012 Belgrade European University Debating Championship.

Since 2011, she worked with leading donors, foundations, corporations, and others in the Western Balkans on programme design and implementation. Before joining PeaceNexus, she led the UNPBF supported project dedicated to RYCO’s institutional and programmatic development.

Ms Jovanović holds a BA with Honors in Journalism. From 2010 to 2016 she served as a team leader, facilitator and trainer on numerous grassroot campaigns at the Serbia on the Move and worked as the Teaching Fellow in 2016 for Harvard University’s Executive Education course– Leadership, organising, action: Leading change. She is one of the initiators and a Board member of European Fund for the Balkans Alumni Network.

Besart is a researcher, human rights and transitional justice activist. He has extensive experience working in both civil society organizations and public institutions. He has managed peacebuilding and human rights programmes in Kosovo and the region, including with the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.  Between 2017 and 2020, Besart  worked as a senior political advisor at the Foreign Ministry and in the Office of the Prime Minister of Kosovo. Most recently, Besart has conducted research and published on democratizing transitional justice in Kosovo in collaboration with PAX.

Besart holds an MA in Conflict Resolution from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

Luc has been supporting PeaceNexus’ partnerships with the UN Peacebuilding Support Office and the government agency HACP in Niger for the past years.

He draws upon more than 30 years of experience in the formulation, management and coordination of post-conflict and development programmes and strategies in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the South Pacific, working with UN agencies like UNDP, FAO, UNCDF, IFAD, the World Bank, the Canadian International Development Agency and international NGOs.

Luc’s areas of expertise include reintegration, reconciliation, livelihoods and recovery.

Frauke started working with PeaceNexus in 2013, supporting regional programming, conflict sensitivity integration and organisational development partnerships.

From 2011 to 2015, Frauke was a senior policy analyst at the European Center for Development Policy Management, where she analysed and, if necessary, criticised current thinking and approaches to peacebuilding and state building.

In 2010, she became an associate fellow at the Center for International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School. During this time, she developed a particular interest in applying systems thinking to the challenges of fragile states, which continues to infuse her mindset.

From 2002 to 2009, she served as an advisor to the Afghan ministries of Rural Development, Agriculture, and Frontiers and Tribal Affairs, working on national development planning and capacity development.

Frauke holds degrees from the University of Utrecht and Harvard University.

Hesta is a Conflict and Security specialist with 17 years of experience in programme delivery and management, technical advice and policy advocacy on conflict-sensitive development, gender and conflict and broader peace and security.

She has co-designed, contributed to and advised on four conflict-sensitivity consortia – two for international NGOs in the UK, one for civil society, government and private sector actors in Uganda, and one for donors and NGO implementing partners in South Sudan.

Hesta is an experienced facilitator and trainer and has developed and delivered training session and guidance documents on conflict sensitivity, gender and conflict, and broader conflict prevention issues to a range of audiences. She has also has significant people and programme management experience and has twice served on the Organisational Management Team of Saferworld – as Head of Region (Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan) and Head of Research and Programme Support.

Hesta holds a Masters degree in International Relations from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.