Our team
John, Lord Alderdice FRCPsych
We are delighted that Lord Alderdice, following his retirement from the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building Board of Directors, has accepted the honorary role of Chairman Emeritus and will continue to provide valuable strategic advice and guidance to the Centre.
Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick
Margaret Ritchie, born in Downpatrick, Co. Down is a member of the House of Lords (Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick) since November 2019. She is a former MP in the House of Commons for the South Down Constituency from 2010 to 2017 and is a former Member of the NI Assembly from 2003 to 2012.
Margaret is a former Minister for Social Development from 2007 to 2010. She also served for 24 years as a Councillor on Down District Council and held the position of Chair and Vice-Chair of that Council. She also worked as a Parliamentary Advisor and Assistant to the late Eddie McGrady who was the former MP for South Down.
Chris Maccabe, CB
Chris served as a private secretary to the Chief Minister of Northern Ireland, Brian Faulkner, during the short-lived power sharing Executive in 1974; and as a private secretary to the Deputy Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1975 to 1977.
Eva Grosman
Eva is a co-founder and CEO of the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building. She also curates TEDxStormont and an Advisory Board member for the Global Women’s Narratives Project, and the Oxford Interfaith Forum.
Eva co-founded the award-winning Unite Against Hate campaign, challenging all forms of prejudice and hate crime, and was an independent member of the Policing and Community Safety Partnership in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Zachary Hutchinson
Zachary is a recent award-winning graduate of the University of St Andrews. With a background in research and writing, Zac is continuing to apply his skills through his role as Project Manager at the Centre for Peace Building and Democracy.
Dr Tom Kelly OBE FCIPR
Dr Tom Kelly has been working in politics, public affairs, and media across Ireland and the UK for thirty years. He is well known in political circles at Dáil Éireann, Stormont and Westminster, and was previously a parliamentary assistant to the late Seamus Mallon MP.
Professor Harvey Maylor
Dr Harvey Maylor is Senior Fellow in Management Practice and an Associate Professor, at the Said Business School, University of Oxford. He teaches on the Major Projects Leadership Academy and the Saïd MSc in Major Programme Management, and leads their Leading Strategic Projects and SRO Fundamentals programmes.
Saul Betmead de Chasteigner
Saul is a consultant & coach in strategy, creativity & innovation, in business & life. He’s the former Chief Marketing Officer of the UN World Food Programme (2020 Nobel Peace Laureate), Chief Strategy Officer of VMLY&R EMEA & WPP and Cognitive Psychologist.
Dr Janet Smart
Janet’s areas of expertise include systems engineering, complex systems, programme management, and the design, delivery and management of large complex projects.
Sinead O’Sullivan
Sinead O’Sullivan is the CEO of Veriphix, a behavioural dynamics platform that detects and measures human emotion at scale. A Fellow at Harvard Law School (Center for Internet and Society) and a Senior Research Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sinead is also part of MIT’s COVID19 task force that seeks to implement immediate economic and governmental policies in response to the global pandemic.
Stacey King
Stacey King is an executive with over 20 years of experience in digital strategy, business transformation, development, and policy. She currently runs an Amazon subsidiary that incubates future-focused technologies. Stacey has a keen interest in transformative digital technologies and their impact on larger society – from economies to labor to laws to individual rights.
Liam Maskey
Liam Maskey has played a central role in the Northern Ireland peace process over the last 20 years. He has a demonstrated track record of engaging state and non-state protagonists to manage the transition from conflict to peace.
Melanie Romero
Melanie Romero is a trilingual writer based in Orange County, California with overseas connections in Mexico City, Paris, and London. Apart from being a children‘s book editor at Lil’ Libros, a bilingual English-Spanish children’s book publishing company, Melanie is Editor of Publications for the Global Women’s Narratives Projects, spearheading her own research projects, the main one being interviewing women in México about their narratives revolving around political ineptitude, femicide cases, and the machismo ideology.
Alannah Millar
Alannah Millar is a postgraduate student at Trinity College Dublin, studying International Peace Studies MPhil. Alannah researches Russian foreign policy and the invasion of Ukraine and has worked as a volunteer helping Ukrainian refugees.