Team

Josie is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Swiss-based social enterprise, TrustWorks Global. Josie’s expertise lies in supporting businesses and investors to operate responsibly in conflict-affected areas in line with normative and regulatory expectations concerning heightened human rights due diligence and conflict-sensitivity. Josie has over 18 years of experience working with public and private sector actors in fragile and conflict-affected settings and she holds a PhD from the University of Oxford on the role of licit and illicit business actors in the dynamics of conflict and peace.

Josie has extensive experience working with companies on responsible business in fragile and conflict-affected areas. As part of her role at TrustWorks she has: undertaken conflict-sensitivity and heightened human rights due diligence (hHRDD) assessments for multi-national corporations of their operations and supply chains; provided training, mentoring and accompaniment to senior leaders and operational staff on conflict-sensitivity; mediated/facilitated between companies and key stakeholder groups on contentious issues; and, advised companies on a wide range of issues related to policies, governance processes and practices in conflict contexts. Josie also recently formed part of the TrustWorks team responsible for developing the UNDP training programme for companies on hHRDD, due to be released shortly. As a result of her experience in this domain, Josie has led on the development of TrustWorks’ proprietary hHRDD+ methodological framework for assessments and action plans in conflict-affected areas.

Josie also has extensive experience with investors having provided tailored support to diverse commercial and impact investors, as well as Development Financial Institutions/Multilateral Development Banks. For example, as part of the ongoing partnership with Geneva-based equity investor, De Pury Pictet Turrettini in the context of their Cadmos Peace European Engagement Fund, Josie leads all TrustWorks’ engagements with portfolio companies on issues related to hHRDD and conflict-sensitivity, and pioneered the development of TrustWorks company benchmarking methodology. Josie leads TrustWorks’ flagship initiative on the Peace Impact Framework designed to promote conflict-sensitive SME Facilities as part of a broader data-driven solution developed in partnership with Tunis-based data analytics experts, MajestEYE, called PeaceEYE. Josie also led TrustWorks’ engagements with the Dutch Development Bank (FMO), the Inter-American Bank (IDB) and the French Development Bank (Proparco).

Formerly, Josie worked with UN agencies, funds and programmes on issues related to mediation, conflict prevention and peacebuilding in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, with a particular focus on land and natural resource conflicts. She began her career at Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR), where she became Assistant Director, a Staff Associate of Research and an adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, also at Columbia University. Josie holds two Masters degrees from Sciences Po Paris and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University.

Aurélien is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at TrustWorks. He is in charge of the company’s administrative management, finances, accounting, bookkeeping, operations and logistics. Working closely with the CEO, he provides day-to-day support to the team and ensures that tasks are planned under the supervision of the CEO to advance the future of the social enterprise through TWG’s policies, internal processes and external services.

Aurélien graduated with a Master’s degree in Business Law and began his professional career in a large Parisian notary office. Throughout a legal career that covered more than a decade, he has worked extensively with banking and real estate stakeholders, and supporting on the financial aspects of the notary office.

His curiosity and desire to explore other fields led him to complete a second Master’s degree in Industrial Design and Sustainable Innovation. Passionate about cross-sector collaboration and design thinking, Aurélien gained experience exploration collaborative and innovative initiatives with Thales Alenia Space and Électricité de France (EDF) to simultaneously increase their efficiency and their social impacts. He has actively participated in market analyses, consolidated business models and developed prototypes.

Aurélien joined TrustWorks in 2021 with a desire to combine his legal and financial experience and expertise, with his passion for sustainability and social impact.

Claude brings 20 years of experience leading the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the nexus ‘business and human rights’. His main focus is business operations in fragile and conflict-affected areas. Within this field, he has engaged extensively, and participated in the development of concepts and processes such as ‘do no harm’, ‘conflict-sensitive practices’, and ‘heightened human rights due diligence’ applied to business operations.

Prior to his involvement in the field of ‘business and human rights’, Claude worked for about 14 years in various roles and responsibilities as a humanitarian worker and then manager, endeavouring to find and develop solutions to protect and assist people and communities affected by armed conflicts. This enriching and challenging experience led him to geographies like Israel and Palestinian Occupied Territories, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, South Africa, Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Macedonia and the Russian Federation. Claude holds a Masters in Social and Political Sciences (University of Lausanne) as well as a Masters in Business Administration (University of Geneva).

Claude takes as a starting point that businesses are a massive force for good as an engine of hope and development in conflict settings, provided the appropriate precautions are taken and the appropriate mindset is adopted. Claude believes in empathy, open-minded active listening, diversity and humour as powerful tools to help crack complicated challenges.

Simon is a Research and Programme Officer at TrustWorks and supports the CEO and Senior Advisors on client initiatives, business development and day-to-day operations. He conducts desk-based conflict analyses and background papers related to all three pillars of our work.

Simon also works in support of TrustWorks engagement with Geneva-based de Pury Pictet Turrettini, leading on the benchmarking of companies based on TrustWorks’ proprietary methodology. In partnership with data scientists from MajestEYE, Simon also plays a pivotal role in our work with One Earth Future Foundation, providing conflict-related analysis of the Nordic Horn of Africa Opportunities Fund (Nordic Fund).

Simon started his professional career at TrustWorks as an intern, where he was first introduced to key concepts such as heightened human rights due diligence and conflict sensitivity. During this period, he developed his analytical skills by developing a profound knowledge of the approaches and methodologies that form part of conflict analysis. He worked briefly as a Junior Consultant before he became a member of the core team after completing his studies. Simon holds a Masters in International Security and Law from University of Southern Denmark.

Marc has over 20 years of experience in the field of crisis and post-conflict strategic planning. He has worked with United Nations peace operations as well as in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General to coordinate the UN’s integrated support across political, development, humanitarian and human rights. He is currently deployed with the United Nations Department of Safety and Security as director of strategy.

Marc is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’ School of International and Public Affairs, where he teaches a class on risk management. He has also extensive experience in mediation and conflict resolution training with private and public entities.

Sarah is a Senior Advisor at Trustworks Global. Her expertise lies in supporting businesses and international aid organizations to operate in a conflict-sensitive way, enhance stakeholder engagement and accountability, apply a systems lens, and, when possible, promote peace. She has 15 years of experience working with public and private sector actors in over 30 fragile and conflict-affected areas.

In her work with companies, Sarah specializes in social impact and conflict risk assessments, heightened human rights due diligence assessments, and stakeholder engagement. She has worked with dozens of multinational companies across sectors (e.g. oil and gas, mining, large-scale agrobusiness, and fast-moving consumer goods etc.), operating fragile and conflict-affected areas. She has also contributed to public knowledge on these topics and has developed relevant tools and strategic frameworks, such as the Voluntary Principles Conflict Analysis Tool for Companies. Recently, she worked on TrustWork’s team that developed the UNDP hHRDD training program for companies due to be released shortly.

Sarah also has robust experience supporting aid agencies and peacebuilding organizations in humanitarian emergencies, conflict and post-conflict settings. For over 10 years, she has worked with agencies on their approaches and practices to enhance community engagement and accountability, including using systems thinking to support institutional behaviour change processes. She has worked extensively with the International Federation for the Red Cross as well as other INGOs, bi-lateral, and multilateral donor organizations on such issues and has published extensively on these topics.

Sarah recently completed her PhD (awaiting defense) in Political Science at the University of Oslo with the Centre for Development and the Environment. Her research focuses on small-medium enterprises as agents of peace and conflict in violent urban societies, She previously served as the Managing Director for CDA Collaborative Learning where she led engaged research and learning in the areas of responsible business and aid accountability.

Arthur brings 20 years of experience in fragile and conflict-affected areas specializing in mediation and negotiations with armed groups, political and security risk analysis, Security Sector Reform (SSR), and Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) as well as prevention and counterterrorism. He is both an academic researcher and an active practitioner, spending part of the year in the field, primarily in Africa, and part of the year in Paris and New York teaching students and training professionals.

Arthur is also a non-resident Senior Adviser at the International Peace Institute (IPI), where he served as a director from 2015 to 2017. He teaches at graduate-level at Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris and is an experienced facilitator and trainer. Arthur previously worked with the United Nations in New York, West Bank & Gaza (UNDP), Burundi (BINUB), Chad and the Central African Republic (MINURCAT), Haiti (MINUSTAH), and Mali (MINUSMA) where he supported the 2014-15 Mali peace negotiations as part of the UN Mediation Team. Before that, he managed emergency and recovery programs for humanitarian NGOs in the Middle East and Africa.

He holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University, a PhD from Université Paris Panthéon-Assas and is a 2020 auditeur of the Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale (IHEDN). He is a member of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime and serves on the Editorial Board of International Peacekeeping.

Ben has more than 15 years of experience working with companies in a range of industries in fragile and conflict-affected areas. He has contributed substantially to public knowledge of good practices in that area, having developed tools and guidance for practitioners in specific industries and published on a range of topics relating to business, conflict, and peace. His work is focused in particular on the application of conflict sensitivity, conflict risk mitigation, and heightened human rights due diligence in the context of specific business operations.

Before joining TrustWorks, Ben headed the private sector practice at CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, where he led research projects on “business and peace”, business operations in the presence of illegal armed groups, and adaptations of small and medium enterprises to violent contexts. Ben also managed organizational partnerships with companies, performed asset-level conflict sensitivity and conflict risk assessments, and represented CDA in the Voluntary Principles Initiative. Earlier in his career, Ben was stationed in East Africa for over 9 years working for an NGO, and he has carried out professional assignments in more than 25 countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Ben holds a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor’s Degree from Harvard University, both in Social Anthropology.

Throughout his career, Ben has combined a concern for the welfare of communities with a resolutely practical approach to engagement, problem solving, and collaboration. His work with companies consistently accounts in equal measure for the limited nature of the roles that companies can play and the need for approaches that are feasible, straightforward, and practical.

Oli has been working at the nexus of security, natural resources and climate change for the past 20 years, with interests in strategic planning, peacebuilding, conflict mediation, natural resource management, and environmental politics.

Oli is a Visiting Professor at Sciences Po’s Paris School of International Affairs, where he teaches courses in strategic planning and global environmental governance. He is an Associate Fellow with Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, where he regularly teaches courses on non-traditional threats to security. He is also a member of the Climate and Security Expert Network run by the German think-tank adelphi and serves as a trustee for the Conflict and Environment Observatory – a British NGO drawing attention to environmental damage during conflict.

Oli has extensive experience working for the United Nations. Between 2014 and 2018 he was based in Kenya where he coordinated UN Environment Programme’s work to minimise the risks and impacts of disasters, industrial accidents and armed conflicts. From 2010 to 2012 Oli managed an UN Environment (UNEP) country programme in Sierra Leone. Prior to this, Oli was a senior researcher with the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Oli has degrees in Anthropology and History from the University of Glasgow, a Masters of International Studies from the University of Otago in New Zealand, and a Masters of Environmental Science from the School of African and Oriental Studies, London. Oli is based in Paris.

Nur is a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Nur has over fifteen years of experience as a policy practitioner working on conflict resolution, mediation, peacebuilding, and governance. Her research offers a deeper understanding of the role of politics and policymaking in digital governance and around digital public goods in the context of both peacebuilding and economic development. Her work aims to better inform decision making around the future of technology policy at the national and supranational levels, especially at the United Nations.

Nur has worked on a range of political, socio-economic, and security challenges, in the context of which tech increasingly stands out as the emerging issue of our era. Previously, she worked on the Prevention and Sustaining Peace agendas at the UN as a Political Affairs officer the Policy Planning Unit of the Department of Political Affairs in New York. She has also worked with the UN Secretariat and Agencies as a consultant on governance, peacebuilding, and mediation. She served as a member of UN Advisory Group for the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security, appointed by the UN Secretary General. She facilitated the UN Secretary-General’s first cabinet retreat on youth, peacebuilding, and sustainable development.

Prior to this, Nur held the position of senior policy analyst at the International Peace Institute (IPI), where she developed and managed policy research on cross-cutting issues in the UN’s peace and security agenda. She headed the Arab Youth Project, facilitating policy dialogue in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings as well a project on the Arab-Israeli peace process. Nur is author of Talking to Arab Youth: Revolution and Counterrevolution in Egypt and Tunisia (New York: International Peace Institute, 2013), based on fieldwork with social movements and political parties following the 2011 uprisings. Nur is co-editor of The Search for Peace in the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), which offers a toolbox of mediation options.

Nur has held visiting fellowships at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and the Center for Policy Research. She has been an Andrew Mellon visiting fellow at Oxford University. She has served on a task force of the Center for American Progress . Her first job was as a stagiaire at the European Commission. She has been invited to give talks at the World Bank, UN, European Commission, House of Commons, Chatham House, Yale, Columbia, NYU, LSE, Melbourne University, National University of Singapore, and Nehru Memorial Library, among other places.

Dirk is a researcher, policy adviser and strategist on multilateral peace and security interventions. He is a former official of the United Nations Departments of Peace Operations and Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, where he led policy initiatives at Headquarters on asymmetric warfare, intelligence, technology and conflict prevention in authoritarian regimes.

Dirk has served with UN operations and human rights organizations in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Kenya and has advised UN peace and humanitarian operations across Africa and the Middle East. In 2023, he served as the Senior Technical Adviser to a high-level panel of eminent peacebuilders undertaking a review of Kenya’s peacebuilding architecture. Currently, he advises the UN Department of Peace Operations on strategies to counter mis- and disinformation.
Dirk is an Adjunct Professor at the Max Bell School for Public Policy at McGill University and is a Non-resident Fellow at the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations of the International Peace Institute in New York, where he conducts research on the protection of civilians in armed conflict and peace operations.

Dirk takes an inclusive, discursive approach to political and policy dialogue, and is an experienced moderator and convenor. He holds a B.A. (Hons) in International Relations from Carleton University and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.

Alexander served with the United Nations for over 20 years covering a wide range of senior management and advisory functions in aid and political affairs in conflict settings. His UN mission assignments have included Baghdad, Kabul, Jerusalem, Kathmandu and most recently Beirut, where he served as Principal Political Advisor and Chief of Staff for the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon. In Africa he served as a mission planning co-lead for the UN Assistance Mission to Sudan (UNITAMS), and has worked also in Angola and Mozambique

Prior to his UN career, Alex worked as a researcher and analyst for the Foreign Affairs and Defense committees of the Parliament of Canada, and for the London bureau of the Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper. In addition, he has undertaken policy and evaluation consultancies with the UN, the European Commission, thinktanks and NGOs. His published work has focused mainly on the interactions between politics and aid.

Alex holds an MSC in Politics (comparative foreign policy) from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Political Science (international relations) from the University of Toronto. He lives in Athens, Greece.

With more than 20 years of experience in international security, serving in EU and UN field missions and working in global think tanks, Guillaume leads strategic assessments, evaluations and analyses in fragile and conflict-affected areas. He has advised various donors and national authorities on peacebuilding and the effectiveness of security institutions facing new threats and rapid geopolitical changes. Currently based in Jerusalem, he has lived in a dozen countries.

Trained in international relations at Georgetown University, he has initially worked across Africa as a political officer for EUCAP Sahel Mali, MONUSCO and ONUCI, as well as a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, a DDR specialist for the World Bank and the programme manager of a research programme in political economy analysis for DFID in the DRC.

When he returned from Africa, he became the Head of Advisory Field Support for the ISSAT department of the DCAF Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance. Over the last seven years, he has supported many EU delegations and Brussels-based departments as the Principal Adviser of the EU Commission’s SSR Facility.

In the early years of his career, Guillaume also served as political attaché at the Embassy of Luxembourg in the USA, and completed military training, service and reserve in the French Military Intelligence Agency as an Army lieutenant.

Natalia brings over 15 years of experience and a multidimensional profile covering human rights, institutional building, monitoring, evaluation, strategic results-based management. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with organizations such as the OSCE, UNDP, UNCDF, GIZ and has contributed to over 70 development projects and programs in 16 countries across Europe, Africa, and the Arab States.

Natalia’s expertise is in mainstreaming gender and human rights principles into strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, reporting. Natalia has been in the lead of designing projects, developing complex monitoring and evaluation systems, writing reports at various UNDP offices. Natalia led the development of the indicator methodological notes for the 2022-2025 Integrated Results and Resources Matrix (IRRM) of UNCDF. Her international experience includes work with several GIZ-implemented agriculture projects in India, where she developed gender analyses and peace/conflict and human rights analyses.

David has around 20 years’ broad experience in human rights, and now consults with philanthropy, INGOs, and governments on strategy across human rights, climate, inequalities, and peace and security. His recent clients include the EU, Open Society Foundations, International Crisis Group, and Human Rights Watch. He is an Associate Fellow of Chatham House, where he has published two reports on the future of human rights, and a member of the OSCE Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief.

Previously, David worked at Amnesty International where he was Director of the Office of the Secretary General. Before that he began the process of establishing a regional office for South Asia as Deputy Director for Asia. He has carried out extensive high-level advocacy and engagement with interlocutors from political, diplomatic, and business spheres.

David has spent his whole life straddling different cultures, and believes that much can be achieved through an approach of dialogue and mutual respect. He holds degrees from Oxford University and SOAS (University of London).

Mark is an economist with over 25 years of professional experience in the field of Private Sector Development (PSD), conflict-sensitive and peace-promoting business. With this experience, Mark is well positioned to advise and support companies, investors and other stakeholders in fragile and conflict-affected areas, enabling them to operate in a conflict-sensitive way and fostering peace and stability.

Mark has broad experience in investigating and analysing business-related human rights, security and conflict risks, as well as identifying economic opportunities in fragile and conflict-affected areas. With this experience, Mark is well positioned to advise and support companies, investors and other stakeholders in a context of conflict and fragility, enabling them to operate in a conflict-sensitive way and fostering peace and stability. Mark has used this experience in projects in Africa, Latin-America and the Middle East.

Mark has a strong track record as team leader, evaluator, researcher, advisor, trainer, facilitator and project manager. He has worked on projects with multinational companies, universities, multilateral institutions (including World Bank/IFC, UNDP, UNHCR, IOM, ITC), NGOs, governments and the EU. Mark has been a Senior Associate at TrustWorks Global since 2021. He also works as Research Associate at LSE IDEAS, the think-tank of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Mark holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam.

Rainer has been in the field of peace for 15 years and currently focuses on peace processes, political transitions and national dialogues. His work consists in helping the local civil society organizations and networks facilitate, accompany, and nurture homegrown solutions in fragile and conflict-affected areas.
He is also a Peace Process Support Advisor for Inclusive Peace with experience in Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Niger as well as volunteers with various local and international peace and youth networks.

Previously Rainer was the Executive Coordinator of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform where he worked on the “conversational architecture” of getting Geneva’s various sectors to learn from one another and to collaborate. His team also ran the Geneva Peace Week. Prior to that, Rainer had spent 9 years with Initiatives of Change in various positions, ending with being the Co-Director of Initiatives of Change Switzerland.

Rainer grew up in the US, with a German mother and Spanish father. He has a Masters in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Besides English, he speaks German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. Rainer is based in Nairobi, Kenya.