Iraq Committees

UK Steering Committee
Mr David Ure (Chair) retired from Reuters Group in 2004, but continues to represent the company on the Independent Television News board. He also chaired the Reuters Foundation, the Group's charitable arm. He was non-executive Director of Woolwich Plc (1998-2000), a role he has also held on the Blackwell Publishing Ltd Board since January 2004. In October 2004, he became Chairman of Iris Financial Solutions, and has recently retired as a non-executive Director of Blackwell Publishing, Independent Television News (ITN) and Neteconomy, a Dutch company owned by Cazenove Private Equity.

Dr Jawad Al-Hashemi is Founder and Secretary General of the Iraqi Centre for Transparency & Anti-Corruption (ICTAC). He was Director of the Health Development Organization in Kurdistan and adviser to the Middle East and North Africa region of the Transparency Coalition. In recent years, Dr Al-Hashemy has undertaken a number of surveys in Iraq related to Corruption and Anti-Corruption measures for internationally renowned bodies such as UNDP and USAID. He has also held several workshops in Iraq and beyond, focusing on local government, elections and the role of women in local government. In 2004, Dr Al-Hashemi stood as a candidate as MP for the first post-2003 Parliamentary Election in Iraq. In 2008, he was awarded a Fellowship at the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York.

Dr Ali Kubba MB ChB FRCOG FFSRH has worked in the field of Reproductive and Sexual Health for the past 25 years. He serves as Consultant Community Gynaecologist and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the GKT Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London, UK. Dr Kubba is also Honorary Professor at Basra School of Medicine, Iraq, and past Chairman of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ Iraqi Liaison Group. He is the Chair of the UK inter-collegiate Iraq Liaison Group, an executive member of the International Forum of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Member of the foundation expert group of the Arab Institute of Clinical excellence, and Member of the executive council of the British Arab Medical Association. He is Chairman of the KF Iraq Foundation, a UK based charity for Iraq. He has published around 100 research and review papers, and lectures widely in the UK, Europe and internationally. His main interests are cervical screening, colposcopy, contraceptive technology, menopause, PMS, and medical gynaecology.

Mrs Anne Lonsdale MA, CBE, CARA Honorary Secretary has been President of New Hall, Cambridge University since 1996. She was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University from 1998 - 2003 and is now Deputy Vice-Chancellor. She studied Classics and Chinese Language and Literature at Oxford and later taught Chinese Literature at the same university. She became a university administrator at Oxford and then the Secretary-General of the Central European University in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw and has particular interests in environmental issues and in Higher Education worldwide with university experience in Europe, America, China, Africa and the Middle East.

Professor Alan McCarthy is Professor of Microbiology at the University of Liverpool, which he joined as a lecturer in 1985. He is also Chairman of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Admissions and Widening Participation Committee and Director of the Molecular Microbiology research group. He holds a number of external examining, editorial board and research peer review panel appointments in the UK and Europe. Professor McCarthy became Chair of CARA’s Grant allocation Committee in August 2008.

Kate Robertson is Deputy Executive Secretary of CARA and the Iraq Programme Manager.

Dr Sattar Az-Zubaydi, CARA Research Fellow at the School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham, is on sabbatical leave from the College of Engineering, University of Baghdad where he teaches Science of Materials. He was Researcher and group leader in the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) from 1978 to 1988. Dr. Az-Zubaydi also worked as Associate Professor at the College of Engineering, University of the Seventh of April, Libya, from 1999-2001.

Middle-East Regional Sub-Committee
Kate Robertson (Chair) is Deputy Executive Secretary of CARA and the Iraq Programme Manager.

Dr Alex Bellem is a linguist specialising in theoretical and comparative phonology (and the interface with phonetics) and Arabic dialectology. She is currently Research Director (Syria) of the British Institute, Amman, and is based in Damascus. After graduating from the University of Manchester with a degree in Middle Eastern Studies (Arabic and Turkish), she lived in Damascus for a while, before returning to the UK to complete an MA in Linguistics at University College, London. She subsequently spent several years parenting, working as an academic editor, teaching English language and working on Iraqi folk poetry, before moving on to PhD research and teaching in the Department of Linguistics at SOAS in London. Alex's research is on Semitic phonology, with a particular focus on Iraqi and Syrian dialects; her major interest is in pharyngealisation (emphatics) and phonation; she is currently also collaborating on an investigation into the phonology and phonetics of Mehri, an endangered Modern South Arabian language spoken in Yemen and Oman. Before taking up her fellowship at CBRL she spent a "sabbatical" year as a Pronunciation Linguist at the BBC. Alex is also a Research Associate of the University of Salford.

Dr Géraldine Chatelard is a social anthropologist and historian of the contemporary Middle East, currently a research fellow with the French Institute for the Near East (IFPO) in Amman. After degrees in Arabic, English and Sociology from the Sorbonne in Paris, she conducted research in Jordan as a doctoral grantee with the Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Moyen-Orient Contemporain (CERMOC) from 1994 to 1999. She completed a Ph.D. in historical anthropology at the Écoles des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris in 2000. Her work, awarded a prize as 'best dissertation in French on the Arab and Islamic world', was published in book form in French in 2004 (Briser la Mosaïque, Paris, CNRS Editions), and is soon to be published in English (Brill, Leiden). It looks at evolving notions of tribal, religious, local and national identities in Jordan from the mid-19th to the late 20th century based on a historical ethnography of Christian families in/from the town of Madaba set within a broader analysis of the history and politics of modern Jordan.

Her other area of research concerns international migration from Iraq since 1990 in a changing context characterised by more insecurity in Iraq and more restrictions on international mobility. From 2001 to 2004, she was a post-doctoral Marie Curie Fellow with the Mediterranean Programme at the European University Institute in Florence researching trends of migration from Iraq into Europe. She is currently working on a monograph on migration trends from Iraq that covers the period 1990 to today and is co-directing a regional academic research programme on 'Refugees from Iraq: taking the decision to leave' (funded by IFPO and the Refugee Studies Center, Oxford University) that covers Amman, Damascus, Cairo and Istanbul. See her list of publications with open-access links at http://www.ifporient.org/spip.php?auteur208

Mr Gregor Meiering is Middle East Director for the Open Society Institute (OSI).

Ms Cindi Warren Mentz is the Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF) Director of Middle East-Northern Africa Programs. She currently leads CRDF's efforts in the Middle East-Northern Africa region, bringing to bear on the foundations’ efforts more than 25 years of experience in non-proliferation, arms control and science co-operation activities. Ms Mentz joined CRDF in 2001 as Director of Non-proliferation Programs, and managed CRDF's support to a number of US government programs aimed at preventing the proliferation of WMD expertise.

Prior to CRDF, she worked under contract as part of a Department of State management team that established and implemented the Science Centre’s non-proliferation program following the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Ms Mentz holds a BA from University of Vermont and has had additional training at the Middle East Institute, Minnesota Management Academy, and the Defence Intelligence College in Nuclear Treaties and Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties.

Professor Mohammed Olwan was born in Palestine and holds a PhD in law from Paris 2 University. He is an internationally recognised scholar specialising in international law and human rights. He is a former Dean of several faculties of law in Jordan and is currently a Professor in the Faculty of Law at Yarmouk University. He has published widely on issues related to international law and serves as member of the Board of Trustees of the National Centre for Human Rights and is a Legal Adviser to the Judiciary Institute and Ministry of Justice in Jordan. He is a former judge at the Administrative Tribunal of the Arab League and is currently a member of the Court of Arbitration in The Hague. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of Jurists to the Asia Pacific Forum, a group of eminent jurists who have held high judicial office or who are senior academics of human rights appointments. Prof Olwan is also is a qualified lawyer before all Jordanian courts.

Dr Akram M. Othman holds a BSc in Mathematical Sciences and an MSc and PhD in Computer Sciences from the University of Technology, Baghdad. He has a professional and academic career spanning over 30 years. He has undertaken over 19 professional studies within the field of Information Technology (IT) and has published numerous academic papers. He is currently a member of the Iraqi Science Academy (ISA), President of the Iraqi Computer Society (ICS) and Vice President of the Union of Arab ICT Associations (IJMA3). While Dr. Akram is a well-known expert in the field of IT, he has also held senior posts in Research and Development, Economic Studies, Science & Technology and Human Resource Capacity-building. In addition, Dr. Othman has held several honorary positions with a number of IT advancement institutions, from board member to vice president.

Professor Amal Shlash was born in Baghdad and obtained her PhD. in Economics in the UK. She is currently a Professor of Economics and Chairperson of the board of Bayt al-Hikma, Iraq’s premier think-tank. Prof Shlash is also a member of the 'Strategic Review Board' set-up to oversee Iraq’s reconstruction efforts. She has written several books and studies on Iraq’s economy.

Professor Ali Al-Zaag is a Biotechnology specialist, who gained his PhD in Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at the University of Queensland, Australia in 1987. His research interests lie in Microbial Genetics and Molecular Epidemiology, Biosefety and Biosecurity as well as Forensic DNA. Prof Al-Zaag founded the Dept. of Biotechnology (1993) and Institute for Biotechnology (1999) at the University of Baghdad and is a former Board Member of the same university. He is founder and Board Member of the National Scientific Research Commission, Chair of the Department of Biotechnology/ School of Science (1993-1999), Dean of the Institute of Genetic Engineering for Graduate Studies (1999-2006) and Member of Panel for the School of Science and the Council of Deans at the University of Baghdad (until 2006). Prof Al-Zaag was also Manager of the editorial board of the Iraqi Journal of Science (1994-1998) and Editor-in-chief of the Iraqi Journal of Biotechnology (2002-2006). He is a member of the UNESCO-Amman advisory group on Iraqi Higher Education.

He is currently engaged in the development of cooperative international programs to promote the safe, secure and responsible use of biological materials and training in biosafety, biosecurity and infection prevention. This includes surveillance of infectious diseases, molecular diagnostics and laboratory capacity building. Prof Al-Zaag has also recently initiated and is now Senior Technical advisor on a project to establish a new centre of excellence for Forensic DNA training in Iraq. He is also a reviewer for the Qatar Foundation, the UREP and NPRP programmes and the ASTF grant programme.

Risk Review Committee
Mr David Ure (Chair) retired from Reuters Group in 2004, but continues to represent the company on the Independent Television News board. He also chaired the Reuters Foundation, the Group's charitable arm. He was non-executive Director of Woolwich Plc (1998-2000), a role he has also held on the Blackwell Publishing Ltd Board since January 2004. In October 2004, he became Chairman of Iris Financial Solutions, and has recently retired as a non-executive Director of Blackwell Publishing, Independent Television News (ITN) and Neteconomy, a Dutch company owned by Cazenove Private Equity.

Mrs Anne Lonsdale MA, CBE, CARA Honorary Secretary has been President of New Hall, Cambridge University since 1996. She was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University from 1998 - 2003 and is now Deputy Vice-Chancellor. She studied Classics and Chinese Language and Literature at Oxford and later taught Chinese Literature at the same university. She became a university administrator at Oxford and then the Secretary-General of the Central European University in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw and has particular interests in environmental issues and in Higher Education worldwide with university experience in Europe, America, China, Africa and the Middle East.

Mrs Mary Manning was Executive Director of the Academy of Medical Sciences from 2000-2009. She recently joined CARA's Council of Management in May 2009 and is a member of CARA's Finance & General Purposes Committee. She was formerly Head of Science Promotion at The Royal Society, with responsibility for many of the Society’s outreach activities including Science and Society, and science education. In retirement, Mrs Manning continues to advise academic institutes and charities on outreach programmes and cross-disciplinary activities.

Professor Alan McCarthy is Professor of Microbiology at the University of Liverpool which he joined as a lecturer in 1985. He is also Chairman of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Admissions and Widening Participation Committee and Director of the Molecular Microbiology research group. He holds a number of external examining, editorial board and research peer review panel appointments in the UK and Europe. Professor McCarthy became Chair of CARA’s Grant allocation Committee in August 2008.

Kate Robertson is Deputy Executive Secretary of CARA and the Iraq Programme Manager.