Daisy Cooper

Director

Tel: 020 7862 8865
Email: Daisy.Cooper@sas.ac.uk

Daisy Cooper joined the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau (CA/B) as Director in January 2011. Daisy is a well known figure within Commonwealth circles. Before joining the CA/B, Daisy was the Senior Strategic Planning Officer at the Commonwealth Secretariat for four years where she spearheaded major change management processes. She has also worked for CA/Bbefore as a Project Officer where she worked with Commonwealth countries to secure a mandate for the Commonwealth to help develop a consensus on reforming the UN development system.

She has also been the strategic and technical advisor to two Commonwealth high-level groups: the Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding, chaired by Nobel-laureate Professor Amartya Sen, and the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, chaired by former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Daisy is also a Director and Editorial Advisory Board member of Britain’s oldest journal, the ‘Round Table’ (Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs). Daisy holds an LLM in Public International Law from Nottingham University, an LLB Hons in Law from Leeds University, a Foundation Certificate in Psychotherapy and Counselling and is also an SPC Accredited Mediator.

Dr Leo Zeilig

Assistant Director and Lecturer

Tel: 020 7862 8864
Email: Leo.Zeilig@sas.ac.uk

Leo Zeilig began his post as Assistant Director for the CA/B from 2nd August 2010 and has published widely on African politics and history. His books include Revolt and Protest: Student Politics and Activism in Sub-Saharan Africa (London: I. B. Tauris, 2008) and Africa’s Lost Leader: Patrice Lumumba (London: Haus, 2008).  Leo has written extensively on movements for democratic change and political transitions in sub-Saharan Africa. He is a visiting research associate at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Leo has also worked as an independent journalist and during the presidential elections in Zimbabwe in 2002 he coordinated the Independent Media Centre. He has worked as a lecturer at Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, and as a lecturer and researcher at Brunel University, London; the Centre for Sociological Research at the University of Johannesburg and as a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Richard Bourne OBE

Email: richard.bourne@sas.ac.uk

Richard Bourne, who founded the CPSU, predecessor of the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau, in 1999, has extensive Commonwealth experience in assisting governments and civil society bodies. He is currently secretary to the Ramphal Commission on Migration and Development, an independent inquiry charged with advising Commonwealth leaders on these topics. His Commonwealth career began when he was Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Institute, Kensington, 1982-89, the educational and cultural institution supported by all Commonwealth governments. In the 1990s he was the first Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, founded by five Commonwealth non-governmental organisations, Special Adviser to the Commonwealth Secretariat on the Iwokrama rainforest programme (1991-2), director of the Commonwealth Non-Governmental Office for South Africa and Mozambique (1995-7) and simultaneously co-director of the Commonwealth Values in Education programme at the Institute of Education.
Since retiring from leadership of the CPSU in 2005 he has worked on its behalf, in conjunction with the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council and the Commonwealth Foundation, on the Commonwealth Fisheries Programme. He has served as Deputy Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society and in 2010, as chair of the board of the Round Table journal, he was responsible for a programme to celebrate its centenary. He has written several books and reports, most recently "Catastrophe: what went wrong in Zimbabwe?", Zed Books, 2011 and edited "Shridath Ramphal: the Commonwealth and the World", Hansib, 2008.

Stuart Mole CVO OBE

Email: Stuart.Mole@sas.ac.uk

Stuart Mole specialises in contemporary Commonweath issues. He is also a Senior Research fellow of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and an Honorary Fellow in Politics at Exeter University. He is a former Director-General of the Royal Commonwealth Society and a former Director of the Secretary-General's Office in the Commonwealth Secretariat. He recently co-authored "The Contemprary Commonwealth:an assessment 1965-2009" and holds a M.Sc. in Politics & Sociology from the University of London.

Prof. David Seddon

Email: David.Seddon@sas.ac.uk

David Seddon is a social scientist and historian with a particular interest in the political economy and politics of development with more than 40 years experience in research and consultancy in over 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. This has resulted in numerous reports, journal articles, and books. He has worked for the World Bank, the ILO, UNRISD, and numerous world-renowned organizations. Until 2006, he was Professor of Politics and Sociology in the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia. He has also taught at the LSE, SOAS, and Cambridge. Until 2010, he was Principal of South London College. Currently, he is director of a successful independent consultancy group, Critical Faculty, which specialises in global issues, security and risk analysis.

Dr. Peter Dwyer

Email: Peter.Dwyer@sas.ac.uk

Peter Dwyer's research interests include the political economy of development, the political and social implications of macro-policy, South African civil society, and collective responses to neo-liberalism in Africa. He has publised widely on these themes. He teaches economics at Ruskin College, Oxford.

Dr. Emmanuel Nuesiri

Email: emmanuel.nuesiri@sas.ac.uk

Emmanuel Nuesiri has a doctorate degree in Geography and Environmental Science from the University of Oxford, an MPhil. in Environment and Development from the University of Cambridge, and a BSc. in Environmental Science from the University of Buea, Cameroon. He has over 13 years of working experience in academia and forest conservation research consultancy. He has worked as a consultant for the Africa Programme of Fauna and Flora International (FFI) Cambridge, and the DFID/UNDP funded Cameroon Mountains Conservation Foundation (CAMCOF). He was also a tutorial assistant in the Geography Department at Oxford, and an Associate Lecturer with the Open University in the East of England. He is presently a forest and climate change research associate with the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau (CA/B) London.

Dr. Mélanie Torrent

Email: Melanie.Torrent@sas.ac.uk

Mélanie Torrent is a senior lecturer in Brithish history and civilisation at the University of Paris Diderot (Institut Charles V). She holds an MPhil in international Relations from the University of Cambridge and her PhD in English Studies at Paris-Sorbonne focused on Cameroon's admission into the Commonwealth. Her current research centres on two major areas: British foreign policy and diplomacy since 1945, with a specific interest in Fanco-British relations in Africa; and the history and politics of the contemporary Commonwealth and Francophonie, focusing on cooperation between the two organisations and particularly on the evolving definition, narratives, and promotion of democracy and human rights in both organisations.

Mélanie is also currently a director and editorial advisory board member of the ‘Round Table’ (Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs). Her latest publication is due in the autumn of 2011 - Diplomacy and Nation-Building in Africa: Franco-British Relations in Cameroon at the End of Empire (IB Tauris, 2011).

Andy Wynne

Email: Andy.Wynne@sas.ac.uk

Andy Wynne is a capacity development professional with Idilmat, Accra, Ghana. He is also editor of the International Journal of Governmental Financial Management. He is a member of the AFROSAI-E Technical Committee and has been a consultant for the Federation of Acountants and Auditors General of West Africa (FAAGWA), the Commonwealth Secretariat and the International Budget Project. He is currently working on surveys to identify good practice in financial reporting by governments across Africa and by the states in Nigeria. He is also researching models of public sector audit across SUb-Saharan Africa.