(Stockholm, 28 August) The Swedish Government has formally appointed Dr Patricia Lewis and Jean-Marie Guéhenno as new members of the SIPRI Governing Board.
Dr Patricia Lewis is a nuclear physicist, a dual national of Ireland and the United Kingdom, and currently the Research Director for International Security at Chatham House.
Previous posts include Deputy Director and Scientist-in-Residence at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and Director of VERTIC (Verification Research, Training and Information Centre).
‘At this important juncture in human history when so much is at stake between peace and war, and truth and falsity, and at a time when technology is advancing at an ever increasing pace, SIPRI has never been more relevant and needed. I am thrilled to have been invited to join the Governing Board and I look forward to working with SIPRI to help humanity charter a way forward’, comments Dr Patricia Lewis.
Dr Lewis served on a number of expert panels, including the 2004–2006 Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMD), the 2010–11 Advisory Panel on Future Priorities of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and was an Advisor to the 2008–2010 International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND). She was a Commissioner on the 2014–16 Global Commission on Internet Governance and is on the European External Action Service Space Advisory Board (SAB) as a Senior Space Advisor to the EU Special Envoy for Space.
Welcoming the appointment, SIPRI’s Chair of the Governing Board Ambassador Jan Eliasson says, ‘we are extremely honoured that both Dr Patricia Lewis and Jean-Marie Guéhenno have accepted our invitation. We are looking forward to their valuable contributions to the Board and to SIPRI’s work.’
Jean-Marie Guéhenno is a French diplomat, currently a Senior Advisor at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and a member of the UN Secretary General High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation.
‘In a world increasingly polluted by fake news, SIPRI plays a crucial role in providing objective information and serving as an impartial platform for dialogue. I am honored to join its board’, comments Jean-Marie Guéhenno.
He was the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the funding of African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and from 2014–17, he was the President and CEO of the International Crisis Group. From 2000–2008 he was Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the UN.
As well as the SIPRI Board, Mr Guéhenno is a member of the team of senior advisors of the President of the General Assembly at the UN and since 2014, he has been a Distinguished Fellow with Brookings Institute.
‘We are delighted to draw on the professional expertise of Dr Patricia Lewis and Jean-Marie Guéhenno on topics of peace operations, conflict resolution and non-proliferation in the broader context of international security’, says SIPRI Director Dan Smith. ‘We very much look forward to working with them in the coming years.'
For editors
The Governing Board takes the strategic decisions on SIPRI's research agenda, activities, organization and financial administration. Dr Patricia Lewis and Jean-Marie Guéhenno join a board of individuals with profound and broad-ranging expertise in diplomacy, policy formation, academia and research. Dr Patricia Lewis and Jean-Marie Guéhenno have assumed their terms as of 12 July.
More information on SIPRI’s Governing Board members can be found here, and on the organization structure here.
For further information, please contact Alexandra Manolache (alexandra.manolache@sipri.org, +46 76 628 61 33).