ORG is pleased to announce two new appointments to its senior team.
CHRIS LANGDON will take up his post as ORG's Managing Director on 7th December. This part-time position will involve playing the lead role in shaping and oversight of ORG's central support functions (governance, external relations, communications, and administration). Chris is currently an advisor to ORG's Middle East Programme. From 1997-2008 he was a Programme Director at the Wilton Park conference centre where he ran their South East Europe programme. He is currently directing the "Communicating Europe project for the independent think-tank, the European Stability Initiative. It brings policy-makers and TV editors from the Western Balkans working on EU integration to EU capitals to engage with decision-makers. Chris has also worked as a TV producer and researcher for the BBC and ITV for 16 years. He was senior producer responsible for BBC TV News coverage of the 1989 Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution. He is still active in media work; working on media development projects. He directed two ESI documentaries covering human security issues; one in Bosnia funded by DFID, and one on Kosovo supported by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.
BENJAMIN ZALA will join ORG as Manager of its Sustainable Security Programme on 11th January. Ben is currently Project Co-ordinator on the "Trade, Finance, and Climate Change" Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). He is also a PhD Candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham. Prior to coming to the UK he was a Graduate Research Assistant at Latrobe University and also an editorial assistant for the journal "Global Change, Peace, and Security" managed from La Trobe. He has particular research interests in the impact on security of the changing balance of power in the 21st Century world, and also writes on nuclear weapons and disarmament issues.
These appointments will coincide with some organisational restructuring, in particular the stepping down of Dr John Sloboda from the role of Executive Director after six years in post. John will remain on ORG's senior management team as Director of its "Recording Casualties in Armed Conflict" programme and fully engaged in its strategic development along with the directorate of ORG's two other major programmes "Human Security in the Middle East", and "Sustainable Security for the 21st Century".