Trustees
Jeremy Carver CBE, co-chair
Jeremy Carver CBE is co-chair of IRC-UK and a member of the Board of the International Rescue Committee. He is a public international lawyer, recently retired as a senior partner of Clifford Chance LLP, where he continues as a Consultant and Head of International Law.
In more than 30 years of law practice, he has represented and advised many States and governments in territorial and maritime disputes, treaties and international organisations, and in cases before national courts. He is President of the British Branch of the International Law Association and a Trustee/Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.
He is also on the Board of Trustees of Transparency International (UK), and a member of the Steering Board for the UK National Contact Point for the OECD MNE Guidelines. He is an Independent member of the Council of the University of Sussex, where he lives. Jeremy is married to Anthea, with three sons.
Kathleen O'Donovan, co-chair
Kathleen is co-chair of International Rescue Committee UK. Trained as a chartered accountant, she was the youngest-ever CFO of a FTSE 100 company at the age of 34. Kathleen is currently non-executive director: Prudential (and Chair of the Audit Committee); Trinity Mirror (and Chair of the Audit Committee); ARM Holdings and Chairman: Invensys Pension Scheme (and Chair of the Investment Committee). Previous key roles include: Non-Executive deputy chairman of Great Portland Estates, Non-Executive Director of Bank of England, EMI and O2 and partner at Ernst & Young.
George Biddle
George C. Biddle is the executive vice president of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and is based in New York.
Previously, he was the vice president of the International Crisis Group, an organisation that works through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict. He was also president of the Institute for Central American Studies, an organisation he founded in 1989 to assist post-cold war Central America in its transition from violent conflict to peace and democracy.
George serves on several non-profit boards, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and holds an AB degree from Harvard and an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins.
Mary Blewitt
A refugee from the conflict in Rwanda, Mary Blewitt grew up in Uganda. In 1990, she moved to London to study for a Masters in Development Studies. While she was living in the UK, fifty of her family members were murdered in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Ever since, Mary has worked tirelessly to provide support for the survivors of the genocide, working in the Rwandan Ministry of Rehabilitation and, in 1997, setting up her own charity, Survivors Fund (SURF). SURF supports a wide range of services for victims in Rwanda and assists survivors in the UK, striving to bring hope, safety and a decent standard of living to the people of Rwanda.
Mary recently stepped down as director of SURF, taking time out to write a book, You Alone May Live, documenting her experience of working with survivors of genocide. Mary’s achievements and dedication to her cause have received international recognition. Among her many accolades are the 2004 UK Woman of the Year Award, the 2004 Pilkington Window to the World award and an OBE.
Glenda Burkhart
Glenda Burkhart is a skilled professional in the area of large-scale organisational change. She has experience as a senior corporate executive, a senior executive in a nonprofit organisation and as a consultant at the highest levels. Ms Burkhart was the senior vice president for Readers' Digest Association, where she ran Human Resources and Strategic Planning; corporate vice president for Millipore Corporation, where she ran Human Resources, Strategic Planning and Corporate Marketing; and Director of organisational development for Exxon Chemical; as well as numerous other executive marketing and planning positions. She was the vice president of planning and operations for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In all these roles, she was responsible for development and execution of integrated restructuring plans and programs.
Currently, Ms Burkhart works with British Airways and with the New York City Department of Education where, with the deputy chancellor, she co-chairs and acts as senior advisor to Project Home Run, the reform initiative to transform the Human Resources department and make more effective the processes and systems that impact all 140,000 employees across the system. In addition to being co-chair of the Women's Commission, Ms Burkhart chairs the Board of Directors for the Northwest Connecticut Center for Family Service and Mental Health, sits on the Boards of EMERITI Retirement Health Solutions, and the Austen Riggs Center.
Gillian duCharme
Gillian duCharme lived in the USA for 19 years and was head of The Town School, New York, New York. On her return to England she was headmistress of Benenden School, in Kent, for 15 years. She now works as an associate of Resource Group 175 (www.rg175.com), a small consulting group which takes on assignments in school leadership and governance, and she has done work in both Europe and Asia. She is a member of the European Council of International Schools, the National Association of Independent Schools and the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls.
Her current work on boards in the not-for-profit sector includes Marlborough House School, Kent, the Greenwich School of Management and International Rescue Committee UK. Prior to that she served on the Court of the University of Greenwich and the board of Wellington College, Berks.
Sir Jeremy Greenstock
Jeremy Greenstock is Chairman of the UN Association in the UK and Chairman of the strategic advisory company Gatehouse Advisory Partners Ltd.
Born in 1943, Sir Jeremy was educated at Harrow School and Worcester College, Oxford. His principal career (1969-2005) was with the British Diplomatic Service, ending as UK Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York (1998-2003) and then, after a suspension of his retirement, as the UK Special Envoy for Iraq (September 2003-March 2004).
Between 2004 and 2010 Sir Jeremy was Director of the Ditchley Foundation and Special Adviser to the BP Group. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of De La Rue plc and of Lambert Energy Advisory Ltd, and Special Adviser to MTM Capital Partners Ltd and to the NGO Forward Thinking. Sir Jeremy is married (Anne) with three children and six grandchildren, and lives in London and North Oxfordshire.'
Sir John Holmes
Born in 1951, Sir John Holmes was educated at Preston Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1973 and served in a wide range of diplomatic roles in New York, Paris and Moscow and New Delhi.
On his return to London in 1995, he joined Prime Minister John Major in Downing Street as his Private Secretary (Overseas Affairs) and diplomatic adviser. He continued this role with Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 1999, becoming Principal Private Secretary, and became a key figure in the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement.
In 1999, he was appointed as the British Ambassador in Lisbon, before returning to Paris as Ambassador until 2007. He then served as UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, before taking over the post of Director of the Ditchley Foundation from fellow board member Jeremy Greenstock.
Sir John is married to Penny, and they have three daughters.
François-Xavier de Mallmann
FX is head of Goldman Sachs' European Financing Group, which oversees equity and debt capital markets as well as the equity and credit derivatives, leveraged finance, pensions and restructuring businesses for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. He is also a member of the Goldman Sachs' European Management Committee, the Firmwide Capital Committee and the Partnership Committee. Previously, FX was Chief Operating Officer of the Global Investment Banking Division based in New York.
From 2002 to 2007, he served as head of Investment Banking for Switzerland. FX joined Goldman Sachs International in 1993. He was named Managing Director in 2003 and Partner in 2004.
FX graduated with distinction from Hochschule St. Gallen (lic. oec) and Community of European Management Schools in 1992. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Young Global Leaders network of the World Economic Forum.
FX was born on 8 December 1970, he has dual Swiss/French nationality and lives in London.
Lady Trish Malloch-Brown
Lady Malloch-Brown began her career working in international political consulting at the Sawyer Miller Group, then earned her master's degree in international affairs at Columbia University. In addition to her work with Refugees International (where she served as vice chairman before becoming a board member), she also served as a program director at the Open Society Institute, addressing technology, media, and educational initiatives in Eastern Europe.
She is co-founder of The Washington Circle, a group dedicated to educating women about international affairs and facilitating their involvement in making a difference.
The Hon. Richard Sharp
Richard Sharp has over twenty five years of experience in finance, having spent over twenty years at Goldman Sachs. Richard was most recently Chairman of Goldman Sachs’ Principal Investment Area in Europe, with responsibility for European Private Equity and Mezzanine Funds.
Richard is Chairman of the Royal Academy Trust and has been involved with the Royal Academy of Arts since 2004. He is non-executive Chairman of Huntsworth PLC, a member of the Mayor of London’s Legacy Board of Advisors, Deputy Chairman of the Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign, a Trustee of the Royal Marsden Hospital, a Director of the Institute of Cancer Research, Director of Development at SAID Business School (University of Oxford) and a Director and the Treasurer of the Centre for Policy Studies.
Diane Simpson
Diane Granzow Simpson, known as Dee Dee, is from Dayton, Ohio. She received an AB in Government from Dartmouth College and a Master’s in International Affairs from the University of Virginia.
She worked in Washington, DC as a legislative aide to US Senator J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana. She then served as a US Foreign Service Officer from 1980-1990, with posts including London, delegate to the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces negotiations in Geneva, and the Department of Politico-Military Affairs with responsibility for verification protocols to the Threshold Test Ban and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaties. She was subsequently Managing Editor of Strategic Comments at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
She has been Chairman of the Fundraising Committee of the International Rescue Committee UK since 2006 and on the Board since 2007. She is Secretary to the Trustees, Dartmouth College Trust, and on the Development Committee of the Godolphin and Latymer School. She chaired the Parents’ Association at both Eaton Square School and the Westminster Cathedral Choir School.
