Berry D'Arcy

Berry brings a wealth of marketing expertise to the Peace Direct board. For four years she was Head of Membership at the National Trust where she recruited over half a million new members in 12 months. Prior to that she was based in Australia working for UNICEF and Saatchi and Saatchi. Her interests include current affairs, environmental issues and rolling down hills.

Scilla Elworthy Ph.D, Chair

Scilla is founder of Peace Direct, and founder and Chair of Oxford Research Group, established in 1982 to develop effective methods whereby people can bring about positive change on issues of global and local security by non-violent means. Previously she was a consultant at UNESCO on women's issues, a director of Minority Rights Group in France and has worked for ten years in southern Africa. In May 2003 she was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize and has three times been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ruth Jenkins

Ruth is an accountant working for a firm that specialises in auditing not-for-profit groups. Before training as an accountant she worked directly in charities promoting the voluntary sector and researching environmental and health issues. Ruth has been involved in green politics since 1999, working for the Green Party’s Dr Caroline Lucas MEP in Brussels and Jenny Jones AM in the Greater London Assembly, as well as acting as Secretary to the National Party’s executive body. Locally, she has stood in both local and general elections and acted as Election Agent for 5 years.

Joan Link

Joan is a former British diplomat, whose 33 year career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) specialised in arms control, conflict issues and human resources. From 2001-2004 she ran the UK's innovative Global Conflict Prevention Pool jointly owned by the FCO, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Development. From 2004-2007 she was Head of Conflict Issues Group in the FCO, dealing with conflict prevention and countries at risk of instability, peacekeeping and international policing, and peacebuilding, in particular security sector reform and rule of law in conflict affected countries. She currently divides her time between human resources consulting and voluntary sector activities including related to Women,Peace and Security, as well as spending more time with her family.

Eliot Lyne

Eliot is a qualified chartered accountant works as an interim charity finance director specialising in international development charities.  He has worked in a wide variety of roles in both the commercial and voluntary sectors have qualified with Deloitte. Eliot is currently interim Finance Director at BBC World Service Trust.  Outside work Eliot leads Introduction seminars to the Landmark Forum and is a keen walker, runner and cyclist.

Dylan Mathews

Dylan is Africa Programme Manager for Y Care International , the international relief and development agency of the YMCA movement in the UK and Ireland. Previously, Dylan worked for Landmine Action as Sudan Programme Co-ordinator before moving to Oxfam GB to work on humanitarian programmes in Grenada and Guyana. Dylan is author of War Prevention Works , which he wrote whilst working for Oxford Research Group, and he is the Founder and trustee of the Rwenzori Development Foundation, a UK-based charity supporting community development projects in Western Uganda.

Vesna Matovich

Vesna is Responding To Conflict ’s Peace and Conflict Advisor with responsibility for the management and development of the Applied Conflict Transformation Studies Program (ACTS). ACTS is a global Masters level Peacebuilding Program with Centers in the Balkans and South East Asia (Cambodia). Dr Matovich is lead of the international tutor team for the programme and tutor on RTC courses and their development. Dr Matovich is Serbian and has worked for many years in the Balkans as a consultant, trainer and facilitator on conflict issues with special expertise in dialogue and transformative mediation. Prior to her position at RTC, Dr Matovich was the director of the Board of the Nansen Dialogue Network with responsibility for management and strategy development for the network.

Holly Pelham

Holly is a barrister working at Rights of Women, an organisation that empowers women in crisis by advising them about their legal rights. Before Rights of Women she practised as a barrister in Middle Temple and Lincoln’s Inn specialising in family law. She was previously Assistant Editor of International Affairs at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Holly has lived and worked in Egypt for many years and writes regularly on Middle Eastern issues, particularly those concerning women. She is the co-author of Pathways to Justice: BMER (black, minority ethnic and refugee women), violence and the law and has contributed to the BBC, Islamic Affairs Analyst and The Arab.

Joel Voysey

After graduation Joel began working life with a branch of HMSO, the Government stationers. Despite working with a young and lively team in a fast-growing business it soon became clear that a life of selling chairs and desks was not for him and after a year of this he decided to do something that felt a bit more worthwhile. In 1997, Joel joined WaterAid (www.wateraid.org.uk ), the UKs leading charity dealing exclusively with the provision of safe water, effective sanitation and hygiene education. He gained experience of building a donor base of regular supporters, as well as continuing the development of WaterAid's High Value and Legacy Marketing programmes. After 18 months travelling, Joel returned to the UK to take up the role of Supporter Recruitment Manager at Amnesty International UK (www.amnesty.org.uk ). Joel headed a team that recruited more than 50,000 new members and supporters in 2003/4, using a range of media. In May 2004, Joel moved to VSO (www.vso.org.uk ), the UK's largest volunteer-sending development charity. He heads up the Individual Partnership Development Team whose focus is on managing long-term relationships with UK supporters contributing to VSO's aim of alleviating poverty and disadvantage in developing countries.