2020 YSPG Coordination Team
James Firebrace (Chairman British Yemeni Society, Former Director General Consumers International, Former Senior Adviser Yemen LNG, Analyst and Author on Water, Conflict and Economy in Yemen / Horn of Africa)
Frances Guy (Former British Ambassador to Yemen 2001-2004 and to Lebanon 2006-11, Regional Gender Advisor UNDP Amman-based 2017-19, Head of Middle East at Christian Aid 2014-17)
Captain Philip Holihead RN Retd (Head of Western Indian Ocean Counter-Piracy UN IMO 2010-2015, Commander of Military Observer Maritime Force Cambodia UNTAC 1993, Former Defence Attaché Yemen 2006 -2009)
Members of the Yemen Safe Passage Group
(in alphabetical order by grouping)
1. Former Diplomats / Defence / Government / UN
Dr Noel Brehony CMG (Former Diplomat, Editor of Rebuilding Yemen 2015, Author of Yemen Divided, former Chairman of British-Yemeni Society)
Stephen Day CMG (Former Head of FCO Middle East Department and Diplomat in Yemen)
John Deverell CBE (Brigadier Ret’d, Defence Attaché Yemen and Saudi Arabia 2001-03, Director of Defence Diplomacy at MoD 2006-07. Only non-Arab member of UN Mediation Team in 2016 Houthi – GoY talks. Advised DFID on humanitarian access to Yemen as member of UK’s Stabilisation Unit).
Caroline Gordon (British Residence Aden 1989 and Sana’a 1992-1995, wife of Douglas Gordon deceased, former British Ambassador to Yemen and to PDRY, and former YSPG Member)
Frances Guy (Former British Ambassador to Yemen 2001-2004 and to Lebanon 2006-11, Regional Gender Advisor UNDP Amman-based 2017-19, Head of Middle East at Christian Aid 2014-17)
Victor Henderson (Former British Ambassador to Yemen 1997-2001)
Captain Philip Holihead RN Retd (Head of Western Indian Ocean Counter-Piracy UN IMO 2010-2015, Commander of Military Observer Maritime Force Cambodia UNTAC 1993, Former Defence Attaché Yemen 2006 -2009)
Mark Pegler (Currently Resident Adviser to Royal Oman Police, Resident Yemen In-Country Manager Crown Agents for Overseas Governments 2008-2009, Team Leader EU Rule of Law Mission to Kosovo 2011-2015)
Rupert Pulvertaft OBE (Former Defence Attaché Yemen 2011-2013)
Christopher Shute (British Consul-General, Deputy Head of Mission in Sana’a 2007-2010)
Colonel Iain Smailes (Former Defence Attaché, Yemen Embassy, 2013-15)
Arthur Snell (First Secretary at the British Embassy Yemen 2003 – 2005: Former British High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago 2011 – 2014; Consultant and Adviser on international affairs, security and strategy)
Jonathan Tottman (British Police CT Attaché to Yemen 2011 – 2012, Rule of Law Attaché EU Delegation Sana’a 2012 – 2015, Former Detective Superintendent)
Andrew Whitley (Mahra Peacekeeping 2016-19, Former Policy Director then CEO of The Elders 2011-16, Former Director at UNRWA 2002-10, UN Peacekeeping East Timor, Kosovo 1999-2002)
Dr Robert Wilson OBE (Former Diplomat in Yemen, Writer / Researcher on Yemeni history, Chairman of British-Yemeni Society)
2. Academic / Authors
Anderson Bakewell (Author on Culture and Politics in the Tihama and on Yemeni Music)
Professor Nora Ann Colton (Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of East London, Author on Political Economy of Yemen)
Joana Cook (King’s College London, Author on Women’s Political Participation and Engagement in security and public safety in Yemen)
Paddy Coulter (Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, Former Progressio and Oxfam Director for Yemen)
Alia Eshaq (Writer on International Policy during National Dialogue Conference and Yemen’s 2011 Transition, Manager Yemen Local Governance and Track 2 Activities at Berghof Foundation 2016-18, Masters in Public Policy Oxford University 2014-15)
Dr Katherine Hennessey (Researcher and writer on Yemeni theatre and film, based Sana’a 2009-2014; translator of Yemeni literature; Fulbright Scholar; currently Assistant Professor of English at the American University of Kuwait)
Professor Allan Hill (Population and International Health, University of Southampton, Author on Yemen Demography)
Dr Elisabeth Kendall (Senior Research Fellow in Arabic and Islamic Studies, Oxford University, Writer on Militant Jihadist / Political Movements in Yemen)
Dr Miranda Morris (St Andrews University, Ethnographer and Linguist, Specialist on Yemen and Southern Arabia, Writer on Socotra Culture and Society)
Professor Martha Mundy (Professor Emerita of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science, Author on Yemeni Society and Agriculture)
Thanos Petouris (SOAS University, London, Author of articles particularly on the Southern Question in Yemen)
Dr Carl Phillips, (Archaeologist, Specialist on Sabaean period in Yemen and on Tihama)
Sarah Searight (Author of ‘Yemen: Land and People’ 2002; former Chair of the Society for Arabian Studies; founder of the Red Sea Conference series on the archaeology and history of this region)
James Spencer (Retired Army Officer; Author on Yemen, with focus on Security, Conflict and its Drivers)
Dr Jane Springham (Research Fellow in Sustainability and Health at University of Plymouth, Former Coordinator of Rural Health Training Programmes in Yemen)
Professor Anna Stavrianakis (Department of International Relations, University of Sussex; Researcher, writer and commentator on UK arms export policy in the Middle East).
Dr Francine Stone (Editor of Studies on the Tihamah, author Tihamah Gazetteer of Southern Red Sea coast of Arabia, Writer on Ethnography, Flora and Fauna)
Sherine El Taraboulsi-McCarthy (Research Fellow with ODI Humanitarian Policy Group, Writer on State Formation and Conflict in Yemen)
Dr Gabriele von Bruck (SOAS University, London and Writer on Islam and Yemeni elites)
Dr Christopher Ward (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, and Author of The Water Crisis in Yemen 2015)
Dr Shelagh Weir (Author of A Tribal Order: Politics and Law in the Mountains of Yemen, Curator for the Middle East at the British Museum)
3. Development / Economy / Business / Community
Stephen Akester (Director, Macalister Elliott Fisheries Consultancy, Senior World Bank and EU Consultant in Yemen)
Emily Allardyce (Director, British Yemeni Arabic Institute in Sana’a, Senior Adviser to Yemen Ministry of Education)
Sultana Al-Quaiti MBE, Founder of Friends of Hadhramaut supporting community projects in this region of Yemen
David Bryer CMG (Former Director of Oxfam GB, Former Yemen and Middle East Director)
Chris Dammers (Former Oxfam Middle East Field Director, Former Coordinator, Progressio Yemen)
Captain Roy Facey (Senior Adviser to the Yemen Ports Corporations in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea 1995 – 2014)
James Firebrace (Chairman British Yemeni Society, Former Director General Consumers International, Former Senior Adviser Yemen LNG, Analyst and Author on Water, Conflict and Economy in Yemen / Horn of Africa)
Dr Richard Franceys (Cranfield University and Consultant in Yemen, Author on Urban Water Management)
Liz Gascoigne (Former Social Development adviser with DFID Middle East/Yemen programme, former Oxfam Representative opening their first office in Sanaa in 1983)
John Gibb (Former Western Asia Programme Manager for ODA / DFID, Programme Manager Yemen 1996-97 with focus on Economic Reform, Social Sectors and Aden Port)
Dr Christopher Handley (Senior Consultant and Author of Water Stress in Taiz Yemen)
Helen Lackner (Editor of Why Yemen Matters 2014, Social Development Consultant in PRDY and Yemen since 1977, Editor of British Yemeni Society Journal)
Julian Lush (Former Shell Representative in the Yemen Arab Republic 1989 -1990, Shell Oman 1961-3, Shell Representative to UAE 1981-86; first Secretary of British Yemeni Society 1992)
Ragih Muflihi (Chief Executive, Yemeni Community Association, Sandwell, Birmingham)
Dr Cynthia Myntti (Development Consultant, Former Programme Officer for Ford Foundation Office for the Middle East and North Africa)
Taher Ali Qassim MBE (Formerly Swedish Save the Children Yemen, Former Chair of the Yemen Communities Coordinating Council UK)
Shane Stevenson (Lead Organiser of international conference on Yemen, London 2017; Oxfam Yemen Country Director 2016-18)
Dr Eric Watkins (First resident foreign correspondent in Yemen, FT Yemen Correspondent 1989-94, Consultant Nexen 1990-94, Writer on Yemen Oil and Gas developments, continues to write on Yemen)
4. Members outside UK
Joseph Greenman (Fulbright Research Grant Yemen, writer on Yemeni Arabic dialects, Yemen Hunt Oil and DED/German Development Service)
Dr Gerhard Lichtenthaeler (Author of Political Ecology and the Role of Water, Environment, Society and Economy in Northern Yemen)
Dr Frank van Steenbergen (Director Meta-Meta Consultancy, Food Security in Yemen and Horn of Africa, Coordinator of the Water Channel and the Spate Irrigation Network)