Solon Ardittis, Managing Director. Solon Ardittis has 25 years of experience in research, evaluation, policy development and technical cooperation in the fields of immigration, asylum, employment policy and education in Europe and internationally. He is the former head of the Support Office of the European Refugee Fund (ERF) which, on behalf of DG Justice and Home Affairs of the European Commission, was in charge of monitoring and assisting over 140 EC-funded projects on asylum-seekers, displaced persons and refugees in the European Union and in the Balkans. He also directed various long-term EU TACIS projects on the development and implementation of the immigration and asylum policy of the Russian Federation, as well as some 100 research, evaluation and technical assistance assignments in over 50 countries, on behalf of various DGs of the European Commission (DG Justice, Freedom and Security, DG Employment and Social Affairs, EuropeAid, DG External Relations, DG Education and Culture, DG Regional Policy, DG Research, DG Environment, DG Development, DG Enlargement and the Secretariat General), international organisations (ILO, UNDP, IOM) and academia. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn), and a Research Associate at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS) at the University of California at San Diego. He has an established record of publications on various aspects of immigration and asylum policy internationally
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Colin Manchip CBE, Policy Director. Colin Manchip served as one of two Directors jointly heading the United Kingdom's Immigration Service from 1991 to 1996. He spent over 35 years in Government Service, some 34 years of which were in Immigration and Passport Departments of the United Kingdom's Home Office. Colin Manchip left the UK Immigration Service in 1996, and has since been a consultant on immigration and asylum affairs to several international organisations, the European Commission and national Government authorities. He has worked on two EU Tacis Projects, one, providing broad advice and assistance to the Russian Federal Migration Service, and one in Belarus, and has led projects for the International Organization for Migration in Belarus, the Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Other countries to which he has provided advice and assistance on immigration and/or asylum issues have included Croatia (for whom he examined draft legislation on refugees and asylum seekers, on behalf of the Council of Europe), Zimbabwe, Ghana, Bulgaria, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Jersey and Guernsey, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Jamaica. He is also highly experienced in the training of senior immigration/asylum officials in developing and transition countries. Between 1986 and 1988 he was the Chairman of the Council of Europe's Committee on the Movement of People *
Don Ingham, Director for UK Consultancy Services. Don Ingham is a former senior official at the UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), ending his career in 2006 as Director, Managed Migration Directorate. He spent over 30 years in Government Service holding various key positions entailing the development, enforcement and evaluation of major immigration policies and legislation. Between September 2003 and January 2006, he was Director for IND’s biometric documentation programme with responsibility for setting the policy and strategy for the introduction of biometric residence permits and the treatment of foreign nationals under a national ID card scheme. Other key positions he has held have included those as Director of Immigration Service Major Projects, Director of the Immigration Service’s London Operations and Enforcement, and Head of Strategic and Change Management at the Crown Prosecution Service. He was also a member of the Cabinet Office’s Next Steps Team responsible for the creation of Executive Agencies, and Assistant Director in the Passport Service responsible for operational policy. A major part of Don Ingham’s Government career has entailed the planning, implementation and validation of improvements in efficiency, effectiveness, quality and change within the immigration sector. He has in-depth knowledge of all aspects of immigration and asylum policy, including leading edge developments on biometrics, and has worked with a range of immigration authorities internationally. He is also an accredited “Gateway” Review Team Leader, handling high risk reviews for the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) *
Richard Norton, Director for Border Management Services. Rick Norton has over 30 years of experience in the field of immigration and asylum affairs. Between 1971 and 1990, he served as an officer, manager and Associate Commissioner of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), where he headed, inter alia, multilateral international working groups of senior government representatives entrusted with the automation of passenger security processes and the counteracting of document fraud. After his career at the INS, Rick Norton served as managing director of the Air Transport Association of America, where he led the design and implementation of automated passenger check-in, screening and inspection programmes on behalf of the airline industry, as well as industry research on anti-fraud, anti-counterfeiting technologies, and the use of biometrics to expedite international travellers. In 1996, he established Global Technology Management, Inc., a company specialising in border operations and related technologies, that currently assists the US Department of Homeland Security with the implementation of the US-VISIT border control program. In 1998 he founded and served as the first Executive Director of the International Biometric Industry Association. Rick Norton is widely recognised for his leadership in introducing new technologies and processes to address complex border management challenges worldwide
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James Puleo, US Director. James Puleo has over 30 years of experience in the field of international migration policy. Between 1995 and 2002, he was a senior official at the US Department of State, ending his mandate as Director of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. In that capacity, he led, in particular, the US negotiations on the two migrant protocols to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and directed the preparation of the first Trafficking in Persons congressional report. James Puleo was also the lead US negotiator in many bilateral and multinational efforts to deter migrant smuggling activity. Prior to his career at the State Department, he was Executive Associate Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), heading, successively, the INS’ Office of Operations and the Office of Programs. During this mandate, he supervised all ten domestic programmes and policy offices within the INS, and established a new border strategy for the United States' Southern Border. He also initiated legislative changes that led to the second most extensive revision of the US Immigration and Nationality Act. Jim Puleo now also serves as Executive Vice President of GTM, where he is assisting the US Department of Homeland Security with the implementation of the US-VISIT programme
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Dr. Joanne van Selm, Associate Director of Research. Dr. Joanne van Selm has over fifteen years of experience in policy and academic research on EU migration, asylum and refugee issues. During almost five years at the Washington DC-based Migration Policy Institute (MPI), she worked closely with the Greek and Dutch Presidencies of the European Union (2003 and 2004). She also conducted studies for the European Commission, including a major feasibility study on resettlement and a study on the transfer of protection status. In 2005-2006, she was a member of the core team led by the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Eurasylum and MPI carrying out the Final Evaluation of the European Refugee Fund, on behalf of the European Commission. Dr. van Selm, who is the author of several books and articles, has lectured in Political Science at the University of Amsterdam and the Vrij Universiteit Amsterdam, and holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. She is the co-editor of the Journal of Refugee Studies (Oxford University Press) and Senior Researcher at the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies at the University of Amsterdam. From 2003 to 2005 she was President of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration *
Giuseppe Magnani, IT Director. Giuseppe Magnani holds engineering and business degrees from the University of Bologna and the Solvay Business School of Brussels. Through previous positions with the European Commission and multinational technology companies, he developed considerable experience in the design and management of complex e-strategies, business and public sector IT policies and web-enabled information systems. Giuseppe Magnani is responsible for all of Eurasylum’s online services, including for the development of new interactive information systems tailored to the immigration and asylum policy sector *
Robin Chalmers, Senior Associate. Robin Chalmers has spent over 40 years within the UK government at operational and policy levels in the border and travel document areas. After twenty years spent within the UK Immigration Service at various management levels (including managing a UK visa operation overseas) he moved to the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) in 1990. In this role he managed one of the UK’s passport offices and gained extensive practical experience of working in a highly secure, production based environment. He also developed significant expertise in overseas travel document issuance systems including a period spent with the US State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. He played a key role in encouraging the creation of an international function within IPS and in 2004 took on responsibility for all international policy and operational issues. He has also been closely involved with the introduction of biometric passports in the UK. Throughout the 2000s he has represented the IPS in various working groups within the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Technical Advisory Group. He also represented the UK within the G8 Lyon/Roma Migration Experts group. He has worked closely with the EU and with the OSCE where he played a key role in their travel document security programme. He has carried out a number of assessments for the UK, European and non-EU governments relating to travel document systems where his in-depth knowledge and practical experience has given him a unique insight into this specialist area *
John Gibson, Senior Associate. John Gibson has been a practising barrister for over twenty years, with a specialist practice in refugee and migration law. He was a Member of the Refugee Review Tribunal of Australia from its inception in 1993 until June 1997. Since 1997, he has been the Director of International Refugee Consulting (IRC), an independent organisation which was created to provide advice to governments and other bodies worldwide on the setting up of refugee determination systems at first instance and appellate levels. IRC also conducts training for asylum decision-makers and case-workers in refugee law and practice. John Gibson has lectured in politics at Monash University and has extensive knowledge of recent developments affecting the socio-political systems in the new EU Member States, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. He also publishes a specialist legal service on judicial review, refugee and migration law for international practitioners. Since 2006 he has been the President of the Refugee Council of Australia *
Andy Holden, Senior Associate. Andy Holden has thirty years operational and policy experience in the field of immigration and asylum affairs. He left the UK Border Agency in August 2008 after four years in West Africa on secondment to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office as Director of Visa Services in Ghana and latterly West Africa. Since that time he has worked as a consultant with IBM on various European border control projects for the EU, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. He has extensive experience of UK visa operations, having managed the operation in Turkey and worked in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as well as in Africa. In 2000 he undertook the scoping study which prepared the way for the e-Borders programme, taking the lead on the introduction of a new ‘authority to carry concept’, the development of an electronic audit trail of passenger movements in and out of the UK and the use of biometrics to assist in the process of identity management. He supported Ministers in steering the relevant legislation through the UK Parliament and represented the UK on passenger information issues at international fora including the ICAO conference in Cairo in 2004. Andy Holden played a key role in the establishment of the intelligence function of the then UK Immigration Service, adapting the principles devised by the UK police for use in an immigration environment. He has also undertaken an attachment at the office of Inter-governmental Consultations on Asylum, Refugee and Migration Policies (IGC) in Geneva to research clandestine maritime immigration into the EU. *
Richard Lewis, Senior Associate. Richard Lewis was a senior official at the European Commission from 1974 to 2003. From 1998 to 2003 he was deputy and then acting head of the Asylum and Immigration Unit, working with a team drafting the legislation to create a common European asylum and immigration policy. He was also the official responsible for the instruments leading up to the creation of the European Refugee Fund (ERF) in 2000 and then for the running of the ERF and other financial instruments managed by the Commission. Prior to 1998, he was involved in foreign policy issues ranging from South Asia to the Balkans and former Yugoslavia. He is a qualified mediator both in the UK and the United States and has made a speciality of conflict resolution. Richard Lewis is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for European Studies, Free University of Brussels. He has lectured at several universities in Europe and the United States and is the author of a number of publications on asylum and immigration affairs *
Dr. Landis Mackellar, Senior Associate. Dr. Landis MacKellar is a leading international expert on the economics of population, including population displacement. His current research and technical cooperation activities focus on the socio-economic impacts of natural and human-driven catastrophes in developing countries and appropriate international response mechanisms. This includes research on economic and political aspects of pre-event insurance vs. post-event humanitarian aid. Dr. MacKellar, who is former Executive Director of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), is currently a senior research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and Visiting Professor in the Department of Economics at City University of London. He has published extensively on a range of population issues and has directed major assignments for the European Commission, ILO, the OECD Development Centre, UNFPA, UNDP, UNCTAD, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the African Development Bank. He is currently the Team Leader for the mid-term Evaluation of the Thematic Programme of cooperation with third countries in the areas of migration and asylum, on behalf of the European Commission (2009-2010) *
John Merritt, Senior Associate. John Merritt has spent most of the past ten years in the demanding environment of the Balkans/SE Europe, working on key appointments with the UN, NATO, the EC and the OSCE. Among several relevant assignments, John Merritt has served as: Chief Training Officer of the CIMIC (Civil Military Cooperation) Task Force in NATO SFOR, in Sarajevo; Head of the OSCE Office in Topusko, Croatia, where he was directing a team involved in monitoring the political and human rights aspects of resettling displaced persons and refugees; Manager of the UNHCR/German Convoy Team delivering Humanitarian aid into Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Border Control Officer with UNTAES (the UN Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia), supervising the Transitional Police Force and Customs Service. Between 2003 and mid-2004, John Merritt was an Adviser to the National Security Council of the Afghan Transitional Government. He is currently a member of the EU Border Assistance Mission in Gaza, on behalf of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office *
Dr. Katrin Metcalf, Senior Associate. Dr. Katrin Metcalf is an international public lawyer with a PhD from Uppsala University, specialising in European immigration law and border controls policy. She is currently Associate Professor at the Riga Graduate School of Law and Legal Adviser to the Communications Regulatory Agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has extensive experience of devising and conducting legal reform processes in transition countries, including as former legal adviser to the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, legal trainer with UNHCR, head of the immigration and border controls section at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Director of Legal/Institutional Development at Human Dynamics (Vienna). Dr. Metcalf, who is the author of several books and articles, is a leading international expert on the transfer of the EU immigration/asylum acquis to the new EU Member States. She is currently contributing to Eurasylum's activities in the Balkans *
David Mould, Senior Associate. David Mould is a former senior official at the UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate, who has a very extensive background in immigration control and asylum policy issues in Europe, Africa and Asia. His experience derives from service at all levels within the UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate, including specific experience of the operational and management challenges of border controls, and asylum determination procedures. As a former member of departmental and inter-departmental Bill Teams, David Mould also has extensive knowledge of introducing and implementing new legislation processes. He is further experienced in advising and briefing Ministers in immigration policy and casework, and in dealing with NGOs, local authorities, police services and other immigration-related government agencies. He is currently contributing to Eurasylum's activities in the Balkans *
Ken Richardson, Senior Associate. Ken Richardson served in the UK Immigration Service for some 30 years with experience at seaports, airports and entry clearance offices. As Assistant Director for Information technology he was project manager of the very successful Warnings Index project. During this period he represented the UK Immigration Service on various technical experts groups in the International Civil Aviation Organisation, International Standards Organisation and European Commission on passport and visa matters. Since leaving the Home Office in 1999 he worked for major companies (Sema, Schlumbuger and Atos Consulting) as a senior service manager, providing IT services for the Metropolitan Police Service and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency. More recently he has been involved with biometrics and the specification of biometrics-based border management systems for use in the Middle East and Europe to provide entry control and reconciliation of arrivals and departures.
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Luis Miguel Ruiz, Senior Associate. Luis Miguel Ruiz is a former senior official at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where he served for 15 years in the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean at IOM’s headquarters in Geneva, before being posted as IOM’s Chief of Mission in Portugal from 1997 to 2004. He has extensive experience of designing, implementing and evaluating sizeable capacity building projects in the area of migration and asylum, both in Europe and in the developing world. He is also well-versed in the development of diplomatic and political relations with national Government authorities, as well as in project networking with key policy, social and academic stakeholders in the field of justice and home affairs internationally. He has published and lectured extensively on international migration/asylum issues and has directed technical cooperation programmes in these policy areas in several African, Latin American and Central/Eastern European countries, including on behalf of the European Commission. Within Eurasylum, Luis Miguel Ruiz is responsible, more particularly, for the development of project activities in Africa and the Luso-Hispanic world *
Mike Stanley, Senior Associate. Mike Stanley is a former senior official within the United Kingdom Border and Immigration Agency. He spent over 37 years in Government Service and ended his career as Director, Border Control Regions, where among other things, he was involved in the operational development of Trusted Traveller Automatic Gate technology. He has extensive experience in the field of operational immigration enforcement, including the management of enforcement for London. He was a senior negotiator in a team responsible for conducting negotiations with overseas governments for the management of returns, and conducted successful negotiations with many states, including China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Iraq, and Kosovo, where he liaised directly with UNMIK. He worked closely with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on improving arrangements for managing voluntary returns and has served in Qatar and Turkey managing visa policy and practice. He has in-depth knowledge of a full range of immigration policy and implementation aspects and has a strong record on change management, strategic planning, resource and finance management, and on providing border security in consultation with port operators *
Geoffrey Care, Chairman of the Advisory Board. Geoffrey Care is the current Chairman of Eurasylum’s International Advisory Board. He is the founder and, until 2003, the first President of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ), the main international organisation in the field of asylum appeal law with a membership of over 300 judges in 53 countries. He is also a former Chairman of the United Kingdom’s Immigration Appeals Tribunal. Geoffrey Care has been an immigration adjudicator for over 20 years, serving in both the UK and several African countries. He is a former High Court Judge in Zambia and Head of the Department of Law at the University of Jos. He has also taught at several other universities, including the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London, and regularly conducts training sessions for asylum decision-makers in Europe and internationally. He is the author of several publications on asylum law and policy *
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