Anwar Abas
Senior Project Specialist

At the heart of it, Anwar wants to help people help themselves. Working for 12 years in the Syrian development sector, Anwar’s focus has been on empowering marginalized people. He brings a passion and faith to his work, and in turn, finds this experience fulfilling. In working with The Foundation, Anwar supports people to have their voice heard and access information that enables them to be in charge of their own lives.

As the CEO of SOS Children’s Villages Syria, Anwar introduced a widely acclaimed family-strengthening program to prevent child abandonment in at risk communities in Syria. Anwar has also worked for the British Council in Syria and the International Labour Organization. Anwar has lived and worked in Europe, Asia and North America.

Below are examples of Anwar’s work:

• • • Technology & The Syria Crisis
    • Syria’s Hacker Wars

Nada Al-Farhan
SalamaTech, Field Team Manager

Nada builds and empowers networks of non-profit beneficiaries, particularly supporting women, youth and civil society in the Middle East. Focusing on strategic communications, Nada empowers these groups by developing training material and providing mentorship on how to more effectively reach target audiences, helping at-risk groups be heard.

A Syrian by birth, Nada enjoys delving into different cultures and becoming an integral part of wherever she lives. Nada sees learning as a way to better understand the world.  In addition to her work with The Foundation, Nada has enjoyed past experience with the IRCICA in Istanbul, Turkey.

Abdulrahman Al-Masri
SalamaTech, Fellow

Abdulrahman al-Masri is a SalamaTech Fellow with The SecDev Foundation, where he focuses on digital safety in Syria. Prior to joining the Foundation, he served as a Middle East and North Africa analyst at The SecDev Group.

Additionally, Abdulrahman is a journalist and analyst who focuses on Middle East politics and security and foreign policy. His work has been published by The Arab Weekly, News Deeply, the Atlantic Council, USA Today, and the Carnegie Endowment, among others.

Below are examples of Abdulrahman’s work:

• Post-ISIS and Kirkuk: The Syrian Kurds and the United States
• The Fifth Corps and the State of the Syrian Army
• Al-Nusra is playing realpolitik

Vadim Dryganov
Digital Report, Project Manager

Vadim Dryganov has a long history of collaboration with Rafal Rohozinski and The SecDev Foundation. Starting from 2003, Vadim participated in Rafal’s joint research projects, and later, those of the Foundation as the National Coordinator of programs in Belarus. Having background in law, Vadim’s field of expertise is research in legal regulation of information technologies. Vadim has authored a number of scientific publications as well as a book «Digital Age and Law: On the Way to Information Society».

Vadim is an experienced manager: he ran several Belorussian NGOs and was a director of several IT-companies. In 2010, Vadim was invited to participate in the creation of an Educational High-Tech Park that has become one of the leading centers of informal education in the Republic of Belarus.

Today, Vadim Dryganov supervises and coordinates Digital Report, a media source that covers the digital dynamics vigorously changing Eurasian countries: from electronic government services and international information wars, to legislative changes and market tendencies in the IT industry.

Michael L. Gray
Senior Project Manager

Michael L. Gray is Project Manager of the Vietnam Project, an effort focused on helping to support digital safety in Vietnam. Previously, Michael worked for over 12 years in Vietnam in a variety of research, project management and communications roles. Most recently, he was the Communications and Investor Relations Manager for VinaCapital Group, a fund management company. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and History from McGill University, and a Master’s in Southeast Asian Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Tattu Mambetalieva
OpenNet Eurasia, Regional Coordinator

Tattu leads SecDev Foundation work in the Commonwealth of Independent States. She is recognized as an influential thought leader on issues of media law, privacy, telecommunications regulation, and internet governance in the Eurasian region.

As director of the Kyrgyzstan-based Civil Initiative for Internet Policy (CIIP), Tattu has led national and regional processes and redrafting of legislation on lawful intercept, independent media and privacy. She served as an advisor to three Kyrgyz presidents, and has co-convened workshops and executed projects with a wide range of stakeholders including the regional communications committee (RCC) of the CIS, OECD, UNDP, UNESCO, USAID, Google, NED,  NESsT, US Department of State, EU Commission, OSI, InfoDev, Hivos, and others.

From 2001 to 2006, Tattu was central to the establishment of the Global Internet Policy Initiative, a network of 15 organizations throughout Eurasia that assisted governments in drafting legislation necessary for the growth and expansion of access to the internet and freedom to communicate online. Tattu was a regional coordinator for the OpenNet Initiative from 2003 to 2014.

Tattu is currently the regional director for the OpenNet Eurasia Project, directing the work of 11 regional partners. A practicing lawyer, Tattu is a graduate of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA).

When she is not working (rarely), Tattu is a proud mother of five children.

Below are examples of Tattu’s work:

• • • GIS Watch Kygryzstan
    • Access Denied
    • Access Controlled
    • Access Contested

Alison Thompson
SalamaTech, Project Coordinator

Alison has a background in international development and public health, with experience working in the United States, Canada, and throughout the Middle East. She joined the SalamaTech team to apply her skills in project management and support the project’s partners who are champions for peace and human rights in Syria.

Alexander Corbeil
Fellow

Alexander was attracted to international relations, conflict and the Middle East at an early age, devouring books on these topics in elementary and high school. For the past ten years he has built on this passion for understanding and applied his curiosity in his undergraduate and graduate studies, as a journalist focusing on mining, oil and gas, a political commentator and now, Lead Analyst with SecDev.

A frequent contributor to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Sada journal, Alexander has written for a number of publications including Foreign Affairs and The Globe and Mail, commenting on issues including maritime security, counter-terrorism, preventing violent extremism, religious radicalism, conflict management, security sector reform and his favorite topic, Lebanese politics and Hezbollah. Alexander previously worked with The NATO Association of Canada where he held the position of Senior Middle East Analyst. He now blends this knowledge of politics and security with that of the cyber domain, leading a group of technologists and analysts in the creation of social media collection tools and the production of OSINT- and SOCMINT-based reports. Alexander holds both a Master’s Degree in Political Science and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations from the University of Toronto and also studied conflict management at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Below are examples of Alexander’s work:

• The Houthi Hezbollah
• Hezbollah is Learning Russian
• The Syrian Conflict and Sunni Radicalism in Lebanon

Oussama Jarrousse
SalamaTech, Digital Safety Expert

Oussama cares deeply about democracy, civil society and human rights. Holding a graduate degree in Telecommunications Engineering (Damascus U) and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany), Oussama has for past three years devoted most of his engineering and technology skills to support peace-building efforts in Syria. Oussama is passionate about capacity-building for fledgling Syrian civil society organizations, especially in the areas of information integrity, digital safety and security, and institutional policy development. He looks forward with hope to the day when these issues will be at the top of the agenda for Syrians writ large.

Camino Kavanagh
Research Fellow

Camino was drawn to The SecDev Foundation by its efforts to prevent and resolve conflicts, responding to emerging challenges through a blend of technology, great minds and dynamism. In particular, issues related to contemporary warfare, organized crime and corruption interest Camino.

A Non-Resident Senior Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC), Camino is also a Senior Advisor to ICT4 Peace and to the New York-based National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP) where she has developed an annual round table series on cybersecurity and US foreign policy.

Camino has also worked as a Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs’ Canada Centre for Global Security Studies and Citizen Lab, and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, focusing on cyberspace and transformation of strategic affairs. Of both Spanish and Irish origin, Camino now splits her time between New York, London and Bamako, Mali. She is a seasoned world traveller and occasionally finds time for fun in the midst of her work, such as completing a half marathon on the Great Wall in China.

Below are examples of Camino’s work:

• • • Getting Smart and Scaling Up: Responding to the Impact of Organized Crime on Governance in Developing Countries
    • Shaky Foundations: An Assessment of the UN’s Rule of Law Support Agenda
    • 800 Titles but No Policy: Thoughts on Cyber Warfare

Eleanor O’Gorman
Foundation Fellow

Eleanor was attracted to The Foundation for its work on peace, security and development.

With a PhD in international politics, Eleanor is a Senior Associate of the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies and a member of its Academic Committee as well as Research Associate with the department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS).

Eleanor also runs a private consultancy with clients including the UN, EU and British, Irish and German governments, respectively. Fieldwork has taken Eleanor to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic.

Below are examples of Eleanor’s work:

• • • The Front Line Runs through Every Woman: Women and Local Resistance in the Zimbabwean Liberation War

Tore Rose
Foundation Fellow

Tore’s aim in working with The Foundation is to leave a small contribution towards not having a fast-changing world go off-track, when it need not.

Tore has enjoyed four decades of field experience in development, conflict, security and peace building. Tore has worked as UN Resident Coordinator in Algeria, Mali and Rwanda, as well as on many assignments with Interpeace. A co-founder of EPES Mandala consulting, Tore was involved in peace and disarmament work in Mali, lighting the first Flame of Peace in Timbuktu in March 1996 celebrating the end of the Tuareg-Arab rebellion. While having enjoyed much field experience, Tore cautions those who believe “one day in the field is worth four days of desk study.” Few things excite Tore more than having a Eureka! moment within the first week of a field assignment, (but no sooner than Day 4, as that is suspicious!). A Norwegian citizen, Tore is a graduate of Leeds University and Harvard Business School. He began his career as manager in an American multinational corporation in Africa and has also worked on transnational corporations at the UN. Tore continues to nurse a romantic notion that settling down in Ireland will be the perfect solution to a footloose life.

Examples of Tore’s work are below:

• • • Policy, Decentralization, and the Exercise of Authority in Aid Organizations
    • Designing Community Security Programmes: Getting to the ‘How’
    • “The Programme for Coordination and Assistance for Security and Development in West Africa (PCASED)” presented at the Oslo Conference on Regional Small Arms Moratoria and published in A Moratorium on Light Weapons in West Africa, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.

Gregory Walton
Foundation Fellow

A DPhil candidate at Oxford’s new Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security, Greg is interested in Chinese cyber espionage targeting civil society networks, and has worked extensively with Tibetan NGOs in the field in South Asia.

Greg coordinated the primary field-based research for the GhostNet and the ShadowNet investigations in His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Office and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharamsala, India, where he worked with a team that uncovered global cyber espionage botnets operating out of China, and penetrating the United Nations, NATO, governments, diplomatic missions, and civil society computers all over the world. Greg has been the SecDev Fellow at the Citizen Lab based at the Munk Centre, University of Toronto, and is a graduate of the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford (International Relations and Security Studies).

Julian Way
Foundation Fellow

Julian was drawn to the The SecDev Foundation by the opportunity to help vulnerable communities in areas of fragility and support open empowerment through technology. Before joining the Foundation as a Research Fellow, Julian enjoyed a long working relationship with The SecDev Group.

Julian has conducted extensive field research in areas of security, policy, diaspora, and urban violence. His work and research has spanned Europe, Eurasia and Asia, and covers a range of topics from cyber and all-source intelligence to security and social policy, across themes of political violence and terrorism, identity-driven conflict, violent radicalization, and far-right extremism.

Julian’s work has been published in multiple languages and featured in the Small Wars Journal, Council on Foreign Relations, Canadian Global Affairs Institute, Newsweek, and Digital.Report, among others. Julian holds an MPhil from the University of St Andrews where he was a Ransome Scholar and an HBA from the Trudeau Centre for Peace, Conflict and Justice at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.

Below are examples of Julian’s work:

• Charting Out the Digital Ecosystem of Gangs in the U.S. and Mexico
• New Era In Eurasia: The Dawn Of Digital Politics
• Open Empowerment: From Digital Protest to Cyber War

Deirdre Collings
Co-Founder & Executive Director

Read her biography here.

Robert Muggah
Co-Founder & Senior Fellow

Beyond his role with The SecDev Foundation, Robert is also a principal of the SecDev Group; director of research of the Brazil based Igarape Institute, and senior lecturer at the Instituto de Relações Internacionais, Singularity University, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, the Center for Conflict, Development and Peace at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Switzerland, the Kroc School for Peace Studies at the University of San Diego and the University of Oxford. In 2013 he was named one of the top 100 most influential people in violence reduction and his work on new technology has been featured in the BBC, CNN, Globe and Mail, Guardian, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Wired. He also writes regular columns for the Atlantic, CBC, Huffington Post and o Globo.

Below are examples of Robert’s work:

• No Refuge: The Crisis of Refugee Militarization in Africa
• Stabilization Operations, Security and Development: States of Fragility
• Relocation Failures in Sri Lanka

 Taylor Owen

Taylor Owen is Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia, a Senior Fellow at the Columbia Journalism School. He was previously the Research Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University where he led a program studying the impact of digital technology on the practice of journalism, and has held research positions at Yale University, The London School of Economics and The International Peace Research Institute, Oslo where his work focuses on the intersection between information technology and international affairs. His Doctorate is from the University of Oxford and he has been a Trudeau and Banting scholar, an Action Canada and Public Policy Forum Fellow, the 2016 Public Policy Forum Emerging Leader, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and on the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). He is the Founder of the international affairs media platform OpenCanada.org, and he is the author, most recently, of Disruptive Power: The Crisis of the State in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2015) and the co-editor of The World Won’t Wait: Why Canada Needs to Rethink its Foreign Policies (University of Toronto Press, 2015, with Roland Paris), Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State (Columbia University Press, 2017, with Emily Bell) and The Platform Press: How Silicon Valley Re-enginnered Journalism (Tow Center 2017, with Emily Bell). His forthcoming book on Silicon Valley, journalism and democracy will be published by Yale University Press in early 2019. His work can be found at www.taylorowen.com and @taylor_owen.