We're Ambitious

Dr Scilla Elworthy, Founder

Three times Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her work with Oxford Research Group to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. She now leads Business Plan for Peace to help prevent violent conflict and build sustainable peace throughout the world, because it is possible; based on her latest books The Business Plan for Peace: Building a World Without War (2017), The Mighty Heart: how to transform conflict (2020), and The Mighty Heart in Action (2022).

Scilla founded Peace Direct in 2002 to fund, promote and learn from local peace-builders in conflict areas, was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 and advised Peter Gabriel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Richard Branson in setting up ‘The Elders’.

Scilla gives regularly gives keynote speeches and media interviews. For enquiries, please email: contact@planforpeace.org

Michelle Arnell, CEO
Michelle has worked with BPP throughout its early years of start-up, as Operations Manager and now as the CEO of Business Plan for Peace. She is a highly skilled project manager with a background in accounts, events and technical management.

Elizabeth Besa, Finance & Operations Manager
Elizabeth has worked in the charity sector for over 10 years, including for organisations experiencing rapid growth. She is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and is pursuing an MSc in Charity Financial Management.

Simon Hilditch, Communications Officer
Simon has several years’ experience managing communications strategies for a number of NGOs, including in the international development and human rights sectors and an academic background in conflict resolution.

Guy Nixon, Director

Guy Nixon is the founder and CEO of Native, one of the largest operators of aparthotels in the UK with current and pipeline buildings ranging from 11 to 258 apartments in most major UK cities. The highly successful brand was founded in 1998 after Guy identified ‘a new way to stay’ offering the amenities of a hotel and the comfort of home living.

Darshita Gillies, Director
Darshita is a millennial, born in Mumbai, India. After qualifying as ‘47th all-India rank’ Chartered Accountant she worked at board level of Standard Chartered Bank. She has now founded Maanch: the first and fast-growing global impact platform to facilitate funding to worthy projects using the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Tim Westwell, Director
Tim Westwell is a co-founder of Pukka Herbs where he was primarily focused on creating their purposeful commercial success. More recently, alongside his commitments to amplifying that business can be a force for good, Tim has started a regenerative small-holding converting it to organic, and now continues with his love of herbs and all things veggie by growing them.

Dr Madeleine Mosse, CEO for Plan for Peace
Madeleine has led grassroots peacebuilding projects in Kosovo and supported social cohesion organisations in the UK. She has written policy recommendations on social cohesion for local and national government. Madeleine is committed to supporting people at all levels of society to find creative and collaborative solutions to building peace.

Pelin Turgut, Communications Specialist

Pelin is a storytelling consultant and writer of Turkish/British origin. A lifelong belief in the power of stories informs her work. Founder of a popular independent film festival and a regional screenwriters lab with the Sundance Institute, she was also a long-time correspondent for publications such as TIME magazine and The Independent. She teaches storytelling at institutions such as The School of Life and Escape the City, mentors on various startup accelerator programs and works with values-led companies and founders on strategic storytelling. Pelin is also a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader. Her first book, Secrets of a Vanishing Country, came out in 2018.

Courtney Kotze, Communications & Social Media Lead

With over seven years of marketing and communication experience, Courtney is passionate about using her business development skills for good. After working closely with NPOs in South Africa, she is committed to making a change in communities on a global level.

Sarah Friederich, Facilitator

Sarah is an experienced facilitator based in Switzerland, specialising in designing and facilitating spaces for dialogue and social innovation. She is passionate about bringing people from different backgrounds, sectors and organisations together in order to develop a deeper understanding of societal challenges and new approaches to solving them. She has many years of experience in NPOs and social projects in the field of social and ecological justice in Switzerland and Bolivia.

Femke Ouendag, Facilitator

Femke is known as a bridge builder. With warmth, openness and humour, she brings harmony and lightness in the most shattered places. In her career in both media and politics, Femke has demonstrated authenticity and an unorthodox and empathic approach. She has managed teams of diverse groups of people, developing new ways to communicate and cooperate. As a HeartMath trainer and a Mighty Heart facilitator, Femke has found her soul’s calling; to build peace by creating a Mighty Heart-based world. Femke strives to empower others to also live from their hearts to create sustainable peace. “By listening and collaborating, we share our unique, authentic selves and celebrate our differences. In this way, we can take ownership of a shared agreement of peace together as one community.”

Dr Gertie Arts, Ministry of Defence, The Netherlands

Gertie has been working in the service of peace and security at the Ministry of Defence in The Netherlands for over 30 years as a manager, a diplomat and as a strategic advisor. As an active member of the Peace Leader network within the ministry, established by her colleague Christel van Mechelen, she regularly participates in shared sessions with her uniformed colleagues on trauma and healing. She sometimes facilitates workshops, with Paul Ingram (University of Cambridge), on the question of how uniformed colleagues can stay human and remain loyal to their profession as a soldier.

Bob Berg

Bob is Chair Emeritus of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, a collective of 120 leading organizations working on conflict prevention in a total of over 150 nations. Previously he was a senior advisor to UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.  He proposed and organized the first UN system-wide substantive initiative which led to the creation of the UN Chief Executives Board and set a pattern used in the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals.  He was also the founding director of evaluation at USAID and founding chair of evaluation for the OECD/DAC

Lord Des Browne, former Labour Defence Secretary

Lord Browne of Ladyton is a British Labour politician. He held ministerial posts in the Northern Ireland office, the DWP, the Home Office, the Treasury, the MOD and the Scotland Office.  He served in Cabinet positions as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Secretary of State for Scotland.  A member of the House of Lords since 2010, he is also vice-chair of the Washington-DC-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, an NGO that works to reduce the threats posed by nuclear and other WMD and disruption.  Lord Browne also is the chair of the Executive Board of the European Leadership Network and is a trustee and board member of other charitable organisations

Mohamed El Ashry

He was founding chair/CEO of the World Bank’s Global Environment Facility, the world’s largest environmental funder, and served for nine years. He’s a senior fellow with the UN Foundation, and has also served as chief environmental adviser to the president and director of the Environment Department at the World Bank, as senior vice president of the World Resources Institute (WRI), and as director of environmental quality at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

Tamar Guttmann

Tamar leads the Coalition for Impact, a unique network of social impact (investing) networks and foundations, which aims to collaborate toward an inclusive financial system in which all business and investment serves humanity and the planet, by inspiring, encouraging and enabling the mobilization of trillions of USD. She frequently hosts and moderates impact events, such as the PYM Women Wealth Matters sessions, focused on encouraging and educating women of wealth on impact investing and philanthropy. Tamar also sits on the Advisory Board to Princess Irene of the Netherlands’ non-profit organisation, Berglaas. Tamar is passionate about the intersection of arts and social impact. She founded the non-profit organisation New Amsterdam Jazz in 2020, which supports the jazz scene in the Netherlands.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Liberian politician and economist who was president of Liberia (2006–18). She was the first woman to be elected head of state of an African country. Johnson Sirleaf was one of three recipients, along with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karmān, of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Peace for their efforts to further women’s rights.

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC

Helena Kennedy is a leading barrister and an expert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues. She is a member of the House of Lords and chair of Justice – the British arm of the International Commission of Jurists. She is a bencher of Gray’s Inn and President of the School of Oriental and African studies, University of London. She was the chair of Charter 88 from 1992 to 1997, the Human Genetics Commission from 1998 to 2007 and the British Council from 1998 to 2004. She also chaired the Power Inquiry, which reported on the state of British democracy and produced the Power Report in 2006.

Sir Mark Rylance

Widely regarded as one of the greatest stage actors of his generation, Sir Mark Rylance has enjoyed an esteemed career on stage and on screen, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Rudolf Abel in Steven Spielberg‘s Bridge of Spies (2015). He is also the winner of 2 Olivier Awards and 3 Tony Awards, as well as a BAFTA for his role in The Government Inspector. His film appearances also include Prospero’s Books (1991), Angels and Insects (1995), Institute Benjamenta (1996), Intimacy (2001), and Spielberg’s The BFG (2016).

Ravi Venkantesan

Ravi is currently spearheading a massive initiative to create livelihood opportunities for 50 million youth in India. He is also a special expert to UNICEF on youth initiatives.  Previously he was Chairman of Baroda Bank (the second largest bank in India), CEO and Chair of Microsoft India (the largest foreign operation of Microsoft), and CEO of Cummins Engine, India.  He is a major champion in India for corporate philanthropy.

Ting Xu

Ting was invited by the Center for Strategic International Studies as a visiting fellow at its Pacific Forum in Honolulu. She was formerly senior fellow and senior project manager with the Bertlesmann Foundation. She is co-founder of Axios international consulting in Hong Kong, which provides geopolitical risk analysis and business strategy consulting, particularly for companies operating in China.

Agata Dutkowska

Agata Dutkowska’s academic background is in fine arts and social studies. For the last ten years she has been working with women, helping them to create sustainable businesses as the CEO of the Flying School. Before that she was an international facilitator working for several leadership programs in Eastern Europe helping changemakers create meaningful projects. The Flying School is known in Poland for its cutting-edge events that are celebrations of feminine power and wisdom.

Lisa Barnwell

Lisa is dynamic, entrepreneurial and innovative. A change-agent, coach, facilitator and trainer with 20+ years catalysing transformation at the individual and organisational level she helps leaders reconnect to their emotions, release resistance & reset for growth. The founder of Leadership Redesigned and creator of a 90 day program supporting male leaders, Lisa brings warmth, wisdom and candour to work quickly at depth. Trauma informed and a warm conversationalist she has hosted conferences and online summits and speaks regularly on leading differently.

Julia Latscha

Julia is a systemic Coach for Transformation Facilitation and an author based in Berlin. Her focus lies in group, team and conflict facilitation based on process-oriented psychology according to Arnold Mindell and Max Schüpbach.

She works as a freelance writer and texter for companies committed to social participation in the community. In 2017, “Lauthalsleben”, her first book in German, was published. On top of this, Julie was the co-founder and deputy chairperson of a foundation for education, “Stiftung Bildung” in Berlin.

Kawtar El Alaoui

Kawtar El Alaoui. LL. B, PCC is a global conscious leadership coach, facilitator and mentor. She is the Founder and CEO of Conscious Togetherness, Inc., a Trained True Purpose® Coach, Faculty and Mentor with Leadership That Works India, Facilitator with the Business Plan for Peace in the UK, and Leadership Advisor with She Did It! Ell a osé! In Canada.

In all her work, Kawtar stands for a world where everyone can live in dignity and peace. She uses her gifts to support changemakers in reaching their highest level of impact for the communities they serve.

Fritz Lensch

Fritz shares his discoveries from the transpersonal dimension and guides the practice of ancient truths within the modern context. He teaches privately, at The Transmission School in Tuscany, and at other organisations and centres around the world. He previously worked as a professional dancer and investor. His teachings today facilitate peace and freedom on The Way of Enlightenment.

Caroline has facilitated, coached and trained coaches and leaders for the last 20+ years with hands-on executive experience as a senior leader from the Virgin Group together with consulting and interim management experience globally. She has hands-on experience working at senior levels in entrepreneurial business contexts and having lived and worked internationally (UK, South Africa, USA, Australasia, India) diversity and inclusion is a very ‘felt’ sense. Her work involves supporting leaders at all levels of an organisation with skills around resilience and connects deeply with the principles of the Mighty Heart.

Eliane is a Master Certified Coach by ICF (MCC), a Team Coach and a Heartmath Certified Coach with great experience coaching C-suite executives including the Board of Directors. She will draw on her experience delivering transformational courses for companies such as Ford, HSBC and Colgate and supporting HR executives to master the skills of coaching to ensure all who invest in the Mighty Heart in Business program understand the power of leading from their Mighty Hearts and what that looks like within the reality of today’s fast-moving and highly pressurised workplaces.

Aleka has worked as a journalist and editor in communication media in Latin America and as a consultant in new narratives
for public and private organizations. Since 1999, she has been promoting initiatives, and collaborating with change agents networks all over the world. In 2014, she co-created Hypatia Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes Female Leadership, Regeneration and Spiritual Intelligence to accelerate the transition from an Anthropocentric Culture to an Ecocentric and Compassionate one. Currently, she is dedicated to disseminating the Intelligence of the Heart as an essential tool to address our global challenges such as Climate Change, Economic & Social Gaps and AI.

Richard is a leadership facilitator, coach and mentor. Working with individuals and small teams, he challenges and encourages them to embrace eco-systemic approaches, with a heart-centred openness to listen to and learn from each other. Richard’s career background includes business process re-engineering in more than 15 European businesses. Richard is a graduate (BA) in Modern Languages and is a trained Mighty Heart facilitator. He continues to deliver mentoring, leadership and transition programmes in long-term partnerships with Mowgli Mentoring and Help For Heroes, for which he also continues to volunteer as a mentor. He is a board advisor to Unifying Fields Foundation and also a trustee for the London Sports Trust.

Katerina is a pioneer and changemaker, with over 20 years of corporate experience as a Solicitor, CAMS-certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist and the Head of Global Compliance at a multinational organisation. Katerina’s personal commitment to eradicating modern slavery and human trafficking was the driving force behind the establishment of Step Up Stop Slavery.  Katerina is also a speaker, writer, facilitator and mentor.

Serena is a peacebuilder and facilitator who brings her insights from the frontlines of conflict to support organisational leaders to create cultures of peace. As the former Country Director of Search for Common Ground Nepal, the world’s largest peace building organisation, she has a profound understanding of the complexities and challenges involved in promoting peace and facilitating social change. She has created groundbreaking media programs including the TV episodic drama Madame Prime Minister, which redefined politics and leadership with heart, viewed by 3 million+ people and is used as a model to teach incoming political leaders in Nepal. She has served on the global leadership body of Creators of Peace, a network of women peacebuilders in 20 countries, and has supported leaders and changemakers in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Indonesia, Australia, and Europe. Serena trains facilitators in the art of transformational facilitation using tools that work whether it be in boardrooms, war zones, or women’s circles. She is passionate about the Mighty Heart and its role in awakening us to the power of the heart in business.