Peter Marsden

Background

About Peter Marsden

Peter is Chief Executive of peacebuilding charity, Concordis International, and is a mediator and a former child protection lawyer. He’s responsible for Concordis’ work in Central African Republic, Chad, Cameroon, Mauritania, Sudan and South Sudan, helping women and men affected by armed conflict to find workable solutions to root causes of their grievances. Peter’s passion is to bring people together who would not normally meet, helping them to transform destructive conflict into a future-focused collaboration, to their mutual benefit. The Concordis team seeks to change incentives where conflict is fought and felt, increasing the economic and social benefits of peaceful coexistence, whilst also increasing the disincentives to violence. Much of this work involves training local peacebuilders from across the conflict divides - who better to do this work than those who know intimately the history, politics and culture; people who will be part of these communities long after Concordis has left? Peter left legal practice in 2007 and took a Masters in International Development at the LSE. He then served for three years as Director of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East. He organised peace talks in Iraq and Lebanon between high-level Iraqi religious leaders from across the sectarian divides, resulting in a joint Sunni-Shia fatwa against suicide bombing. When he’s not working, Peter would prefer to be in the hills, running, climbing, skiing or cycling.