On the 8th November, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that he had invited Inter Mediate’s CEO and founder Jonathan Powell to serve as his National Security Advisor, coordinating all UK foreign policy, security, defence, Europe, and international economic issues from 10 Downing Street. Jonathan has accepted and will step away from Inter Mediate to take up this role on 2 December 2024.
Jonathan Powell founded Inter Mediate in 2011 to use his experience as chief British negotiator in the talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement and its implementation to help other leaders in the world’s most complex conflicts to seek lasting peace agreements. Under his leadership, Inter Mediate has played a central role in successful peace agreements in Africa, Europe, and Latin America that saved thousands of lives and eased humanitarian suffering for millions. Today, the IM team works on four continents to help keep the hope of peace alive through quiet dialogue channels and support to sensitive negotiation processes.
Jonathan has left a remarkable legacy that Inter Mediate will now take forward. We wish him well in his next challenge: helping to guide the UK’s role on the world stage in these turbulent times.
The Trustees are delighted to announce the appointment of Claire Hajaj to the role of Executive Director of Inter Mediate with effect from 2 December 2024.
Claire joined Inter Mediate in 2018, first as Policy Director and then as Deputy CEO, steering organisational strategy and playing a leading role in Inter Mediate’s key projects.
Claire started her career working on conflict resolution and negotiations at the United Nations Security Council in 2002 with the UN Counter Terrorism Committee. She has spent more than 20 years with the United Nations contributing to humanitarian, political, and security negotiations in some of the world’s most challenging conflict zones, including in Lebanon, Kosovo, Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Her experience ranges from negotiating community-level access for vaccinators in extremist-dominated regions on the Afghan-Pakistan border to supporting the UN Special Representative in Iraq during the height of the post-war insurgency, to negotiating a landmark stabilization agreement between the UN and Lebanon during the Syria conflict and refugee crisis. Since joining Inter Mediate, she has led the organisation’s support on conflicts from Haiti to Gaza and developed wider peace partnerships including with the International Leadership Centre at Yale’s Jackson School.
Sharing Palestinian and Jewish heritage, Claire has written and spoken widely on the Arab-Israeli conflict and global conflict response policy. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek, the Sunday Times, The New Statesman, The Economist, and Granta, and for the UN Centre for Policy Research. She is the author of two novels, the first of which, Ishmael’s Oranges, was shortlisted for the Author’s Award and the JQ Wingate Prize. She is also a trustee for UK for UNHCR.
Claire will now lead Inter Mediate’s team of talented negotiation and conflict resolution specialists in their mission to bring peace closer for those who need it most.