International council members

Anil is a freelance consultant based in Nepal. He has extensive experience in governance, organisational development, human rights campaigning, conflict management and human-rights based development programming.  From 2012 and 2018, he served as the Director of Amnesty International’s Movement Support Program and from 2009 to 2012 as the Director of Global Campaigns Program in London, United Kingdom. Prior to that, Anil served as the Head of Governance of ActionAid International in Johannesburg, South Africa. Anil was also a member of Amnesty’s Global Standing Committee on Organisation and Development in 1999-2003 that advised the International Board on organisational development matters. He worked in the field of human rights, development, governance and conflict management in Nepal before moving on to undertaking international positions.  

Ms. Vermeer brings over 20 years of global operational leadership experience in international development. From 2017 to 2020, Ms. Vermeer served as Chief Financial Officer for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). Ms. Vermeer has extensive experience overseeing multi-site financial operations, including ensuring the integrity of accounting processes, internal controls, financial planning, reporting and analysis, budgeting, treasury, payroll, contracts and grants, information technology, mergers & acquisitions, and program finance. As CFO, Ms. Vermeer was instrumental in transforming IFES’ day-to-day business operations ($70 million) from paper-heavy, labor-intensive, HQ-centric, and expensive to efficient and effective by introducing automated workflows (using amongst other, DocuSign), devolving decision making and introducing a risk-based approach to the management of ~30 local country offices. She also transformed IFES back-office (Finance, Procurement, IT, Accounting) into a dynamic, highly capable and client centric team with a can-do attitude resulting in enhanced service delivery, high quality outputs and access to reliable financial information for decision making. Ms. Vermeer served for ten years with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in numerous financial and operational roles in her native Suriname, Switzerland, USA and Belgium. In Belgium, Ms. Vermeer served as the Chief Operating Officer for WWF’s flagship program, the Global Climate & Energy Initiative (GCEI).
Ms. Vermeer is currently serving on the Boards of Directors for Consumer Reports, Climate Advisers Trust, Muslim Advocates and Peace Brigades International.

Marc is a commercial engineer who worked as auditor for PwC Belgium and was lecturer of Cost Accounting at Brussels University. He fulfilled different management functions in development NGO’s such as Oxfam Belgium, Ecolife and Forum Ethibel/Vigeo. In 2010, he co-founded NewB, the new sustainable, ethical cooperative bank in Belgium. In addition to being on PBI’s International Council, Marc is also a member of the Finance and Audit Committee.

Oscar Gómez Córdoba

Oscar is a psychologist, social researcher and human rights activist with extensive experience in providing psychosocial accompaniment to victims of socio-political violence. He has carried out this work in Colombia and Latin America, leading community-based organisations to defend human rights and advocate for victims’ rights to truth, justice and reparation. Oscar is currently a consultant on human rights and lives in the United Kingdom.

Shane Guthrie (Secretary) 

Shane has worked and volunteered in peace and human rights for 35 years. He was a field volunteer in the Indonesia Project of Peace Brigades International (PBI) from 1999 to 2002. He has since supported PBI in logistics, training, and human resources management, in Kenya and in its international governance. He also worked with human rights organisations in Indonesia on capacity building and strategic communication. In Australia, he worked as a social justice researcher for several parliamentarians. He currently works in community development for people with disability. Shane has a Master of Development Studies, focused on human rights protection.

Sonia Di Mezza (Vice-President)