Electoral Reform International Services (ERIS)

Keith Best has been Chairman of ERIS since 2007. He is the Chief Executive of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, and was Chief Executive of the Immigration Advisory Service from 1993-2009.

A barrister and former MP, he was awarded the Territorial Decoration after serving in airborne and commando forces, and left with the rank of major. He was formerly Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Wales and Director of Prisoners Abroad .

He is currently Chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Federalist Movement/Institute for Global Policy, which seeks improved international structures on federalist principles with observer status at the UN. He was also Chairman of the Association of Registered Immigration Advisers. He chaired the national charity the Electronic Immigration Network for ten years and is still a Trustee, and was formerly Chairman of the Electoral Reform Society (and still on the Council).

Eric Syddique is a former chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society and a former Liberal Democrat councillor on Sevenoaks District Council in Kent.

He is a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, and vice chairman of the UK's HS Chapman Society. He has written extensively for Voting Matters and Representation.

David Mathieson was educated as an engineer and information systems technologist, specializing in administrative systems, business processes, planning, and operations.He has worked as a consultant and IT Director with both commercial and public sector clients, in the UK, USA and EU countries.

He is a former party local chairman, elected District Councillor and was the founding treasurer of the UK Parliamentary Information Technology Committee. Since 1998 he has been a Director of ERIS, the International Services Division of the Electoral Reform Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and has run several election and voter registration projects in Africa.

Within ERIS he is responsible for finance, administration and IT.

Currently heading up international resourcing at Crown Agents, James was previously Director of Programmes at ERIS having been with the organisation since 2003. During his time at ERIS James headed the OSCE and EU election observation contracts, as well as developing the ERIS LTO training programme.

His first contact with ERIS was in 2001 when he joined an election supervision mission to Kosovo, and went on to participate in over 15 observation missions.

James now works on a range of projects at Crown Agents covering Health, Procurement, Supply Chain Services, Public Financial Management and Human Institutional Development for clients such as Department For International Development (DFID), the European commission (EC), the World Bank, Japan Overseas Development Agency (ODA), USAID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Angus is an Associate Partner with IBM's Global Business Services division. He has previously undertaken financial management roles in the Chemicals and Media/Entertainment Industries. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and an associate member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers. He has been an ERS member since 1988.

Dr Glentworth retired from the Department for International Development in February 2005 after 27 years with that organisation and its predecessors. Prior to 1978, Dr Glentworth was a lecturer with the Development Administration Group of the then Institute of Local Government Studies in the University of Birmingham. He had worked in junior capacities in Africa before that - Makerere University in Uganda and the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland then based in Roma, Lesotho.

Dr Glentworth played a major role in the build-up of the priority sector now known as "Governance" but which had a number of names before settling on Governance in the mid-nineties. It involves a wide range of subject areas: capacity building in public administration and local government; the development of political institutions including the whole electoral sequence; the Justice Sector - police, prisons and Rule of Law institutions; and increasingly the interface between security, politics and development.

He brings to the ERIS Board this wide-ranging background and experience and considerable knowledge of the workings of aid agencies and their priorities - including their strategies, plans and detailed project design intentions in the field of election support defined widely.

Dr Glentworth was awarded the OBE for services to governance development and public service development in the New Year's Honours List of 2006.

 

Dame Audrey Glover is a human rights lawyer who was formerly a Legal Counsellor at the FCO. During that time she was the UK Agent before the European Commission and Court of Human Rights.

Dame Audrey was seconded by the FCO as Director of ODIHR from 1994 to 1997. She then headed the UK Delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission from 1998 to 2003. More recently, Dame Audrey has headed the OSCE/ODIHR EOMs including those to Georgia and Azerbaijan (2010), Albania (2009), Italy and the US (2008) and Ukraine (2007). She has worked in Baghdad as a human rights adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Simon is a Director at Electoral Reform Services Limited.

Simon has seventeen years experience managing elections and consultations on behalf of many of the UK's major trade unions, private companies, government agencies, charities, local authorities and professional associations.

Simon has also worked overseas on various election projects (Armenia, Ghana, Cambodia, Kosovo) and was notably appointed as the "Electronic Voting Expert" to the EU Observation Team for the 2004 Venezuelan Parliamentary Elections.

Currently the University of Edinburgh's International Officer for the Middle East and Africa, Derek was previously Programme Manager at ERIS for two years and also worked for ERIS and The Carter Centre UK on the EC Bi-lateral Elections Programme for Liberia during the historic 2005 elections.

Derek has extensive experience with both EU and OSCE observation missons and has also worked in Private Office for the Scottish Executive in Edinburgh and for The Carter Center in Atlanta, GA.

Kaye Oliver was a member of HM Diplomatic Service until 2002. She spent sixteen years in Africa, including as Ambassador to Rwanda and Burundi and as High Commissioner to Lesotho. Since 2002 she has worked as an independent consultant and has evaluated a number of peace building programmes in Africa on behalf of the Department for International Development (DFID).

She has observed elections for the Commonwealth in Kenya, Nigeria and Swaziland, and for ERIS in Rwanda, Burundi and Zambia. Ms Oliver is a member of the Royal African Society, The Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) and of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region and Genocide Prevention (APPG).

Roger Wilson is an international development professional who previously worked for DFID. His experience includes governance as Chief Governance Adviser, country programme management (Malawi, Zambia & India); public service reform in UK and developing countries, structuring project financing with a merchant bank and commodity trading in the London commodity markets. He now works as a consultant on governance.