Crisis Group announces next President & CEO Jean-Marie Guéhenno

Crisis Group is pleased to announce Jean-Marie Guéhenno will be the organisation’s next President & Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Guéhenno served as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations from 2000-2008, and in 2012, as Deputy Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on Syria. He left his post as Deputy Joint Special Envoy to chair the commission that prepared the white paper on French defence and national security in 2013. He is currently a professor and Director of the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University.

“This is an exciting moment for the organisation. I have worked with Jean-Marie for many years both when he was head of peacekeeping at the UN and as a fellow Trustee of the Crisis Group. All of us at the organisation are thrilled that after an extensive global search Jean-Marie has emerged as our new leader. With tragic new conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa, the insights and conflict prevention strategies of Crisis Group are needed more than ever. I can think of no better champion and leader for our work and our people”, said Board Co-Chair Lord Mark Malloch-Brown.

Mr. Guéhenno will assume his new post on 1 September. Crisis Group’s long-time Board member, Ghassan Salamé, will take up the role of Acting President during the interregnum.

Effective 1 July, Crisis Group also reconstituted and added six new members to its Board of Trustees – Hushang Ansary, Wolfgang Ischinger, Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, Olympia Snowe, Jonas Gahr Støre and Margot Wallström – and Mr. Salamé succeeded Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering as Board Co-Chair, alongside Mark Malloch-Brown.  Crisis Group would like to warmly thank Ambassador Pickering for his leadership as a Board chairman over the past 8 years.

“I am honoured to take on the role of Co-Chair for this important organisation, and I very much look forward to working with Jean-Marie in his new capacity. He will bring years of distinguished leadership experience to the post and under his direction I am confident that Crisis Group will enter its 20th year stronger than ever”, said Mr. Salamé.