Simon Haselock

Director

Simon Haselock is co-founder and Director of Albany Associates and a pioneer in media intervention in countries emerging from violent conflict.

Following the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in late 1995 and throughout 1996 he was the NATO Spokesman in Sarajevo. He stayed on in Bosnia from 1997 until early 2000 as Deputy High Representative for Media Affairs in the Office of The High Representative responsible for the public presentation of policy and media reform.

As Temporary Media Commissioner in Kosovo in 2000 he began the process of building the professional, legal and ethical structures necessary for the independent media to flourish there. He then served as the Director of Public Information for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) from 2001 to spring 2003 when he went on to head the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Media Development and Regulatory Advisory Team in Iraq.

Since co-founding Albany he has directed projects in Kosovo, Darfur, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Somalia. He is an Associate of the Program for Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCLMP) at Oxford University and served for 23 years in the Royal Marines attending the Royal Navy Staff College in 1986.

Dieter Loraine

Managing Director

Dieter Loraine is co-founder of Albany Associates. He has over 15 years experience of strategic communications, institution building and media and regulatory development. Prior to forming Albany he was Senior Consultant for Media Regulation with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Media Development and Regulation Advisory Team in Iraq. Between 2001 and 2003 he was Acting Deputy Director General and Director of Communications for the Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA) in Bosnia and Herzegovina – at the time, Europe’s newest converged regulator.

During his time with the CRA he also served as Special Adviser to the UK Press Complaints Commission. Dieter is credited with designing and establishing from scratch the Bosnian Press Council, the first of its kind in South East Europe.

Between 1998 and 2001 he held two senior positions as Director of Broadcast Licensing and Director of Public Affairs in the Independent Media and Broadcasting Commission in Sarajevo. Prior to working in the Balkans, Dieter ran a flourishing public relations company in the UK, following a very successful career in the Royal Marines, retiring in 1995 as Assistant Director of Public Relations for the Royal Marines in the UK Ministry of Defence.

Doug Griffin

Director

Doug Griffin is an expert in communications and media strategy, law and policy, particularly in conflict, post-conflict and transitional environments.

He is a lawyer with expertise in drafting important legal documents and assisting with the development of communications and media law and policy. He has significant experience communicating effectively with stakeholders, including the public, government officials and the international community, about key law and policy issues.

Examples of projects include drafting a media development strategy for Somalia with input from ministries, other stakeholders, the United Nations and UN agencies and donors; drafting key legislation and regulations concerning media and telecommunications in Iraq; training senior management of national regulators of broadcasting and communications and government officials; and providing comprehensive broadcast and other regulatory advice to communications regulators and government ministries in Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to joining Albany, Doug was in private practice with an international law firm in New York, Moscow and Paris.

Jem Thomas

Associate Director of Training and Strategy

Jem had a successful career in the Royal Navy, specialising in intelligence and then media and public relations. During this time he developed considerable operational experience in communications, including the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan and West Africa.

His recent years have seen him as the spokesperson for the EU in Bosnia-Hercegovina and as Chief Instructor at the UK MoD's Defence Media Operations Centre. Academically, he has Masters degrees in security studies and international relations and also a diploma in public relations. His experience and knowledge have resulted in his focus on public diplomacy, media relations, strategic communications, issue and crisis management, with a specific interest in communication aspects of foreign policy (national and intergovernmental) and post-conflict reconstruction.

He has specialised in training public affairs, instructing UN agencies, national governments and corporate clients. He is a communications consultant to the UK government’s Stabilisation Unit and Thomson Reuters.

Anna Staevska

Senior Associate

Anna is a Senior Associate in Albany Associates, currently responsible for the administration of donor funded projects in the Balkans, Middle East and North Africa; writing tender proposals; and identifying new business opportunities.

Anna developed and organised two very successful Master Classes in Broadcast Regulation in France and the UK where representatives of regulatory authorities from all over the world had the opportunity to exchange experiences and discuss broadcast regulation. Before joining Albany in 2007, Anna worked in the fund department of Standard Bank where she oversaw large investment projects.

Anna has a Masters Degree in International Trade, European Integration and Management from the University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic and Certificates in Financial Advice and Offshore Administration, obtained in the UK. Anna is a Czech national and speaks five languages.

Guy Gabriel

Senior Associate

Guy Gabriel is a Senior Associate with a particular responsibility for Sudan, a country he first visited a decade earlier and has been visiting ever since. He joined Albany in August 2010 to run a State Department-funded project that conducted outreach to the Arab and nomadic sections of Darfuri society.

Before joining, Gabriel spent 4 years with Arab Media Watch, a London-based organisation that monitors media coverage of the Middle East. Throughout his career, he has worked as a freelance journalist, with work appearing in various publications including al Hayat, al Quds al Arabi, The National (UAE), and Forbes (US), as well as a number of more specialised fora on Middle Eastern politics. In 2010 he was shortlisted for an International Media Council award for coverage of the Middle East.

Gabriel speaks French, Arabic (including script), and German, and holds a Masters from the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Matt Freear

Senior Associate

Matt currently shares his time between Nairobi and Mogadishu as part of Albany's project team on Somalia where he provides communications support to the African Union Mission. He previously worked for the Foreign Office on Afghanistan, first as the Head of Communications in the Embassy in Kabul, then in multi-departmental team in London, and finally with the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand.

Prior to that he was the Embassy spokesperson in Baghdad in 2006. He supported the Embassy in Washington DC in the lead up to President Obama's inauguration for a temporary posting as Acting Press Secretary. Previously Matt had a career as a government communications officer in the home departments of Whitehall including, most recently, 10 Downing Street.

Matt kick-started his career volunteering to support a candidate's campaign during the 2001 General Election and was also a Parliamentary researcher for an MP. He holds an undergraduate degree in Law and a Masters in Public Policy from University College London.

Justin Marozzi

Senior Advisor

Justin Marozzi is a writer, historian and strategic communications advisor with extensive experience working in and writing about many of the world's most challenging countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Burma, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Colombia, Lebanon and Syria.

In 2004, Justin established the world's first outreach programme operated by a security company in a conflict zone, a nationwide civil affairs programme that assisted the innocent victims of conflict. He was a senior communications advisor in Darfur, working with the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in 2008, and Mogadishu, where he has assisted the African Union mission.

In 2010 Justin was a senior advisor to the British government's Stabilisation Unit (SU) on strategic communications in the UK, Afghanistan, Haiti, Congo, Somalia and other crisis environments. The author of four books, he has written extensively about these overseas assignments for the FT, Times, Spectator and Standpoint, as well as broadcasting for the BBC. He holds UK government security clearance and is a member of the SU’s Civilian Stabilisation Group.

Wendy Witherstone

Finance Manager

Wendy Witherstone, the Finance Manager, joined Albany Associates in 2009. She is responsible for all the accounts including preparation of financial reports, management of the cash flow and project expenditure tracking and budget control as per the donor contracts.

With a degree in business studies, Wendy possesses more than 25 years accounting experience within the commercial sector for both small and international organisations and her services have included Albany Associates gaining ISO 9001:2008 status.

Joanne Smith

HR & Administration Manager

Jo Smith recently joined Albany Associates as Office Manager and covers all HR, Administration and Logistics operations for the company. Jo has a strong background of 16 years' experience in recruitment both in the UK and South Africa.

She most recently worked for a leading international recruitment company as head of the Marketing Recruitment Division.

Previous areas of experience include working within the corporate logistics industry for major international organisations.

Tina Kavadze

Marketing & Business Development Coordinator

Before joining Albany in 2011 Tina undertook an internship (2009-2011) at the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP, Stockholm, Sweden), where she was in charge of collecting and analysing political and economic data on Eastern Europe and Russia.

Furthermore, she played a key support role in editing and publishing an elaborate study of the Russo-Georgian War, entitled The Guns of August 2008, Russia's War in Georgia. While in Sweden Tina has also completed a Master’s Programme at Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden) with a specialisation in Eurasian Studies.

Her academic interest veers towards energy security with added emphasis on pipeline politics in Europe and Central Asia. She holds a BA degree in International Relations and Politics from University of Westminster (London) and she has completed her secondary education in College de Nicolas Bouvier (Geneva).

Marissa Moran

Research Associate

Marissa joined Albany in September 2011 and is also a graduate student at The London School of Economics, in the MSc Media, Communications, and Development programme.  She completed her Bachelor's in Political Communication and International Affairs, Peace and Conflict Studies at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 2010.

Her undergraduate thesis examined the role of media development projects in post-conflict Rwanda and Bosnia, emphasizing the need for media regulation and policy approaches in future post-conflict interventions.Past research projects include an assessment of international and local media coverage of conflicts in Darfur and the Gaza Strip.

From 2010-2011 she served in the U.S. community service network Americorps, coordinating secondary and post-secondary educational opportunities for low-income and immigrant youth. Previous positions include internships at Internews Network, GW's Global Media Institute, and the U.S. Senate. Originally from Connecticut in the U.S., Marissa's research interests include media regulation and new media policy issues in Africa and the Middle East.