Meet our team

Our dedicated and professional team brings a diversity of expertise, approaches and perspectives. Meet its members below.

Sebastian Brixey-Williams

Executive Director
Risk Reduction | Nuclear Disarmament | International Organisations

View Sebastian's work
Dr Gry Thomasen

Senior Policy Fellow and Programme Manager, Risk Reduction Programme
NATO-Russia | Risk Reduction | Non-Proliferation

View Gry's work
Chris Spedding

Growth and Impact Manager
Emerging Technologies | Futures and Foresight | Disarmament

View Chris's work
Dr Chiara Cervasio

Policy Fellow and Programme Manager, Nuclear Responsibilities Programme
Nuclear Diplomacy | Trust-building | Asia-Pacific

View Chiara's work
Kim Obergfaell

Policy Fellow and Programme Manager, Inclusive International Security
Risk Reduction | NATO & Nuclear Deterrence | Nuclear Disarmament

View Kim's work
Alice Spilman

Policy Fellow
Non-Proliferation Treaty | Nuclear Diplomacy | Nuclear History

View Alice's work
Eva-Nour Repussard

Policy Fellow
Strategic Stability | Nuclear Strategy | Emerging Technologies

View Eva-Nour's Work
Anahita Parsa

Policy Fellow
Nuclear Diplomacy | Nuclear Disarmament | Global Nuclear Order

View Anahita's Work
Laura Rose Brown

Policy Fellow
Gender | Nuclear Order | Disarmament

View Laura Rose's work
Falguni Patel

Operations and HR Manager
Operations | Human Resources | Communications

View Falguni's Work
Mhairi McClafferty

Policy Fellow
Nuclear Diplomacy | Humanitarian Impacts | Gender

View Mhairi's Work
Declan Penrose

Policy Fellow
Nuclear Disarmament | Gender | Non-Proliferation

View Declan's Work
Dr Lisa Vickers

Policy Fellow
Risk Reduction | Gender | Disarmament

View Lisa's Work

Our Non-Resident Fellows

Professor Nicholas J. Wheeler

Non-Resident Senior Fellow
Trust Building | Security Dilemma | Nuclear Order

View Nicholas' Work
Richard Reeve

Non-Resident Fellow
Human Security | Dialogue | Geopolitics

View Richard's Work
Dr Rabia Akhtar

Non-Resident Fellow
Non-Proliferation | Nuclear South Asia | International Security

View Rabia's work

Our Board

Dr Andrew Cottey

Chair

Andrew Cottey is Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Integration at University College, Cork. He previously worked at the Dept of Peace Studies, University of Bradford; the EastWest Institute; Saferworld; and BASIC. 

Peter Jones

Treasurer

Peter is a Chartered Accountant and Vice President for Corporate Strategy at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Joanne Skolnick

Board Member

Joanne Skolnick is an international lawyer, qualified in England and Wales, New York and Canada. She has worked as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York as well as in private practice. She also assists charities and non-profit organisations in the UK and US.

Laicie Heeley

Board Member

Laicie is the founder and editor of Inkstick and the host and executive producer of the PRX- and Inkstick-produced podcast, Things That Go Boom. She is also a Partner with the Truman National Security Project.

Dr Togzhan Kassenova

Board Member

Togzhan is an expert on nuclear politics, WMD nonproliferation, strategic trade controls, sanctions implementation, and financial crime prevention. From 2011 to 2015 Kassenova served on the UN secretary general’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.

Ambassador Thomas Hajnoczi

Board Member

Thomas is the Former Head of Disarmament Department in Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Former Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Austria to the United Nations in Geneva.

James Madeley

Board Member

James is an experienced Human Resources professional and currently is HR Director for Portland, a communications company. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Helena Harding

Board Member

Helena is a Non-Executive Director with executive and board level experience and a specialist in organisational development and programme leadership. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and a Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management. She has worked within both blue chip PLCs and the public sector, including Radioactive Waste Management Limited (RWM), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Daniel Johnson

Board Member

A respected growth marketing expert, Daniel Johnson excels at boosting startups and established firms. As a BASIC Board Member, he uses his diverse innovation and public relations skills to advance their mission: protecting humanity and the environment from nuclear and security threats and fostering a safer, more secure world.

Angela Kane

Board Member

Angela Kane is a former United Nations diplomat with over 35 years of deep experience in political affairs, peacekeeping, disarmament, and management. She is a Professor at Schwarzman/Tsinghua University in Beijing and a Senior Adviser at the Nuclear Threat Initiative in Washington, working on catastrophic global risks. She is also Vice President of the International Institute for Peace in Vienna and Senior Fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation. In 2022, she was appointed by Prime Minister Kishida of Japan as Member of the International Group of Eminent Persons for a World without Nuclear Weapons.

Stuart Casey-Maslen

Board Member

Stuart Casey-Maslen is Extraordinary Professor of International Law at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He researches and teaches disarmament law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law. He holds a doctorate in international humanitarian law and master’s degrees in international human rights law and in forensic ballistics.

Paul Carroll

Board Member

As the Director of the Charity & Security Network, Paul Carroll is responsible for overall organisational management of the network, its staff, and strategy setting with respect to its issues and policy advocacy. He spent seventeen years at the Ploughshares Fund, a public foundation that works to eliminate the risks from nuclear weapons. More recently, Paul served as the Director of Nuclear Security Partnerships at N Square, a funders collaborative that seeks to foster innovation and collaboration into the nuclear security sector.