IMI Team

Laura Skillen

Executive Director (Part-time)

Laura runs IMI’s daily operations and strategic planning, engages external stakeholders for fundraising and communications, works on IMI projects and initiatives, and manages and develops IMI’s IT infrastructure and websites. She brings a wealth of experience from the private and public sectors, where she has worked in corporate governance, project and portfolio management, and IT. Originally from Australia, Laura is presently based most of the year in Brussels, where she is undertaking a full-time PhD in International Relations. She holds degrees in management and in politics and international relations, and has a Masters degree in EU External Relations. Feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn or ResearchGate.

Angela Herberholz

Co-Founder and Director of the Young Mediators’ Initiative

Angela Herberholz is an enthusiastic event and exhibition professional passionate about sustainable conflict management. She is an accredited and experienced commercial and workplace mediator who volunteers her free time to support newly trained professionals and promote mediation globally. Co-Founder and director of the Young Mediator’s Initiative (YMI), Angela animates YMI passionately since 2010. Established under the umbrella of the International Mediation Institute (IMI), YMI successfully connects newly trained mediators with one another, offers a professional platform to exchange ideas and shares valuable research and news around mediation. YMI also facilitates interaction with experienced mediators through the IMI-YMI mentoring framework. Born in Germany and living in France, Angela worked at the ICC International Centre for ADR and teaches mediation and negotiation to law and business school students.

Amee Dharamshi

YMI Operations Manager

Amee is a qualified lawyer from India and holds a professional accreditation with the ICSI. She attained LLM in Arbitration and Dispute Resolution from the University of Hong Kong, and completed the 40-hour mediation training approved by the Hong Kong Mediation Accreditation Association Limited.

Emma Keir

Co-Founder of YMI

Emma (Ewart) Keir was Operations Manager of the International Mediation Institute from 2009 – 2017 and is a founding member of the YMI team. Previously she was Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive and Commercial Director, and General Office Manager of Resolex, a London-based dispute resolution institution. Prior to Resolex, Emma was the Personal Assistant to London-based Barrister Andrew Burr, at the time Chairman of the European Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and Editor of the Construction Law Journal. Emma is based in New Zealand.

Past interns and volunteers

Myrto Pantelaki, Current Affairs intern Jan-Aug 2019. Myrto conducted research, collating EU legislation pertaining to mediation, creating briefs on developments on mediation, and investigating investor-state mediation.
Zoheb Mashiur, Editorial intern Jan-Jun 2019. Zoheb assisted the editorial team with writing, editing, and producing content for the IMI blog, including conducting interviews.
Ruxandra Gheorghe began as intern in Mar 2018; she progressed to Contributing Editor and Fundraising Assistant in Dec 2018; she then acted as Projects Officer – Outreach until August 2019. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruxandra-gheorghe-5a70a97b/
Ishana Tripathi acted as GPC India Correspondent for several months in 2018. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ishana-tripathi-65b14361/
Nicklas Boehm, intern Mar-Dec 2018. Nicklas applied his WordPress skills to fix links to resources on the IMI and former GPC sites, reported on CDRC Vienna as part of the social media team, and provided some assistance to YMI. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicklasboehm/
Michael Valdivieso, IMI Intern Mar-Sept 2018. Michael was chiefly responsible for updating events on the IMI website. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-valdivieso-319996bb/
Erica Miller (Nov 2017-Apr 2018); Ampeire Petrina Bereije (Nov 2017-Apr 2018)