PRESS RELEASE | 11 Mar 2020

Andrew Gilmour appointed new Executive Director of the Berghof Foundation

The Board of Trustees of the Berghof Foundation today is pleased to announce the appointment of its new Executive Director, Andrew Gilmour.

A British national, Gilmour has recently stepped down from the United Nations after 30 years. He was the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights from 2016 to 2019, and prior to that was the political director in the office of the Secretary-General in New York. He has served the UN in senior positions in numerous conflict zones, including Iraq, South Sudan, the Middle East, the Balkans, Afghanistan and West Africa.

“We are truly delighted that Andrew Gilmour will be joining us,” said Johannes Zundel, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Berghof Foundation. “Not only does he have huge experience working in sensitive conflict environments, and at the highest levels of the UN. But he also comes with impressive and relevant academic qualifications.” With a top prize and masters degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics, Gilmour was later an Adjunct Fellow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., and last year was awarded a Visiting Fellowship at All Souls College Oxford.

“We are convinced that with his major field experience, his political background, his management experience and his academic and journalist credentials,” said Zundel, “Gilmour is the ideal person to lead the Berghof Foundation into its 50th anniversary, in 2021, and beyond.”

Andrew Gilmour, who is married with four children, is from Scotland and will take up his functions at the Berghof Foundation next month.

The Berghof Foundation is an independent, non-governmental and non-profit organisation supporting people in conflict in their efforts to achieve sustainable peace through conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Based in Berlin, the organisation is run by a diverse team of more than 100 professionals, collaborating on the ground with partners in selected regions around the world.