Rachel Gasser studied at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and at UC Berkeley, USA. She holds a Master in International Relations from the Graduate Institute. After working as a Political Affairs Officer with the United Nations in New York, she joined Swisspeace Mediation Program in July 2011. From 2008 to 2011, she was with the UN Department of Political Affairs, working on Myanmar, as part of the team supporting the UN Special Adviser, Mr. Gambari and then on Somalia, focusing on piracy. Previously, she was part of the Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations (CASIN) in Geneva, where she designed and implemented training programs for diplomats from Afghanistan, Iraq and DPRK. She has also lead research on global issues for CASIN. In 2006, Rachel was Adviser on human rights and humanitarian affairs for the Swiss Mission to the UN. She started her career by joining UNHCR where she worked in a refugee camp at the border between Iraq and Jordan in 2005.

Sara Hellmüller holds a licence in international relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and a MA with a focus on human security and negotiation / conflict resolution from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston, USA. She wrote her Master Thesis on gender and race based humiliations during apartheid in South Africa and analyzed potential approaches to their healing and their effects on current levels of violence. During her studies, Sara Hellmüller taught at a kindergarten and worked in an orphanage in South Africa, interned with a local NGO in Mongolia, was a trainee at the Swiss Embassy in Nigeria and a volunteer at the African Division of "terre des hommes" in Geneva. After graduation, she worked as an intern with UNDP in East DR Congo. Sara Hellmüller joined swisspeace in December 2009 as a project assistant to the Mediation Support Project.

David Lanz holds a licence in international relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and an MA with a focus on negotiation and conflict resolution from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston, USA. At swisspeace, he works with the Mediation Support Project as well as managing the Sudan Platform. He was previously a research officer with the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), and he has experience as an election observer with the Carter Center in the context of the 2010 elections in Sudan.

David Lanz is also a PhD candidate at the University of Basel as part of the ProDoc Programme on Global Change, Innovation and Sustainable Development funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. His doctoral research examines the role of norms in international relations with a focus on the international response to the Darfur conflict. He has published on different aspects of the Darfur conflict and on the politics of international intervention in civil wars in Africa.

Matthias Siegfried is heading the Mediation Program of swisspeace. He graduated from the University of Fribourg and holds two Master degrees (Master in Social Sciences; Executive Master in Business Administration for non-profit management). After having worked in the humanitarian field (Caucasus, Central Asia) he joined the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in 2003 as their Regional Peacebuilding Advisor for South-Eastern Europe. Based at the Swiss Embassy in Macedonia, one of the key tasks during his assignment in the Balkans was the management of the political mediation and facilitation initiatives of Switzerland in the Balkans.

From 2005 to 2009, Mr. Siegfried was leading the Mediation Support Project at swisspeace with the mandate to build up the mediation capacities of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. In this function he was also the Co-director of the annual "Swiss Peacebuilding Training Course" and the "Peace Mediation Course".

From August 2009 until July 2010 he was working for the Mediation Support Unit (MSU) of the United Nations (Department of Political Affairs) in New York as a Political Affairs Officer. He was heading MSU's Asia team and was in charge for developing and implementing mediation support activities in this region. In addition, he was in charge of the development and management of a Mediation Expert Roster. Currently, he is also serving as the Mediation Advisor to a Personal Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations in ongoing peace negotiations. He also is an Associate Fellow of the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP).

Anna Hess Sargsyan works at the Mediation Support Project at the Center for Security Studies ETH. Anna holds a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University, New York City, a Master of Arts in Political Science from the American University in Armenia, a Certificate in International Mediation and Conflict Resolution from the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Holland and a Bachelor's Degree in English and Area Studies from Yerevan State Linguistic University.

Anna has extensive experience in strategy development, risk assessment, research, training coordination and delivery, workshop management and educational development. As part of the official Swiss contribution to the NATO Partnership for Peace program, she has designed and conducted capacity-building trainings in international security for both military and civilian professionals in more than 20 countries in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia. Prior to joining the Mediation Support Project at the Center, Anna worked as Co-president of the Association Switzerland Armenia in Bern, training manager at the International Relations and Security Network at ETH Zurich and a management consultant at the GAP International Inc., in Philadelphia, USA.

Simon J. A. Mason is a senior researcher and head of the Mediation Support Team at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) ETH Zurich. He has been working in the "Mediation Support Project" since 2005 and in the "Culture and Religion in Mediation" (CARIM, supported by the Swiss FDFA) project since 2011.

Simon holds a Doctorate in environmental science from ETH Zurich and is a trained mediator, accredited by the Swiss Mediation Association SDM. Between 2002 and 2004, he co-organized a series of dialogue workshops between Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Sudanese on cooperation in the Eastern Nile Basin. Simon has contributed to training workshops on conflict, negotiation, and mediation for people living in conflict contexts (e.g. Sudan and Palestine) as well as at various policy related and academic institutions (e.g. Addis Ababa University, the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources, the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies in Malta, the United Nations, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and at the ETH Zurich). Within MSP, he was involved in coordinating a conflict resolution training workshop for one of the Darfur movements. He also co-organizes the peace mediation course of the Swiss FDFA.

Sabina Alejandra Stein is completing a Master's degree at the ETH's Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS) with a special focus on conflict studies. She holds a BSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Sabina recently joined the Mediation Support Project (MSP) at the Center for Security Studies, ETH-Zurich. Before joining the MSP, Sabina worked as a research assistant at the CIS' European Politics Chair and the CIS' International Conflict Chair. Sabina has also worked as a communications assistant at the UNDP Office in Geneva; as a research and communications assistant at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development; and as an assistant analyst at Innovest Strategic Value Advisors.