Mr Depagne is Africa Deputy Director at International Crisis Group, where he coordinates and oversees the research and publications on West Africa, Central Africa and the Sahel. He was previously the organisation’s Senior Analyst for Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso and West Africa Project Director, covering Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea.
Before joining Crisis Group in 2008, Mr Depagne worked as a journalist, specialising for the past 30 years in Africa and, in particular, West Africa. He has worked for various French newspapers and international radio stations and TV channels, including the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Canal +. He spent 15 years in West Africa, living in Benin, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal and travelling in most of the Ecowas countries.

Estelle is a recognised leader in the nexus of human rights, nature and minerals. She combines her commercial acumen, innovative thinking and experience in public affairs and transformational change to guide governments, industry and multistakeholder initiatives to create just, sustainable and valuable minerals value chains. Estelle provides strategy, policy, research, due diligence, assurance, and stakeholder engagement advisory to help Levin Sources’ clients design, implement and evaluate strategic initiatives to improve business performance and sustainability outcomes. Estelle serves as a Commissioner for the Global Investor Commission for Mining 2030, chairs the Investing in African Mining’s Sustainability Committee, and is an active member of the Women in Mining UK’s Policy Committee.

Mr Staley has 40 years of practical and management experience in mineral exploration and the mining of a wide range of commodities and mineralisation styles. He began his career as a geologist with major companies in Australia and has since held global, regional and country leadership positions with mining and mining service companies. His extensive experience includes projects in Australia, Zambia, Congo-Brazzaville and South-East Asia in which he led – or was part of – exploration teams engaged in the discovery, definition and evaluation of world-class mineral projects. Mr Staley has also been accountable for business development and the sales of services and technical solutions to mineral resource companies in all geographies.

Dr Vines is Research Director for Regions and Risk, and Director of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, having led the programme since 2002. Previously, he has held roles at Chatham House as director for regional studies and international security, and director for area studies and international law. He chaired the UN Panel of Experts on Côte d’Ivoire from 2005 to 2007, and was a member of the UN Panel of Experts on Liberia from 2001 to 2003. Dr Vines was also a member of the Commonwealth Observer Group to Nigeria in 2023 (Mozambique in 2019 and Ghana in 2016) and a UN election officer in Mozambique (1994) and Angola (1992). He worked at Human Rights Watch as a senior researcher on its Africa, Arms and Business and Human Rights programmes, and has served as a consultant including for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); JICA, DFID, USAID, the EU and for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Dr Vines is also an assistant professor at Coventry University, and sits on the editorial and advisory Boards for the South African Journal of International Affairs, Africa Review (journal of the African Studies. Alex holds a PhD from Coventry University.

Marcena has been at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime since 2013. While Marcena’s work has covered a wide scope of material and geographic spread, her current portfolio of work focuses on extractives-related crime, in particular gold-related crime, illicit financial flows and development impacts and responses to organized crime. She has conducted and managed research projects on the gold mining sector across West Africa, regularly publishing on regional mining dynamics and supply chains. Work includes the development of a toolkit on how to assess illicit financial flows linked to artisanal and small-scale gold mining. Marcena’s past work includes analysing migration flows, access to justice, gender issues, and security sector and criminal justice reform.

Liam is the CEO of MS Risk Limited, a British security and crisis response consultancy.  He is a former combat arms officer in the Canadian Armed Forces and intelligence officer with the British Army.  Previously he was the Head of Risk Management and Security for the international division of Tesco plc.  He formed MS Risk two decades ago and the company works in support of insurers, financiers and natural resources companies on an international basis.  MS Risk has worked continuously in the Sahel region for the last 18 years providing consulting, project management and crisis response services to clients.  Liam is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and in 2023 he was awarded a Doctor of Science (hc) by Brunel University for his crisis negotiation doctrine.

Dr Warnes is a Senior Consultant with Vedette Consulting and has a broad range of experience in the fields of international relief and human rights, counter-terrorist policing, military operations and defence research. He regularly writes and lectures on aspects of both terrorism and irregular warfare. He previously served as an NCO in a Field Intelligence Team in Bosnia and as a Detective in the Metropolitan Police Special Branch and Counter Terrorism Command, before working for RAND Europe as an analyst in the Defence and Security group. Working as a civilian contractor, he was part of a team conducting in-country evaluations of a security capacity-building programme for local forces in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2008-2014. Dr Warnes has a PhD on human factors in effective counter-terrorism and an MA in criminal justice.   

Dr Lori-Anne Théroux-Bénoni is Director of the Institute for Security Regional Office for West Africa, the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin. She leads a team of researchers from Dakar to Ndjamena working on key policy issues in the region such as violent extremism and terrorism, political instability, community conflicts, organized crime, peace operations and political processes. Before being appointed director in 2014, Lori-Anne worked as a senior researcher and analyst for the ISS, the Network on Peace Operations at the University of Montreal, Canada and the Carter Center in Côte d’Ivoire. Lori-Anne has a PhD in anthropology from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Gideon Ofosu-Peasah is an analyst on the GI-TOC extractives team and the Observatory of Illicit Economies in West Africa. His work focuses on extractive industries, illicit economies, and organised crime. Before joining GI-TOC, he was an expert panel member on the political economy analysis of Ghana’s extractive sector and a steering committee member of the Media Coalition against Galamsey. He received his PhD from the University of Energy and Natural Resources, Ghana.

H.E. Berenice Owen-Jones is a career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), she has previously served overseas as Australia’s Ambassador to Morocco and has had postings in Paris.

In Canberra she served as Director, Diplomatic Academy and Director, Diplomatic Security Branch. She also was a strategic analyst at the Office of National Intelligence.

Berenice speaks French and holds a Bachelor of Economics (1984) and a Diploma of International Law (1987) from the Australian National University.