Senior Management

John Marks - President and Founder
John Marks is President and founder of Search for Common Ground, an international conflict prevention NGO headquartered in Washington and Brussels, with offices in 17 countries. He also founded and heads Common Ground Productions, which produces radio and television programming around the world to help prevent and transform conflict. He wrote and produced The Shape of the Future series of TV documentaries, which was aired simultaneously on Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab satellite television - something that had never been done before. He is a best-selling, award-winning author and in 2006 was awarded a Skoll Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship.

Susan Collin Marks - Senior Vice President
Susan Collin Marks is a South African who served as a peacemaker and peacebuilder under the auspices of the National Peace Accord during South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy. Her book on the South African peace process, Watching the Wind: Conflict Resolution during South Africa's Transition to Democracy, was published in the United States and South Africa in 2000, and in Jordan in Arabic in 2004. She speaks, teaches, writes, facilitates, and supports peace processes and conflict resolution programs internationally. She serves on multiple boards and as a Senior Associate of the International Conflict Resolution Program at Columbia University. She was a 1994/5 Jennings Randolph Peace Fellow at the United States Institute for Peace.

Sandra D. Melone - Executive Vice President
Sandra Melone has been at Search for Common Ground since April 1995, and has served as our Executive Vice President since February 2008. Previously, she served as our Executive Director (from August 2004); established our Brussels headquarters (formerly the European Centre for Common Ground) and founded our Women's Peace Centre in Burundi. Before coming to SFCG, she worked in human rights advocacy with Amnesty International and in international education. Sandra has given numerous presentations and led workshops on: conflict prevention, resolution and transformation; mediation; negotiation; consensus-building; facilitation; and cross-cultural communication. She has appeared on CNN, BBC, and the Voice of America and has written articles on: the media and conflict resolution; the role NGOs can play in the field of Track II diplomacy and reconciliation; and the complementarities of governmental, non-governmental, intergovernmental and private sector initiatives. She is a founding member of the European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation (EPCPT) and of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO). She has served on the Board of the Fédération des Associations Internationales en Belgique (FAIB); and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) - formerly, the Alliance for International Conflict Prevention and Resolution (AICPR). She studied at the University of Chicago and Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. She speaks French, English, German and Romanian; and is a citizen of France, the United States and Romania.

Steve Utterwulghe - Vice President, International Development
Steve Utterwulghe, a Belgian and Canadian citizen, has years of experience in the Brussels, Washington and Luanda offices of Search for Common Ground. He was Angola Country Director for over 3 years during and after the war, and then became the Executive Director of the European Headquarters in Brussels. Steve also worked at the European Commission in Brussels, in the Development Directorate-General's East and Southern Africa Division where he managed post-genocide rehabilitation funds for Rwanda. He spent time in Sudan working for the Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and at UNDP. Finally, he served as the President of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office, the largest alliance of peacebuilding organizations in Europe. Steve has published articles on conflict management, forced displacement and human rights in European, American, Middle Eastern and African academic journals and newspapers. He received his Masters degrees from the London School of Economics as well as Tilburg University (The Netherlands) and Louvain University (Belgium). He earned a Post-graduate diploma from Cooremans Business School (Belgium). He speaks French, English and Portuguese fluently and has excellent knowledge of Spanish, Dutch and Italian. He has lived in 8 countries and worked or traveled in more than 55.

Frances Fortune - Director, Africa Programmes
Ms. Fortune is Director of SFCG's Africa programmes. Directing operations in the seven country programmes in the regions of West Africa and the Great Lakes, she is responsible for fundraising and growth, strategic and transitional planning, and operations and compliance. Working with a team spanning the continent, Ms Fortune is responsible for an overall strategy that ensures that opportunities for societal transformation and positive social change are maximized. Ms Fortune is a Canadian and has lived for over 23 years in Africa. She has hands-on and management experience in peacebuilding, media and communications, community outreach, education, field research, programme evaluation, fundraising and donor relations. Prior to SFCG she worked for a variety of development agencies including GTZ, Conciliation Resources, Government of Sierra Leone’s Structural Adjustment Support Programme, and CUSO (Canadian volunteer organization). She has a BSc from Queen's University in Kingston, Canada and is working on her Master's in Conflict and Peace Studies from Royal Roads University in British Columbia.

Carole Frampton - Director, Institutional Learning Team
Ms. Frampton's role is to help catalyze the expertise available throughout the organisation, providing technical expertise and leadership on specific issues to our different programmes. Ms. Frampton brings 10 years of experience as a facilitator and trainer in Africa and the United States. She started her career at the Centre for Conflict Resolution in Cape Town, where she facilitated dialogue on community issues and developed training programmes for civil society and political leaders. She joined Search for Common Ground in 1999 as Director of its Women's Peace Centre project in Burundi. After a short stint in the private sector, she re-joined the organisation in 2002, at its Washington headquarters. Ms. Frampton holds a degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute for International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as a Masters in Gender Studies from the University of Geneva.

Jack Deeds - Chief Financial Officer
Jack Deeds came to Search for Common Ground in October 2006 and serves as its Chief Financial Officer. Jack oversees the international financial operations of the organization operating in 16 countries with approximately 40 finance staff. His duties include finance policies and procedures, working with volunteers, and management of the worldwide information systems. Jack comes to Search with over 30 years experience in finance, operations, and information technology and most recently served as VP Finance, Technology and Administration for United Way International. He graduated from the University of Maryland, worked as a CPA, and has extensive leadership, finance, and information systems training and experience. Jack is a fellow of the Greater Washington Society of CPA’s.

Lisa Shochat - Director of Operations
Lisa Shochat has been at Search for Common Ground since December 1998, and has served as our Director of Operations since March, 2008. Lisa has over 13 years of experience in providing Administrative Services to Conflict Resolution organizations. Before working with SFCG, Ms. Shochat worked as mediator/ facilitator for the Center for Resolution of Environmental Disputes and administered mediation training through the Institute for Study of Alternative Dispute Resolution in California. She holds a M.A. in Sociology from Humboldt State University, a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and is certified in mediation. Her research has included programs in Burundi, Macedonia, Hungary, Mexico and The United States.

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