The CIArb Young Members Group’s new chair and vice chair announced

30 Jan 2019

The CIArb Young Members Group (YMG) is delighted to introduce its new chair - Ronan O'Reilly and vice chair - Athina Fouchard Papaefstratiou.

Ronan is an associate in the White & Case's dispute resolution group in London. His practice involves both commercial litigation and international arbitration and covers a variety of sectors including energy, telecommunications, and financial services. Previously, Ronan served as Vice-Chair of the CIArb Global Young Members Group. He succeeds Amanda Lee (Seymours Solicitors) who chaired the YMG for two years.

On his appointment, Ronan said “I’m honoured to be appointed Chair of the CIArb YMG. I’m excited about the new role and looking forward to working with Athina to promote the Chartered Institute and engage with its young members globally. I’m fortunate to have the support of a dynamic and enthusiastic global steering committee, which recently welcomed several new members from across the globe. Amanda was a great ambassador for the group and I plan to work hard to emulate her success.”

Athina is an Of Counsel in Eversheds Sutherland's litigation group. She specialises in international commercial arbitration, investment arbitration and public international law. She also has significant experience in Africa-related arbitration.

YMG Global Steering Committee has also welcomed five new members: Elizabeth Rainbow Willard (USA), Sebastiano Nessi (Switzerland) Laura McEwen (Scotland), Dharam Jumani (India) and  Peter Anagnostou (UAE).

CIArb’s Director of Communications and Membership, Neil Newman added:

“The Young Members Group brings together dispute resolution practitioners below the age of 40 and students interested in building their careers in ADR. The YMG has experienced significant growth since the beginning of 2016 as the Membership increased by 38%. As a result, YMG  has now more than 4,000 members which is an indication of the value placed on CIArb membership by young practitioners. As membership has grown, the number of local YMG groups around the world has also increased. In the last two years, new local YMG groups have been set up in Kenya, North America and South Africa, with more due to launch in the nearest future. Furthermore, in 2018 the YMG launched the YMG Ambassador Initiative which gives members in the regions without a local YMG group an opportunity to contribute to the work of CIArb. YMG Ambassadors are currently engaged in the initiatives in Brazil,  France, Ghana, India, Indonesia and Zambia.  Growing our network of young practitioners is a key part of our strategy”