Current Directors and Trustees

Honorary Officers

Professor Justin Willis

President

Justin is Professor in History at Durham University in the UK. His involvement with BIEA goes back to 1986, when he was a graduate attachee; he has subsequently served as assistant director, honorary treasurer, director, and vice-president for research.  Justin’s work has largely been concerned with questions of identity and moral authority in eastern Africa in the last two centuries.  He is the author of Mombasa, the Swahili and the Making of the Mijikenda (Oxford, 1993); Potent Brews: A Social History of Alcohol in East Africa (Nairobi and Oxford, 2002); and (with Nic Cheeseman and Gabrielle Lynch) The Moral Economy of Elections in Africa: Democracy, Voting and Virtue (Cambridge, 2021). He was one of the editors of The Sudan Handbook (2011).

Professor Gabrielle lynch

Vice President for Research

Gabrielle Lynch is a Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Warwick. She is the author of over 30 articles and book chapters, and author or editor of five books, including I Say to You: Ethnic Politics and the Kalenjin in Kenya (University of Chicago Press, 2011) and Performances of Injustice: The Politics of Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in Kenya (Cambridge University Press, 2018). She is the Deputy Chair of the Review of African Political Economy, and wrote a regular column in Kenya’s Saturday Nation (2014-2018) and The East African (2015-2017). Gabrielle participated in the BIEA graduate attachment scheme in 2003, joined the BIEA Council as an elected member in 2010, and was appointed Vice President/Research in 2019. 

Rt hon Mr Mark Simmonds

Vice President for Finance & Development

Rt Hon Mark Simmonds was The Foreign & Commonwealth office Minister with responsibilities for Africa, the Caribbean, UK Overseas Territories, International Energy and Conflict Prevention. He served as a Member of the UK Parliament for 14 years.  He was also a Senior Advisor to The Prime Minister David Cameron. He focussed on driving and facilitating inward investment into Africa and the Commonwealth across a range of key economic sectors including Hydrocarbons, Financial Services, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Energy & Agriculture. He has a huge knowledge of the economic and political composition of African Governments, countries and regions.  He Chaired the UN Security Council on two occasions. He is Chairman of Africa Oil Week “The Davos of Africa’s Hydrocarbon Industry” the link between African Governments and the Private Sector.  He also Chairs the African Oil Week Advisory Board. He is additionally involved in clean technology for the agriculture, healthcare, transport, energy & extractive sectors. He now has several international roles.  Including Senior Advisor to International Investigation Firm, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Global Investment platform, Invest Africa, Senior Advisor to a Global Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund, and Senior Advisor to a large UK based Family Office.  Advisor to a Large US Private Equity Firm & Advisory Board Member of the Commonwealth Investment Council. He also has roles with not-for-profit organisations, including as Honorary Vice President of Flora & Fauna International.  He is a Trustee of the British Institute in East Africa and Board Member of Engender Health. He is a Member of her Majesty’s Privy Council. Mark is married with three children.

Mr Vinod Mandavia

Treasurer

Vinod Mandavia was IT Director for a Mobile Phones and Sim Card distribution company since 1999. He started his career in Accounts and progressed his way through to the post of IT Director. He spent last 8 years developing and managing a bespoke Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution for the Company before his retirement.

After retiring from the commercial world in June 2022 Vinod joined BIEA as Honorary Treasurer.

Dr Rachel Ibreck

BIEA Director

Dr Rachel Ibreck joined the British Institute in Eastern Africa as Director in 2024. She is also Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Visiting Senior Fellow at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa. Rachel’s research explores strivings for justice, memory and rights in conflict and crisis settings within East Africa, and among refugees from the region. It considers the practices of multiple authorities, laws and actors, and local agency in relation to international interventions and norms, based on ethnographic, collaborative action, and archival approaches. Her projects include co-investigator on the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo-funded Traces of Mobility, Violence and Solidarity, Reconceptualizing cultural heritage through the lens of migration (2022-2025), hosted at the University of Milan. She is a co-editor of the Journal of Genocide Research. Her publications include a book, South Sudan’s Injustice System: Law and Activism on the Frontline (Bloomsbury, 2019), and articles in academic journals such as The Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, International Political Sociology, Memory Studies, Journal of Civil Society and African Affairs.