Five new members elected to ICCA’s Governing Board

ICCA is pleased to announce the election of five new members to its Governing Board who will take office on 1 April 2015.

The five new members are drawn from three continents, include two women, and include arbitration practitioners, the Secretary-General of a large arbitration institute, a former national court judge and a sitting judge of the International Court of Justice. The new members will join the 40-strong ICCA Governing Board, which is charged with governance of the renewed ICCA organizational structure launched in 2012 during ICCA’s Rio Congress. Members of the Governing Board are drawn from the ICCA general membership (which now numbers over 950), and are elected by the Governing Board.

The five members elected this week represent the inclusive approach identified as one of ICCA’s “Guiding Principles” by newly-elected ICCA President Albert Jan van den Berg in his acceptance speech during the ICCA Congress in Miami in April 2014. Prof. van den Berg identified four guiding principles – cooperation, expansion, mentorship and inclusiveness – noting with regard to inclusiveness that “We have heard much over the past few days about the desire for diversity, representation, and inclusiveness in international arbitration. ICCA should continue to strive hard to meet these goals.”

The five new Governing Board members are:

• Olufunke Adekoya (Nigeria) (Senior Advocate of Nigeria);
• Ellen Gracie Northfleet (Brazil) (former Justice of the Supreme Court of Brazil; attorney and arbitrator in private practice);
• Eduardo Siqueiros (Mexico) (Hogan Lovells BSTL, Mexico City);
• Jianlong Yu (China) (Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of CIETAC); and
• Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf (Somalia) (Judge of the International Court of Justice).

A list of potential candidates was compiled by ICCA’s Nominations and Membership Committee after canvassing all current Governing Board members for nominations. The Committee carefully considered the qualifications of each nominee as well as considerations respecting diversity found in Article 10 of ICCA's Bylaws. The Nominations Committee then recommended five candidates to the Governing Board for election, noting that “each exceeds the requirements of excellence and experience in international dispute settlement, and each brings various perspectives to the Governing Board that will complement the deliberations of the Board and the work of ICCA.”  The Nominations and Membership Committee is chaired by Meg Kinnear (Secretary-General of ICSID) and includes Teresa Cheng, Bill Slate and Johnny Veeder. Candidates were endorsed by ICCA’s Executive Body (comprised of Albert Jan van den Berg (President), Mohamed Abdel Raouf (Vice-President), Adriana Braghetta (Vice-President) and Guillermo Aguilar Alvarez (Treasurer)) and were elected on 4 December by a two-thirds majority of the ICCA Governing Board.

The election of five new members in 2015 is part of ICCA’s Transition Plan, which envisages the appointment of five new members annually through 2020.