30 June 2022 – ArbitralWomen is pleased to announce the results of the election of its incoming Board of Directors for the 2022-2024 Term, which includes nine new members out of the 18 elected in June 2022.
The incoming Board of Directors selected Louise Woods, Partner at Vinson & Elkins in London, to assume the role of President of the Board, and Gaëlle Filhol, Managing Partner at Betto Perben Filhol, to assume the role of Vice President. As Vice President, Ms. Filhol will also assume the role of Chair of Young ArbitralWomen Practitioners (YAWP), ArbitralWomen’s young practitioner group launched by former ArbitralWomen Vice President Gabrielle Nater-Bass.
“I am honoured to have been selected to serve as President of the Board of ArbitralWomen and look forward to working with the diverse and talented women elected to the 2022 Board” said Ms. Woods. “We will miss Dana MacGrath, our outgoing President, who has done a fantastic job of leading the organisation over the past 4 years. I am very grateful to be joined by Gaëlle Filhol, as Vice President. She brings several years of experience on the Board of ArbitralWomen, having most recently served as Secretary. I look forward to working with Gaëlle and the rest of the 2022 Board as we continue the important work that ArbitralWomen does to support, promote and encourage women in international dispute resolution all over the world.”
“I am very grateful to have worked under Dana MacGrath’s leadership over the past four years. The organization has benefited tremendously from Dana’s energy and vision. I could see no better successor than Louise Woods, who is not only an accomplished lawyer but also a strong advocate for women in arbitration. I look forward to assisting Louise in her new role and continuing to promote women in arbitration” said Ms. Filhol.
The 2022 Executive Board also includes Gisèle Stephens-Chu, Founder of Stephens Chu Dispute Resolution, who will serve as Secretary, Marion Lespiau, Senior Director in the London Economic and Consulting practice at FTI Consulting, who will serve as Treasurer, Paris-based independent arbitrator and counsel Maria Beatriz Burghetto, who will serve as Communications Director, and co-founders Louise Barrington and Mirèze Philippe.
The incoming Board members are from many countries and include arbitrators, experts, and practitioners.
“It has been an honour and a privilege to lead ArbitralWomen for the last four years, and I wish our talented incoming Board a successful term ahead” said Ms. MacGrath, outgoing President of ArbitralWomen.
ArbitralWomen wishes to thank outgoing ArbitralWomen President Dana MacGrath, and the following 2020 Board members who are rotating off the Board for their hard work and dedication to ArbitralWomen’s mission to promote women and diversity in dispute resolution: Affef Ben Mansour, Juliette Fortin, Yasmine Lahlou, Amanda Lee, Patricia Nacimiento, Alison Pearsall, Rose Rameau, Donna Ross, Vanina Sucharitkul, and Erika Williams. We look forward to their continued involvement in our activities and initiatives as ArbitralWomen members.
“We are blessed to have had tireless, talented and dedicated Board Directors who contributed not only by continuing ArbitralWomen’s many projects, both old and new, but who also improved many signature ArbitralWomen programmes” said ArbitralWomen Co-Founders Louise Barrington and Mirèze Philippe.
Ms. Barrington and Ms. Philippe continued: “Under the leadership of Dana MacGrath, ArbitralWomen’s governance has become stronger and stronger, we are grateful for her work, day in day out. It is difficult to mention every Board Director, we are grateful to them all. We wish however to extend our profound thanks to two Executive Committee members who held very important roles: Juliette Fortin who served as Treasurer for eight years and Amanda Lee who served as Communications Director. We look forward to continued efforts with the new Board and the new members whom we welcome. We are delighted that Louise Woods as President and Gaëlle Filhol as Vice-President will continue bringing the organisation forward, thanks to the excellent experience they have gained on the Board in recent years”.
Please join us in congratulating the 2022 ArbitralWomen Board Members set out in the table below:
ArbitralWomen Board of Directors 2022-2024 Term
(new members indicated by an asterisk)
| Name | Nationality(ies) | City(ies) of Residence |
|---|---|---|
| Louise Barrington | Canadian | Hong Kong and Toronto |
| Katherine Bell * | British and Swiss | Zurich |
| Catherine Bratic * | American and Italian | Houston |
| Maria Beatriz Burghetto | Argentinian and Spanish | Paris |
| Elizabeth Chan | British and New Zealander | Hong Kong |
| Sally El Sawah * | Egyptian and French | Paris and Cairo |
| Gaëlle Filhol | French | Paris |
| Cherine Foty | American and French | Washington, DC |
| Nata Ghibradze * | Georgian | Munich |
| Sara Koleilat-Aranjo | French and Lebanese | Dubai |
| Floriane Lavaud * | French | New York |
| Alina Leoveanu * | French and Romanian | Paris |
| Marion Lespiau * | British and French | London |
| Mirèze Philippe | Lebanese and French | Paris |
| Rebeca Mosquera | American and Panamanian | New York |
| Nesreen Osman * | British and Sudanese | Dubai |
| Rekha Rangachari | American | New York |
| Gisèle Stephens-Chu | British and French | Paris |
| Mary Thomson * | British, Chinese, and Malaysian | London and Singapore |
| Louise Woods | British | London |
ArbitralWomen is an international non-governmental organisation for the promotion of women and diversity in international dispute resolution. For almost 30 years, ArbitralWomen has developed many programmes and opportunities to support and promote women in international dispute resolution as well serving as a leader in the efforts to overcome gender bias in the legal profession.
Of note is ArbitralWomen’s Diversity Toolkit™, a unique training programme designed to help practitioners identify bias and explore ways to address and overcome it, which was shortlisted for the Equal Representation in Arbitration (ERA) Pledge Award.
ArbitralWomen has a mentorship programme and a parental mentorship programme and regularly promotes the achievements and activities of its members in its News Alerts, on its webpage dedicated to news about its members, and in its periodic Newsletters.