Members of Trade & Investment
Ben Hayes
Ben Hayes is a TNI fellow who has worked for the civil liberties organisation Statewatch since 1996, specialising in international and national security and policing policies. Ben also works as an independent researcher and consultant for organisations including the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, Cordaid, the Heinrich Boll Foundation, the European Parliament and European Commission.
Ben's research has two main focuses: (i) the impact of counter-terrorism, surveillance and border control policies on democracy, human rights, civil society and international development, (ii) the influence and activities of the defence and security industries.
Ben has a PhD from Magee College (Derry/Londonderry) awarded by the University of Ulster in 2008. He is currently working on a book on climate change and international security for TNI.
Cecilia Olivet
Cecilia Olivet is a political scientist who specialises in the European Union's trade and investment agenda, the international investment regime and regional integration issues. Cecilia is Uruguayan, has a BA degree in International Relations from Universidad de la República in Uruguay and an MA in International Politics and East Asia from Warwick University, UK. In 2005, she joined TNI where she contributes to the Economic Justice, Corporate Power and Alternatives team with research, analysis, campaigning and network facilitation. She coordinates the initiative People's Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms (PAAR) and is involved in the work of networks such as Seattle to Brussels (S2B), Our World is not for Sale (OWINFS) and Bi-regional Network Europe-Latin America Enlazando Alternativas.
Cecilia is currently a member of a Commission established by Presidential decree to audit Ecuador's bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and investment arbitration cases. The new commission, known by its acronym CAITISA, was formally launched in October 2013.
Dot Keet
Dot Keet is a South African academic and activist involved in many national, African and international networks resisting corporate "free trade" agreements. She is an active member of the national South African Trade Strategy Group (TSG) and the Southern African Peoples Solidarity Network (SAPSN), the key coordinator of the Southern African Social Forum (SASF); as well as the continent-wide Africa Trade Network (ATN); and the international Our World is Not for Sale (OWINFS) network.
Hilde van der Pas
Hilde van der Pas joined the 'Economic Justice, Corporate Power and Alternatives' programme in July 2011. She has a BA degree in journalism and a MA in International Relations from the University of Amsterdam.
Pietje Vervest
Pietje Vervest has specialised in the European Union's trade and investment agenda, the international investment regime. Recently she moved to working more on agrarian justice issues. She is also one of the co-founders of the Burma Center Netherlands, where she is still active. She was connected to XminusY for over 20 years and sits on the board of Ander Europa. Pietje is Dutch and studied Economic Anthropoloy at the University of Nijmegen where she developed an Asianfocus. She joined the TNI in 1992 in what originally was the Philippine Project – looking at EU policies towards the Philppines. In teh last 20 years this project grew into what is now called the Economic Justice Programme.
Susan George
Susan George is one of TNI's most renowned fellows for her long-term and ground-breaking analysis of global issues. "How to win the Class War - The Lugano Report 2" is the newest of her sixteen widely translated books. She describes her work in a cogent way that has come to define TNI: "The job of the responsible social scientist is first to uncover these forces [of wealth, power and control], to write about them clearly, without jargon... and finally..to take an advocacy position in favour of the disadvantaged, the underdogs, the victims of injustice."
