IMI Independent Standards Commission

The Independent Standards Commission establishes the criteria, standards and related materials for IMI Certification. Its members, who are all thought leaders in the mediation field in their own right, contribute their time and expertise in their personal capacities and their views are not necessarily representative of the organizations with which they are affiliated.

Role of the IMI Independent Standards Commission

The IMI Independent Standards Commission has been convened by IMI for several governance purposes:

• Providing advanced thought leadership
• Setting high competency standards for mediators
• Reviewing and approving programmes to qualify mediators for IMI Certification
• Ensuring continuing quality control of approved programmes
• Monitoring the IMI Code of Professional Conduct
• Appointing assessors to review Code of Professional Conduct complaints
• Proposing and approving enhancements to IMI's Vision and Mission.

Chair Judith P. Meyer

Vice-Chair Christopher Honeyman

Mediator; Co-Editor of The Negotiator's Fieldbook; Managing Partner, Convenor Conflict Management; Madison WI & Washington DC

Vice-Chair Geoff Sharp

Commercial Mediator and Barrister; former Chair of the New Zealand Law Society ADR Committee; Member of the LEADR Advanced Panel and the Specialist Panel of Mediators of the AMINZ; Member of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre Panel of Mediators; Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators; LEADR Australasia Fellow; Wellington

Kehinde (Kenny) Aina

Co-Chair, African Mediation Association; Founder, The Lagos Multi-Door Courthouse and Negotiation & Conflict Management Group; Partner, Aina Blankson, LP; Lagos 

Professor Nadja Alexander

Editor, Global Trends in Mediation; Author, International & Comparative Mediation (2009); Professor of Mediation and Conflict Resolution at City University of Hong Kong;  Adjunct Professor of Law at Murdoch University, Australia; Honorary Research Fellow at University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.  

Claude Amar

Secretary General, Académie de la Médiation; President, Institut Français de Certification des Mediateurs;  Paris 

Helena de Backer

Member, Belgian Federal Mediation Commission; Chair, UIA Mediation and Conflict Prevention Commission; Vice-Chair Brussels Business Mediation Center;  Founder, DS De Backer & Bastin; Brussels

Adolfo Braga Neto

Vice-Chair, National Council of Mediation and Arbitration Institutes of Brasil (CONIMA); Chairman of the Board, Brasilian Institute of Mediation & Arbitration (IMAB); member of the Steering Committee, World Mediation Forum; Mediator and Trainer; São Paulo

John Brand

Attorney and ADR specialist at Bowman Gilfillan Attorneys, South Africa, practicing CEDR accredited commercial and employment mediator, director of Conflict Dynamics cc, director of Tokiso Dispute Resolution (Pty) Ltd., member of the advisory Board of the African Centre for Dispute Settlement (ACDS), co-Chairperson of the African Mediation Association and co-author of "Labour Dispute Resolution" published by JUTAS; Johannesburg

Kathleen A. Bryan

President & CEO, The International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR Institute); New York, NY

Andrew Burr

Adjudicator, Arbitrator and Barrister, Atkin Chambers; Past Chairman, European Branch, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; General Editor, Construction Law Journal (Sweet & Maxwell); Assistant Editor, Delay and Disruption in Construction Contracts (Informa); London

Kenneth Cloke

President, Mediators Beyond Borders; Director, Center for Dispute Resolution; Mediator, trainer and lecturer; Author of many books including: Mediating Dangerously, Conflict Revolution and The Crossroads of Conflict; Santa Monica, California

Professor Dr. Renate Dendorfer

Director and Founder of the Business Mediation Program at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University; Member of the German Bar Association's Dispute Resolution Committee; Mediator, Mediation Trainer, Arbitrator and Partner of HEUSSEN Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, Munich

Christian Duve

Head of the German Bar Association's Dispute Resolution Committee; Partner, Freshfields; Frankfurt

Karen Erwin

President of The Mediators' Institute of Ireland and Council Member of the Irish Commercial Mediators Association; Founder & Principal, Erwin Mediation Services; Dublin

Ulrike Gamm

Mediator, organisational development consultant, trainer; founder and managing director of Konfliktkultur – Kulturkonflikt, Vienna; co- founder of the International Summer School on Business Mediation, Austria

Thierry Garby

President, Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) World Forum of Mediation Centres; Paris

Constantin-Adi Gavrilă

Director, Craiova Mediation Center;  Past President, Mediation Centers Union of Romania; Bucharest

Ewa Gmurzynska

Director, Center for American Law Studies at Warsaw University (program of University of Florida); Co-director and lecturer, Center for Amicable Dispute Resolution at Warsaw University Faculty of Law; Vice President, Council for ADR Dispute and Conflict Resoltution at the Polish Ministry of Justice; Mediator; Warsaw

Professor Dwight Golann

Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School; Boston 

Rafael Guillermo Bernal Gutierrez

Director, Bogotá Chamber of Commerce Arbitration and Conciliation Centre

Margaret Halsmith

Chair, LEADR;  Member, National ADR Advisory Council (NADRAC); Director & Principal Mediator, Halsmith Consulting Pty Ltd; Perth

Sophie Henry 

General Manager, CMAP - Centre de Médiation et d'Arbitrage; Paris

Joanna Kalowski

International Mediator and Trainer;  Former Chair of LEADR;  Sydney

Grellan Kelly

Champion, Young Mediators Initiative; Accredited Mediator; Business Consultant,  to Shannon Development (an Irish Government Agency);  Dublin

Jeremy Lack

Representative of the Swiss Chamber of Commercial Mediation (Section Romande), Geneva;  Partner, Etude Altenburger, Geneva;  Door Tenant, Quadrant Chambers, London;  Counsel to Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer; New York, NY

Professor Joel Lee Tye Beng

Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

Michael Lind

CEO, ADR Group; leader of the innovative projects with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Institute of Charted Accountants in England and Wales, President of the Bristol Law Society; UK

Alicia Lloreda

Member of the Board of Directors, International Trademark Association (INTA) and Chair of INTA's ADR Committee;  Partner, José Lloreda Camacho; Bogota

Rafael Lobo Niembro

Mexico Chair, Mediation Sub-Committee, US-Mexico Bar Association; Founding President, Mediation Association of Nuevo León; Vice President, Mexican ADR Association; Co-Director for Mexico of the USAID-ABA Project "Mediation in Mexico"; Partner, Lobo & Graham Law Firm and Alinea Consultores SA de CV. Monterrey; Mexico

Ian Macduff

Practice Associate Professor and Director, Centre for Dispute Resolution, School of Law, Singapore Management University

William Marsh

Founder Member, Independent Mediators;  Director, Conflict Management International;  Former Executive Director, CEDR; London

Beatriz Martorello

Mediator registered in Argentina;  Chair of the Procedural and Civil Law Commission and Chair & Founder of the Mediation, Negotiation and Conciliation Center, Inter-American Bar Association (IABA);  Chief Attorney, Beatriz Martorello Law Firm;  Buenos Aires

Deborah Masucci

Vice President and Director of Dispute Resolution, AIG Domestic Claims; New York, NY

David McCutcheon

Executive Board Member and Past President, ADR Institute of Canada Inc;  Partner, Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP; Toronto

Professor Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Professor of Dispute Resolution & Civil Procedure, Georgetown University Law Center; Washington DC 

Hon. Judge Jean A. Mirimanoff

Sectretary-General, Swiss Section, European Grouping of Judges for Mediation (GEMME); Geneva 

F. Peter Müller

Second Vice President, European Communities Trade Mark Association (ECTA);  Member of the Board of Directors, International Trademark Association (INTA) and former Chair of INTA's ADR Committee;  President of the Mediation Association of German Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys;  Member of the Council of the European Communities Trade Mark Association (ECTA);  Partner, Müller Schupfner & Partner; Munich

Tina Monberg

Author, Handbook of Human Conflict Technology;
Director, mediationcenter a/s; Copenhagen

Robert M. Nelson

Mediator & Arbitrator; Founder, NelsonADR; Author, Nelson on ADR; Ottawa

Miryana Nesic

Co-Author of Mediation – Principles, Process, Practice; Independent mediator, trainer & assessor; Visiting ADR Professor at Nottingham Law School, England and Adjunct Professor at Bond University; Australia

Hon. Justice Machteld Pel

Vice President, Court of Appeal of Arnhem; Director, Court-Annexed Mediation Agency for the Netherlands Judiciary; Mediator and Mediation skills trainer;  The Netherlands

Giuseppe de Palo

International Professor of ADR Law and Practice, Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul;  Chairman of Board, ADR Center; Rome

Carol Powell

Chair, LEADR New Zealand; member, LEADR Accreditation Committee; mediator and trainer; Editor, ADR section New Zealand Law Journal; Auckland

Philip Ray

Senior Counsel, Energy Sector/Legal, Siemens AG; Erlangen

David Richbell

Commercial mediator and trainer; Author of Mediation of Construction Disputes; former Director of Training of CEDR and founder member of MATA; London

Manon Schonewille

Author, Toolkit Series;  Executive Director, ACB Group;  Director of the ADR Centre for Business Foundation; The Hague 

Dr. Tsisana Shamlikashvili

President, Scientific and Methodological Center for Mediation and Law; CEO, United Mediation Services of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs; editor-in-chief, “Mediation and Law. Intermediation and Conciliation”; CEDR Accredited Mediator; Moscow

Professor Tania Sourdin

Professor of Conflict Resolution, University of Queensland; member, NADRAC; Sydney

Allan J. Stitt

President of ADR Chambers and the Stitt Feld Handy Group. Mediator, arbitrator, negotiation consultant, international trainer and ADR systems design specialist; Toronto

John Sturrock QC

Chief Executive, Core Solutions Group Ltd, Edinburgh;  Visiting Professor of Advocacy Skills & Conflict Resolution, University of Strathclyde

Hannah F. Tümpel

Manager, ICC Dispute Resolution Services, Paris

John Upchurch

Mediator;  President, Upchurch Watson White & Max; Daytona Beach, FL

Leonardo d'Urso

Chief Executive, ADR Center; Rome

Mary Walker

Barrister;  Mediator;  Chair, Law Council of Australia ADR Committee,  Sydney

Professor Nancy A. Welsh

Professor of Law, Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University

Professor Michael A. Wheeler

MBA Class of 1952 Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School

Anil Xavier

President, Indian Institute of Arbitration & Mediation; Kerala

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