Quintin Oliver
Teaching
Quintin Oliver is a conflict resolution specialist with four decades successful experience from the voluntary, statutory and private sectors working at all levels of government, based in N. Ireland, working internationally. Oliver co-founded, with Ryan Gawn, his political consultancy Stratagem International, sister to N. Ireland’s first and only specialist public affairs agency, Stratagem NI; he applies a range of skills and experiences that equip organisations with the confidence to navigate their own course in the stormy waters of change. Educated in Belfast and at the University of St Andrews (MA 1977), Quintin’s commitment to continuous learning has seen further qualifications in management (Diploma, Open University 1993), and Strategic Company Direction (Diploma, Institute of Directors, 2007).
He enjoys close and productive relations with political parties as an adviser, lobbyist and researcher; he teaches women politicians across parties on the DemocraShe programme and often facilitates incoming and outgoing delegations studying N. Ireland's process with briefings, organised interaction with key players and debriefings; he has undertaken many strategy sessions, frequent evaluations and project design assignments. Change and impact are the watchwords.
He has lectured and delivered high quality training on five continents, at 33 Universities, several Institutes, including the world-leading Clingendael Institute (NL) and Sturzo Institute (It) and has written widely on conflict and development topics, translated into many languages.
Professional
He has worked for local government (Strathclyde Regional Council, as welfare rights adviser, 1977-1984), as director of leading NGO, Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (1985-1998) and as the principal of Stratagem (1998-present) and Stratagem International (2010-present).
Oliver’s international motivations saw his involvement in the creation of the European Youth Forum (1978) and the European Anti-Poverty Network (1991-1995) to which he was elected by his peers as first president. He was honoured by Irish President Mary Robinson through personal selection to sit as her adviser on the Council of State of Ireland (1991-1998). He served as chair of the Secretariat to the Opsahl Commission (1991-1993), a seminal contribution to the NI peace process, in which he has been active for the past quarter century. In 1998 he set up and ran the successful cross-party and non-party “YES” Campaign in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement Referendum.
His conflict resolution and civil society mobilisation specialities began with anti-apartheid work in the 70s, NGO activity in the in the 80s, (including supervising academic research on SA, Israel-Palestine and N. Ireland in the 90s (published as ‘Mobilizing for Peace’ by Oxford University Press, 2002), and writing for Conciliation Resources, alongside active involvement in learning the lessons from N. Ireland for other fragile regions across the globe.
This seam of interest has involved deployment of his skills in respect of Israel and Palestine, South Africa, Cyprus (2004 and 2017 Referendums), Colombia (Civil society development and 2016 Referendum, which StratInt designed), former Yugoslavia and the Balkans, Sri Lanka, the Philippines (where StratInt advises MILF) and Iraq, for which he acted as Head of Secretariat for https://iraqhelsinkiproject.org/ (The Iraq Helsinki Project), emerging from classic Track ll diplomacy in a forest in Finland to take 'The Helsinki Principles' to Baghdad, under the guidance of Professor Padraig O’Malley http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06iraq.html?_r=0
With Bronagh Hinds he helped design the Iraqi Parliament's work with N. Ireland in 2008, followed by a book on the similarities with NI for UNAMI, launched by the Speaker of the Assembly http://mrulster.org/2009/11/24/iraq-learning-lessons-from-northern-ireland/
He has helped support www.citiesintransition.net a growing network of now 15 cities in conflict whom he has accompanied to found it in Boston, 2009 (founded by O’Malley at UMass), Mitrovica 2010, Derry-Londonderry 2011, Kirkuk (Iraq) 2012, Belfast 2013, Kaduna, Nigeria, 2014 and Stolat, BG, 2016. It supports peace-building activity within and between conflicted factions in municipalities.
Oliver deploys participants from the Northern Ireland and South Africa conflict resolution successes internationally, with powerful results. His latest assignment is with Syrian groups on the Geneva ll and lll Talks process, in Istanbul, Gaziantep, London, Geneva and Astana; also on the business, women’s and civil society / human rights defenders’ strands; and concurrently with EPOS (Rome) offering citizenship training to Syrian Refugees in Kurdish and Jordanian camps.
He sat as a non-executive director of eaga plc (2004-2011), a FTSE 250 company, as an independent assessor for the Chief Public Appointments Commissioner (2005-present) and as trustee of Scottish anti-sectarian charity Nil by Mouth.
He founded and chairs www.consultationinstitute.org services www.NIFoundation.net and is founder and Co Sec of schools social enterprise www.artemisni.org