Board of Directors
Founder and Executive Director
Natalie Rea founded the ILF and is its executive director. She also founded the ILF’s predecessor, Legal Aid Rwanda. After clerking for Judge Thomas C. Platt in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and working at the law firm Shearman & Sterling, Rea joined the Criminal Appeals Bureau of the Legal Aid Society in New York, where she represents indigent defendants at the appellate level. Born in New York and raised in France, Rea graduated from the Université d’Aix-Marseille and Fordham University School of Law.
Philipp Ackermann
Philipp Ackermann is a German national who joined the German Foreign Service after he received a Ph.D. in art history from Bonn University. He currently serves as the head of the Task Force Afghanistan/Pakistan for the German Foreign Office in Berlin. Among other appointments, Dr. Ackermann has served at the German Embassy in Rabat, Morocco, at the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations in New York, and became the principal speechwriter to former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer from 2002 to 2006. Dr. Ackermann accepted a civilian assignment as head of the German PRT in Kunduz, Afghanistan, from 2006 to 2007, and later oversaw the Political Department of the German Embassy in New Delhi, India, from 2007 to 2010.
Polly Mallinson
Polly Mallinson is a prominent documentary and feature film producer, who has been involved in human rights for the past 20 years. Mallinson began her career as an administrator working for the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, following that with a stint for the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). In her last appointment, before embarking upon a second career in film, Mallinson served in the Economic and Political Section of the EC Representation in Jakarta, Indonesia. A native of the United Kingdom, Mallinson graduated with a degree in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge. She received a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Sebastian von Einsiedel is a German national, joined the United Nations in 2004 and currently serves in the Policy Planning Unit in the UN Department of Political Affairs. Previously, he has worked on multilateral security issues with the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change; on peace process support with the UN Mission in Nepal; and on counter-terrorism policies with the Secretary-General’s Counter-terrorism Task Force. Prior to joining the UN, Von Einsiedel worked at the International Peace Institute in New York on the UN’s role in peace- and state-building. He holds master’s degrees from the University of Munich and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Henry Gonzalez
Henry Gonzalez is a Costa Rican national, is a vice president with Morgan Stanley where he focuses on emerging markets debt investing. He also collaborates with the bank’s Global Sustainable Finance Group. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Gonzalez held positions at the Global Exchange for Social Investment in London, the United Nations Development Program in San José, Costa Rica, and the World Bank in Washington D.C. In his early career, he was the chief of staff to the Minister of Agriculture in his home country Costa Rica, and a legislative advisor to the vice president of the Legislative Assembly. With a bachelor’s in political science from the University of Costa Rica, Gonzalez received an MBA from Oxford University where he held the Skoll Scholarship for Social Entrepreneurship and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
Aileen Donnelly is a private defense attorney and former ILF International Fellow in Nepal. Operating within an independent referral bar, Donnelly defends and prosecutes on a case-by-case basis. For five years, she co-chaired the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and more recently was co-chair of an advisory committee for ICCL research on the Irish judiciary. A native of Ireland, she graduated from University College Dublin with a degree in law. After studying at King’s Inns, Dublin, where she obtained the degree of barrister-at-law, she became a practicing barrister at the Bar of Ireland, rising to senior counsel in 2004. Donnelly also holds a master’s degree in equality studies from the School of Social Justice, University College Dublin.
Former Board Members
Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt is currently the International Crisis Group’s North East Asia project director in Beijing where she supervises the work of a small team of analysts responsible for research on the role of China in conflict areas around the world.
Tigran Eldred is currently an associate professor of law at New England Law in Boston, Massachusetts where he teaches classes on criminal law and law and the ethics of lawyering.
Konrad Huber is currently the senior director at International Sustainable Systems, a global provider of cutting edge assessment, planning and evaluation services to the international development community.
Rebecca Symington is currently the executive director of the Mlinda Foundation, a nongovernmental organization headquartered in Paris, France that addresses global environmental challenges.
Nicola Reindorp is currently an adviser at Avaaz.org an organization that empowers millions of people from all walks of life to take action on pressing global, regional and national issues, from corruption and poverty to conflict and climate change.
