Jon Huggins is the Director for Oceans Beyond Piracy at OEF. He previously served as NATO’s Operational Liaison Officer to the European Union Council Secretariat in Brussels and as Contingency Planning Officer at NATO headquarters. His work on major military staffs includes an assignment as lead planner for Counter-Terrorism and Irregular Warfare for the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review and as Study Coordinator for the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel. He also served as a Political-Military Planning Officer in Yokosuka Japan. During his 22 years in the US Navy, Huggins served as a Naval Flight Officer and Mission Commander on airborne missions in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Persian Gulf, and over Afghanistan. He was the Officer in Charge of the Navy’s detachment of land-based reconnaissance aircraft in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 in Masirah, Oman. Huggins holds an MA degree from George Mason University’s School of Public Policy and a BS degree in Economics from Iowa State University. He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas and spent a year as a resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States in Washington, DC.
- Mobilization of all affected sectors of the maritime community
- Developing public-private partnerships that promote long-term solutions at sea and ashore
- Global and sustainable deterrence based on the rule of law
OBP Staff
Jon Huggins - Director
Jon Bellish - Project Officer, Economic Cost of Piracy and Legal Issues
Jon Bellish is a Project Officer for the Oceans Beyond Piracy Project at OEF. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Millsaps College where he received Bachelors Degrees in Political Science and Spanish and won the John F. Kennedy Award for the most outstanding senior in political science. After completing his undergraduate education, he remained at Millsaps pursuing an MBA and working at a public relations firm in Jackson, Mississippi. Jon then moved to Colorado to attend law school at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law where he focused on international and comparative law, publishing law review articles on the doctrine of necessity at customary international law as well as on corporate social responsibility as it relates to the ancient lex mercatoria. Jon is also an alumnus of The Hague Academy of International Law where he studied both private and public international law. He writes about maritime piracy for several international law websites and has experience with piracy trials in United States courts. Jon is fluent in English and Spanish.
Jim Gray - Program Manager, Somalia Security Sector Reform
Jim Gray is the Program Manager for Somalia Security Sector Reform for Oceans Beyond Piracy at OEF. He recently retired as a Lieutenant Colonel having served 21 years with the Royal Marines (UK). His final appointment was as the embedded UK military representative with the U.S. Department of State in Washington DC. Here he served as the SOCOM, CENTCOM and counter-terrorism planner with the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. His staff appointments have been predominantly in the operations and diplomacy fields including the British Embassy in Washington DC as the Assistant Marine Attaché, as Intelligence Officer with 40 Commando Royal Marines, and the UK Ministry of Defence in London. Jim has deployed all over the world on operational and combat tours. He was amongst the first British troops to reenter the hostile Sangin region in Helmand Province Afghanistan, and has served with the UN in West Africa. Jim has a BA in Strategic Studies from the Royal Naval College Greenwich, and a postgraduate Masters degree in Defense Studies. He is a graduate of the Advanced Command and Staff Course in Shrivenham (UK).
Kaija Hurlburt - Project Manager, Human Cost of Piracy, West Africa, and IUU Fishing
Kaija Hurlburt is the Project Manager for the Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP) project at the One Earth Future (OEF) Foundation. Kaija leads OBP’s projects on West Africa, The Human Cost of Piracy, and Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing. Kaija is the lead author on OBP’s three Human Cost of Piracy reports, shedding light on the plight of the seafarers. Kaija additionally provided support and analysis for OBP’s Economic Cost of Piracy reports. Outside of OBP, Kaija contributed to OEF’s Shuurako Program with articles on fishing, financial flows, and microfinance. Prior to joining OEF, Kaija worked at World Resources Institute (WRI), a DC-based environmental policy research institution, where she focused on the social and environmental impact of energy investments to local communities and promoting international funding for climate change projects in developing countries. Kaija received her MA from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna, Italy and Washington, DC where she concentrated in international environmental policy and economics. Prior to graduate school, Kaija spent two years working on microfinance in Albania with the Peace Corps and three years as a financial analyst at Clarion Partners, LLC.
Liza Kane-Hartnett - Project Assistant
Liza Kane-Hartnett is the Project Assistant for Oceans Beyond Piracy at OEF. Liza graduated from the University of Denver in June 2012, earning a B.A. in History with honors, and minors in both International Studies and Political Science. In her senior year Liza authored two theses, “Pakistan as a Frontline State: The Gateway to Nuclear Proliferation,” and, “The Cultivation of U.S. Perceptions: Afghanistan, the Cold War vs. the War on Drugs.” Spanning her disciplines, her theses focused on the issue of global governance, and the complex relationship between the U.S., Pakistan, and Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War. Liza’s academic interests include development, global governance, human rights, and public policy; she is committed to returning to school in pursuit of a Master’s degree in the next few years.
Jens Vestergaard Madsen - Associate Director
Jens Vestergaard Madsen is the Associate Director for Oceans Beyond Piracy. He received a Master of International Studies degree from Seoul National University where he majored in International Cooperation and graduated with high honors. His thesis explored the possibilities and limitations of replicating regional institutions, focusing on ReCAAP and the Djibouti Code of Conduct. As a teaching assistant at Seoul National University, his research primarily concentrated on examining solutions to global problems in the maritime realm, in particular maritime piracy. He received his bachelor’s degree at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark where he studied business and Chinese at the Asian Studies Programme and Chinese language at Tsinghua University in Beijing on a Chinese government scholarship. He was a volunteer instructor at the Seoul Youth Center for Cultural Exchange in South Korea where he taught primary school students about UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Denmark, and he was a Young Researcher in the Asia-Pacific Regional Center of the Culture Link Network under UNESCO. He has also worked for a major Danish pharmaceutical company in Seoul and for IBM in Denmark.
Maisie Pigeon - Project and Communications Coordinator
Maisie Pigeon currently serves as Project and Communications Coordinator for Oceans Beyond Piracy at OEF. Prior to joining OEF, Maisie worked in Washington DC, directly and as a consultant, for several non-profits focused on international development, global health, and environmental sustainability. As an undergraduate student, Maisie studied in the East African nation of Kenya, where she researched voting patterns leading up to the 2007 national election and the subsequent violence, and she has returned several times to continue her research. Maisie is a DC-area native. She graduated from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a special focus on international relations and African governance. She also completed coursework in anthropology and Africana studies. She is currently working towards her Masters' in International Studies from the University of Denver.
Timothy Schommer - Project Officer
Timothy Schommer is a Project Officer for the Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP) project at the One Earth Future (OEF) Foundation. Tim assists with the research and coordination of OBP’s projects on West Africa and leads the data visualization and design of all OBP publications including both The Economic and Human Cost of Somali Piracy reports for 2012. Tim received his MA in International Development with a certificate in Humanitarian Assistance from the University of Denver’s Joseph Korbel School of International Studies. During his graduate studies, Tim worked with Elephant Energy, a Denver-based non-profit focusing on the distribution of small-scale solar technologies in Namibia and on the Navajo Nation in the American Southwest. Tim also spent a summer in Washington DC working with the Center for Civilians in Conflict, an organization which advocates on behalf of men, women and children caught in the midst of war. Prior to arriving in Denver, Tim served 2 years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana, where he focused on the implementation of small enterprise development projects in addition to teaching visual arts at a school for the deaf. Tim also holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Wisconsin – Stout.
Matt Walje - Project Coordinator
Matt Walje is a Project Coordinator with OBP. Matt is a Sié Fellow in the class of 2014 at the University of Denver's Korbel School, where he is pursuing a Master's in International Human Rights. Matt recently graduated from William Jewell College with a BA in International Relations and Political Science. He was named the Outstanding Junior in Political Science in 2010 and subsequently as a Senior in 2011. Matt is a Sergeant in the Marine Corps Reserves. He is the Senior Intelligence Analyst at 24th Marines and has been deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, and recently served in Norway as a part of Operation Cold Response. For his work in Iraq he received a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
Fellows and Advisors
Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent - Senior Fellow
Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent spent 37 years in the British Royal Navy after achieving a Master’s Degree at Cambridge University in Mathematics and Operational Research. He left the Royal Navy in 2008 having commanded in every rank up to four-star Admiral, concluding his career as as Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet. He was knighted in 2004. He is a graduate of the Greenwich Joint Services Defence College, an alumnus of the UK Cabinet Office Top Management Programme and an Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College Cambridge.
He has his own strategic advisory business – Orchard Leadership.
www.orchardleadership.co.uk
Swadesh Rana - Project Advisor
Swadesh Rana provides strategic insight and direction for OBP's efforts in South Asia, often serving as the focal point of contact for key partners. Her previous research and expertise areas focus on intra-state conflicts, weapons, and tools of violence in societies at war with themselves; the limits of military power; and the security situation in South Asia, among other areas. She was a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute and the first woman to hold the position of Chief of the UN Conventional Arms Branch in the Department of Disarmament Affairs. She began her career as Deputy Director of the Indian Council of Social Science Research and Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses. She enjoyed a 20 year career at the UN, where she was a member of the Executive Office of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali and coordinated programs under Secretary-General Kofi Annan. A Presidential Gold Medalist in Political Science from Punjab University with a PhD in international affairs from Jawaharal Nehru University, Swadesh has received over a dozen awards and honors for academic and professional excellence. She holds an honors BA degree in English literature. Her debut novel, Kotheywali, was serialized on Abhivayakti, a web magazine for classics in Hindi literature.
