Sheila Bates: Mediator, Facilitator and Conflict Coach, Safe Space Collaboration

Sheila Bates is a mediator (including online), conflict coach, facilitator and trainer. She mediates Employment and Workplace, Banking and Finance, Technology, Partnership and Contract disputes. Sheila draws upon her 30 years' business expertise, gained in FTSE and Fortune quoted companies, international financial institutions and professional services organisations, to facilitate parties in understanding different perspectives to foster settlement. Trained as a coach at Henley Business School, she uses her skills to enable individuals in decision making processes, negotiating difficult situations and rebuilding relationships.
Sheila's personal interest in developing professionals in all walks of life, to engage in constructive conflict for better outcomes has shaped her practice. As a mediator and HR professional she is called upon to advise on dispute resolutions mechanisms in international organisations, technology businesses and the banking sector in emerging markets. Sheila facilitates and mediates international disputes related to Human Rights and Labour Law. She facilitates dialogue in the supply chain to remedy modern slavery abuses. Sheila is on the Board of CEDR, chairing its Nominations committee. A member of the CEDR Training Faculty, Sheila trains and coaches students on the skills for mediation, difficult conversations and negotiation skills often in a cross-cultural setting.

Dr Isabel Phillips: Director of ADR and Mediation Development, CIArb (UK) 

Isabel is a conflict specialist and mediator with over 20 years of experience. She joined the full-time staff of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators at the start of 2021. She brings global experience in the application of complementary application of different forms of ADR, and the development of the skills and knowledge of those working in and with conflict and disputes.

Isabel’s mediation experience encompasses a wide range of domestic and international commercial disputes including construction, commercial contract, and employment disputes. She has designed, delivered, and evaluated interactive conflict training and dispute systems design for governments, IGOs, NGOs and commercial businesses across four continents. She has also spent five years working on conflict and disputes in deep-field, fragile and post-conflict environments including Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ethiopia.

She worked with CEDR from 2003 to 2018 as mediator, consultant, and lead faculty and has been a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster Law school and Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at LLB and LLM level since 2005. Her work with the Conflict Research Society includes being an Advisory Board and Jury member for their prestigious ‘Book of the Year’ prize.

Isabel is a qualified ‘Peace Specialist’ (Friedensfachkraft, AGQ 2000) a CEDR accredited mediator (2003), and was awarded her PhD (University of Bradford, 2017) on the theory and practice of mediation in commercial and socio-political contexts.

Her publications include: ‘Writing a field Into Existence’ The International Journal of Arbitration, Mediation and Dispute Management, 2021; ‘How to Mediate’ Resolver, 2021; ‘Emotion and Negotiation’ (Book Chapter) in How to Master Negotiation Bloomsbury, 2015; Heuristics and Bias in Mediation, Paper for the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications 2010 and “A Meeting of Minds: Bringing Academics and Practitioners in the world of conflict management together” Feature, Training Journal, August 2010.

Ranse Howell is the director of international operations at JAMS ADR, the largest private dispute resolution provider in the world and works between London and Washington, DC. He leads a global team whose primary responsibility is to support JAMS’s efforts to promote a solution-based approach to commercial conflict. Ranse has also been involved in various D, E & I initiatives and continues to look for opportunities to promote and support inclusion in all ADR processes.

Ranse is an expert in negotiation and dispute resolution consultancy, who, while working for CEDR in London, provided enhanced negotiation, leadership and influencing skills to numerous in-house clients. Ranse has also worked with numerous international organizations providing mediation and dispute resolution training, including EIB, EBRD, UNHCR, IFC and ILO.

Ranse has a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the School of Business, University of Sussex. As a social-psychologist, his area of research stems from Social Identity Theory, with a focus on the impact that hidden (or nondisclosed identity) will have on interpersonal relationships. What needs further research and discussion, is how individuals will need to adjust to post-COVID interpersonal engagement with others, and the need to manage (hidden) identities will increase causing conflict and misunderstanding.  

Ranse also has a Doctor of Law (JD), School of Law from the City University of New York; a Master of Law (LLM) from the Straus Institute at Pepperdine University; a Master of Social Work (MSW) from the School of Social Work, Temple University; and a bachelor’s degree (BFA) from the School of Art, Temple University.

Ranse is currently an adjunct professor at the Straus Institute, Pepperdine University and a visiting lecturer in the department of advanced legal studies at the University of Westminster.

Michael Mcilwrath lives in Florence, Italy, where he spent over 22 years in lead in-house litigation roles for General Electric’s Oil & Gas division and, most recently, as Vice President of Litigation for Baker Hughes Company.  In 2021, he founded MDisputes Srl.  He is currently Chair of ICC’s Governing Body for Dispute Resolution Services and an adjunct professor at Bocconi Law School in Milan. He is the co-author of two textbooks on international dispute resolution and contract negotiation. In 2017, Arbitral Women recognized Michael as a Champion of Change.