Chris is the Director of CAABU. He has worked with the Council since 1993 after graduating with a first class honours degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Exeter University. As part of this course he spent a year in Alexandria. Since then he has travelled widely in the Middle East and North Africa. In 1996 Chris moved to work for a professional government relations firm but returned to a more senior role at CAABU in 1997. In November 2002, he was made full-time Director.

Aimee Shalan joined CAABU as Head of Development and Communications in August 2008. She was formerly Director of the Olive Tree Scholarship Programme at City University and before that she taught at Queen Mary, University of London. She has also worked at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics and at the Sussex European Institute. She has a BA in English Literature from Cambridge University, an MA in Literature, Culture and Modernity and a PhD in the Politics of Palestinian Writing from the University of London. She is a regular contributor to the Guardian Review’s non-fiction round-up and Vice-Chair of Friends of Birzeit University.

Graham Bambrough joined CAABU in January 2009 as the organisation’s Parliamentary Officer. He is responsible for coordinating CAABU’s work in Parliament and briefing MPs and Peers on developments in the Arab world. He joined from public affairs firm PoliticsDirect, where he worked as a senior member of their lobbying team. Prior to this Graham worked in the House of Commons as a Parliamentary Researcher for Gareth Thomas MP, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and International Development. He holds a degree in Politics and Parliamentary Studies and a Masters in International Relations from the University of Leeds. He wrote his undergraduate dissertation on the al-Aqsa intifada and his MA dissertation on the rise of Hamas and Islamic politics in the wider Arab world.

Andrew joined CAABU in January 2008 as Head of Finance and Administration