Patrick Alley is a director of Global Witness and co-founded the organisation in 1993. He took part in Global Witness’ first investigations into the Thai-Khmer Rouge timber trade in 1995. Since then he has taken part in over fifty field investigations in South East Asia, Africa and Europe and in subsequent advocacy activities. In addition to his involvement in the organisation’s experience of tackling conflict diamonds and the former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s ‘arms for timber’ trade, Patrick focuses on the issue of conflict resources, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in the past in Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire. Patrick also specialises in Global Witness’ work on forest and land issues, especially challenging industrial scale logging and land grabbing in the tropics. In addition, he is involved in the strategic leadership of Global Witness.

Global Witness was jointly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for its work on conflict diamonds, which led to the establishment of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, and co-founded the Publish What You Pay Coalition, which in turn led to the creation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Biography published 2014