As Executive Director of the International Bar Association (IBA) Mark Ellis leads the foremost international organization of bar associations, law firms and individual lawyers in the world. The IBA is comprised of 198 bar associations and 30,000 individual members from 194 countries. Prior to joining the IBA, Mr. Ellis spent ten years as the first Executive Director of the Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI), a project of the American Bar Association (ABA). Providing technical legal assistance to twenty-eight countries in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, and to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, CEELI remains the most extensive international pro bono legal assistance project ever undertaken by the US legal community.
Mr. Ellis served as Legal Advisor to the Independent International Commission on Kosovo, chaired by Justice Richard J. Goldstone. He was also appointed by OSCE to advise on the creation of Serbia's War Crimes Tribunal and was actively involved with the Iraqi High Tribunal. He is presently a member of the Advisory Panel to the Defense Counsel for the ICTY.
Mr. Ellis was a long-time consultant to The World Bank on investment policies in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and was an Adjunct Professor at The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. Twice a Fulbright Scholar at the Economic Institute in Zagreb, Croatia, Mr. Ellis has degrees in economics and law and is currently pursuing a PhD in international criminal law at King's College, University of London. He is the recipient of two research grants to the European Union and the Institute d'Etudes Europeenes in Brussels, Belgium focusing on the law and institutions of the European Union.
A frequent speaker and media commentator on international legal issues, Mr. Ellis acted as an on-air legal analyst for CNN International throughout the Saddam Hussein trial. Mr. Ellis has published extensively in the areas of international humanitarian law, war crimes tribunals, and the development of the rule of law. He is the co-recipient of the American Bar Association's World Order Under Law Award, and the recipient of Florida State University's Distinguished Graduate Award.
Mr. Ellis is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and serves on a number of boards, including the Central European and Eurasian Law Institute (CEELI Institute), the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation at the Salzburg Seminar and the DLA Piper "New Perimeter" pro bono project. He also serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of National Security Law and Policy and The Hague Journal on the Rule of Law.
