Our Staff

Olau Thomassen – Managing Director

Olau enjoys exploiting opportunities to their full potential. He became Danish 400m hurdles champion in 2002, after moving to the UK to train with some of the best athletes in the world at Loughborough University, and he is now determined to see Community Accord deliver services marked by excellence.

In 2004, Olau completed his MA Conflict Resolution at the world-renowned Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, and has since gained valuable mediation experience, alongside ongoing development of negotiation skills through his daily work to foster partnerships with private and public sector bodies.

Lorrainne Knott – Programme Development Manager

Lorrainne joined us in May 2005 and has been instrumental in helping Community Accord develop into its current position. Lorrainne combines a degree in psychology with a genuine interest in people from all walks of life to provide mediation and training that is suited to the individual. Before Lorrainne joined our team, she had already built up significant experience of working with young people in conflict, and she has utilised this experience to carry out several large pieces of inter-generational work for Community Accord.

Ruth Brabiner – Programme Development Manager

Ruth is our training authority and has helped develop Community Accord’s training programmes tremendously since joining us in May 2007. With over 12 years teaching and training experience in a variety of settings, Ruth has a great grasp of how training can meet all the desired learning outcomes, and still be fun and engaging. Ruth continues to practice as a mediator, to ensure that the training courses she designs and delivers are continuously influenced by actual experience in the real world.

Susan Esko – Programme Development Manager

Susan is one of our great vision casters in the organisation and she is committed to see a rise in the use of mediation in public life. Susan is currently finishing a PhD on how the principles of mediation can be used to inform and strengthen public policy, and the experience she has gained through her research and her 16 years of facilitation work, makes her perfectly equipped to manage our public consultation programmes.

Susan is also heavily involved in our community mediation programme, and supports organisations and governments nationally and internationally, who wish to set up community mediation programmes of their own.