Martin Griffiths was appointed the United Nations special envoy for Yemen in February 2018. Griffiths has extensive experience in conflict resolution, negotiation, mediation, and humanitarian affairs. Since 2014, he has served as the first executive director of the European Institute of Peace. Between 2012 and 2014, he served as an advisor to three U.N. special envoys for Syria and the deputy head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in the Syrian Arab Republic. From 1999 to 2010, Griffiths was the founding director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva, Switzerland, where he specialized in developing political dialogue between governments and insurgents in a range of countries across Asia, Africa, and Europe. Griffiths also worked in the British diplomatic service and for various international humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children, and Action Aid. In 1994, he served in Geneva as the director of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, which preceded the establishment of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. From 1998-99, he served as deputy to the U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator in New York. He has also served as U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator for the Great Lakes and in the Balkans. Griffiths holds a master’s degree in Southeast Asian studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and he is a qualified barrister.