Dates Employed at OPCW: 2005 - 2011
Position: Special Adviser to the Deputy Director-General

Working at the OPCW brought with it a wealth of memorable experiences: from happy occasions with colleagues at Staff Council barbecues to the pomp of VIP visits such as that by Queen Beatrix for the tenth anniversary.

My proudest moment at the OPCW was when Archbishop Desmond Tutu handed me his hat while he addressed the gathering in the Ieper room at OPCW headquarters.

Above all, though, the OPCW is about the people who work there, and I count myself fortunate to have had a job that brought me into contact with colleagues from the Laboratory to the Library, Language Service to Legal Advisers. I was constantly struck by the collegial, almost familial, atmosphere between staff from disparate cultural traditions and linguistic backgrounds.

Two particular events exemplify this for me.

I had the sad privilege to attend the funeral of two colleagues during my time at the OPCW: the first of Jim, a "gentle giant" Dutch driver whose kindness and willingness to help had touched me in the months I knew him; the second of Ganbaatar, our popular Mongolian colleague from the Inspectorate, whom I had met with his family for dinner a few months earlier when mutual friends visited.

The funerals, although in the same venue, were of totally different styles, one Christian, the other Buddhist; but both were attended by colleagues from across the Organisation and nothing could have demonstrated so movingly the depth of fellow feeling that exists between a group of people from all corners of the globe.