Dr. Norbert Seiler

Dr. Seiler is an independent legal expert with over 40 years of experience, including about 30 years at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London. Prior retirement, he served as the Bank’s Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel. In that role, he developed and implemented EBRD’s justice system for employee grievances, and the establishment of the EBRD Administrative Tribunal. Since January 2023, Dr. Seiler has been serving as a Judge of the Administrative Tribunal of the OPEC Fund for International Development.

At EBRD, Dr. Seiler was responsible for the legal aspects of EBRD’s treasury operations, and he directed the legal work related to loans, equity investments, capital market investments and donor funding arrangements, as well as litigation and arbitration involving EBRD. His duties also included reviewing and determining claims from beneficiaries under EBRD’s retirement plans.

Prior to joining EBRD, Dr. Seiler worked for Girozentrale und Bank der Österreichischen Sparkassen (now Erste Bank) as Vice President and General Counsel, Girozentrale New York, and later as Vice President of its mergers and acquisitions subsidiary in Vienna. He also worked at the Vienna office of Heller Loeber Bahn, now Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, an international law firm. Before then, he worked at the civil and criminal courts in Vienna.

Dr. Seiler obtained a Doctor Juris and Magister Juris from the University of Vienna, and Master’s Degree of Comparative Jurisprudence from the School of Law of New York University (NYU). He also studied credit analysis and accounting at the Citibank School of Banking, New York, as well as practices and procedures in international arbitration at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London.

Dr. Seiler has authored several publications on grievance and oversight mechanisms, sanctions and corporate governance, particularly in the context of multilateral development banks.

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Dr. Mojtaba Kazazi

Dr. Kazazi is an international arbitrator with over 40 years of experience in international dispute resolution, including international arbitration, settlement negotiations and mass claims processing.

He has acted as arbitrator or counsel in a large number of international arbitration cases under various arbitration rules, including UNCITRAL, Iran-US Claims Tribunal, International Chamber of Commerce, Permanent Court of Arbitration, Court of Arbitration for Sports, Iran`s Law on International Commercial Arbitration and Swiss Arbitration Centre.

Currently, Dr. Kazazi is an arbitrator in a number of international cases, Chair of the Advisory Panel for Kuwait Environmental Rehabilitation Programme (under the auspices of the United Nations) and Judge of the OPEC Fund Administrative Tribunal (Vienna). He is admitted to the Central Bar (Tehran). He is a Member of the Board of Tehran Regional Arbitration Centre.

Formerly, Dr. Kazazi was Executive Head of the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC – a subsidiary organ of the United Nations Security Council that dealt with 2.7 million claims) and Secretary of its Governing Council (Geneva); Executive Commissioner for Rana Plaza Claims Administration and Tazrin Claims Administration (Dhaka); Senior Legal Advisor for the Iran-US Claims Tribunal (The Hague); and judge of the courts of Tehran.

Dr. Kazazi studied Law at the University of Tehran (LLB and LLM) and obtained Docteur en droit from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. He also studied International Law in London and at the Academy of International Law in The Hague.

He has been a lecturer at a number of universities and international conferences, and delivered a course on public international law at the Academy of International Law in The Hague (Summer 2017). He has also been a senior visiting fellow and scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg) and at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva). Dr. Kazazi is a Member of the Institut de Droit International (elected 2009).

Dr. Kazazi's publications include Burden of Proof and Related Issues: A Study on Evidence Before International Tribunals (Kluwer, The Hague, 1996)

Judge Rabab Yasseen

Judge Yasseen is an international legal expert with over 30 years of experience, including in international arbitration, international law, international contracts and transactions, corporate and administrative law. She is currently the Vice-President of the OPEC Fund Administrative Tribunal; Member of the World Bank Sanctions Board; Partner at MENTHA Law Firm in Geneva; and Deputy Judge of the Geneva Civil Courts.

Previously, Judge Yasseen held positions in two leading law firms in Geneva with global clientele, as General Legal Counsel of the University of Geneva and as a consultant for the World Trade Organization/International Trade Centre.

Over the course of her long career in the international domain, Judge Yasseen has served as counsel and arbitrator (sole, co-arbitrator and chair capacities) in arbitration proceedings on international disputes under various rules, such as the UNCITRAL Rules, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Rules, Swiss Rules, etc. She is on various panels of arbitrators, including that of the ICC, World Intellectual Property Organization, Vienna International Arbitration Centre and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution. She is the Vice-Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Cairo Regional Arbitration Centre (CRCICA), and was a Member of the Ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sports at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Judge Yasseen is a regular delegate to the UNCITRAL Commission and Working Group II and Ill sessions, including on Transparency and on the current sessions on Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reform. She is a Member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and of various ICC task forces and Member of the Arbitration Committee of the International Law Association. Judge Yasseen is also on the OECD and UNCTAD Panels of Experts, and a regular speaker at arbitration events and has taught master of laws programme at Edinburgh University and Pace University, New York.

Judge Yasseen obtained a Bachelor’s Degree of Arts in History and Literature and a Bachelor’s Degree of Arts in Law from the University of Geneva, and a Master’s Degree of Laws from King’s College London. She is licensed in Switzerland, as well as in England and Wales, and is a CEDR Accredited Mediator.

Dr. Olufemi Elias

Dr. Elias is an international lawyer with extensive experience in international organizations. He is President of the Administrative Tribunal of the OPEC Fund, and Vice-Chairman and Judge of the Islamic Development Bank Administrative Tribunal. He also served as a Judge for Staff Appeals at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and as the Executive Secretary of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal.

Dr. Elias has an extensive experience in the design and implementation of policies and processes for the resolution of employment disputes. He recently served as a Member of the Independent Panel of Experts tasked with the review of the Dispute Resolution System at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Dr. Elias has served as the Registrar of the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, with the rank of an Assistant Secretary- General of the United Nations. He was also the Legal Adviser of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. He worked with the United Nations Compensation Commission as a legal adviser in its Governing Council’s Secretariat and later as Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary of the Commission.

Dr. Elias was also a law lecturer at the University of Buckingham and King’s College London earlier in his career. He has been a Visiting Professor in International Law at Queen Mary University of London since 2006, and has taught international law at several prestigious universities and institutions, including the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, University of Amsterdam and Tufts University (Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy).

Dr. Elias is a Member of the Institut de Droit International. He is the recipient of the Honorary Member Award of the American Society of International Law in 2018 for distinguished service to international law. He is a Member of the Nigerian Bar.

He has written or edited several books and articles on various aspects of international law, including the law of the international civil service, law and procedure of international tribunals, international administrative law and the law of treaties.

Dr. Elias holds a Bachelor’s Degree of Arts in Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford, Master’s Degree in Law from the University of Cambridge and Doctor of Philosophy from University College London.

Dr. Adli Hammad

Dr. Hammad earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Law from Cairo University; LLM from Southern Methodist University, Texas; and his PhD from the International Islamic University, Malaysia.

Dr. Hammad has obtained a diploma and training in mediation from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and LCIA, Saudi Arbitration Center. He is a qualified mediator registered with the Saudi Mediation Center and the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce.

From 1979 to 1981, Dr. Adli Hammad worked as a legal advisor for Saudi Aramco. In 1981, he began working in private practice. He has been the Managing Partner of Hammad & Al-Mehdar in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, since 1983. Dr. Hammad’s experience spans over forty years.

Dr. Hammad became a well-known expert in arbitration and provided training programs in arbitration with the Bahrain Arbitration Center and Saudi training centers for a number of years. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and Member of LCIA, Saudi Arbitration Center, GCC Arbitration Center, and other regional and local centers.

In addition to Dr. Hammad's significant law practice, he is an assistant professor of commercial law at Dar Alhekma University and the University of Business and Technology in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Membership in professional bodies:

• Member of the OPEC Appeals Committee;
• Member of ISDB Group Administrative Tribunal; and
• Vice Chairman of Makkah Commercial Arbitration Center.