Corruption Tracker

Ruth Rohde – Founder and Progamme Manager

Ruth is a co-founder and programme manager of the Corruption Tracker project. She is also a researcher and project coordinator at Shadow World Investigations UK where she is primarily working on a project on the role of the Arms Trade in the Yemen war. Ruth holds an M.A. in International History and Politics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. She is also a dedicated member of the German peace movement, campaigning for nuclear disarmament, against the arms trade, and for a world founded on peace and solidarity nationally and internationally.

B. Arneson – Research Coordinator

B is the Research Coordinator for the Corruption Tracker as well as the Director of the Global Arms Trade and Corruption program at the World Peace Foundation. She is also the Founder of Paperbacks for Perpetrators, a project that provides books to individuals who are incarcerated in the US. B’s research and grassroots organizing has focused on LGBTQ+ rights, the occupation of Palestine, drone warfare in the MENA region, and the US prison-industrial complex. She earned her MSc from SOAS in the Politics of Conflict, Rights, and Justice.

Jack Cinamon – Researcher

Jack works as a Researcher for the Corruption Tracker and as a Researcher and Parliamentary Liaison for Shadow World Investigations. He holds an LLB in Law and Criminology from the University of Liverpool, a MSc in Development Studies from SOAS, and formerly worked as Project and Research Assistant at SCRAP Weapons. His research mostly focuses on grand corruption and the global arms trade.

Rhona Michie – Founder and Programme Coordinator

Rhona is a Founder and Project Coordinator for the Corruption Tracker. She also works as Director of Projects and Planning for Shadow World Investigations before which she coordinated a legal advice clinic at Islington Law Center and volunteered with the Migrants` Law Project. Rhona´s work and campaigning background has helped to ground her conviction that structural change is needed to tackle the challenges we face as a society, from the ever-growing militarism to inequality and climate change.

Alwande Khumalo – Social Media Campaigner/ Programme Associate

Alwande Khumalo currently holds a Political Studies Honours Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her research focused around a select anti-human trafficking specialized police task force’s gendered dynamics and organisational structure. She has interests in the state preservation and advocacy of human rights, gender studies, police (particular around ethical policing throughout the Global South), Black Lives Matter, feminism, racial and cultural studies, mental health, and youth-inclusive advocacy.

Additionally, she is a South African youth representative in Amnesty International’s Global Youth Collective, a former Co-Chairperson at Amnesty International – Wits, a former Women’s Subcommittee Head of Amnesty International – Wits, a Youth Leader at the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, a member of the South African’s Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) Youth Policy Committee’s Gender Working Group, a 2020 youth representative for SAIIA at 2021’s United Nations multi-stakeholder hearings on “Accelerating the realization of gender equity and the empowerment of all women and girls” of which forms a part of the annual UN Women’s Conference and a black intersectional feminist.

Julia Auf dem Brinke – Founder & Steering Committee Member

Julia Auf dem Brinke is a co-founder and previous programme manager of the Corruption Tracker project. She is the policy advisor for Transparency International Germany where she is working on the reform of the lobbyregister, regulations on bribery of parliamentarians, conflict of interest as well as undue influence in climate policy processes. In 2021/2022, Julia was part of the Forum on Arms Trade´s Emerging Experts cohort.

Bridget Conley – Founder & Steering Committee Member

Bridget Conley is the Research Director of the World Peace Foundation and Associate Research Professor at The Fletcher School. She has published on the 1992 – 1995 war in Bosnia, mass atrocities and genocide, and how museums can engage on human rights issues. Among her publications is Memory from the Margins: Ethiopia’s Red Terror Martyrs Memorial Museum (Palgrave 2019). Her recent research concerns COVID-19 in American prisons.

Andrew Feinstein – Founder & Steering Committee Member

Andrew Feinstein (Executive Director of Shadow World Investigations) resigned as a South African MP when government refused to investigate a corrupt $10bn arms deal. His published work includes best-selling After the Party and the Shadow World book and documentary. Action on Armed Violence names him one of the 100 most influential people in the world working in armed violence reduction.

Mamello Mosiana – Steering Committee Member

Mamello is the Head of Campaigns at Open Secrets and a PhD candidate in Political Studies at the University of Cape Town. Mamello occasionally lectures in UCT’s political studies department on Conflict, Violent Extremism, Disinformation and Financial Crime. She holds an MPhil in Justice and Transformation from UCT as well as an MSc in Security, Leadership and Society from King’s College London. Before joining Open Secrets, Mamello worked for the Institute for Justice Reconciliation and the International Centre for Transitional Justice.

Sam Perlo-Freeman – Founder & Steering Committee Member

Dr. Sam Perlo-Freeman is a Research Coordinator at Campaign Against Arms Trade. Previously, he worked at World Peace Foundation running their program on Global Arms Trade and Corruption. Before that, he spent 9 years at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute working on their data programs on military expenditure and the arms industry and trade.

Caren Sausmikat – Operations Volunteer

Caren is an undergraduate student at the University of Freiburg, Germany, with a focus on cultural studies and history. Interested in the international peace movement and the fight against weapons and corruption, she joined the Corruption Tracker as Operations Volunteer in early 2021. As a flexible member of the team, Caren helps with any current projects.

Sahar Vardi – Research Fellow

Sahar is an anti-militarist and anti-occupation activists from Jerusalem. She is currently a Rotary Peace Fellow at the University of Bradford, studying Peace Conflict and Development. She is of the founders of the Database on Israeli Military and Security Export, and previously done research into Israel’s arms export and Human Rights violations as the Manager of the Israel program for the American Friends Service Committee.

Aaron Steinberg

Aaron was the Communications Officer for the Arms Trade Corruption Tracker until October 2021. He is a recent graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University where he earned his M.A. in Law and Diplomacy, concentrating on migration and political economy. Previously, Aaron worked at the World Peace Foundation and Global Labor Justice – International Labor Rights Forum.

Devan van der Poel – Researcher

Devan is a former CT researcher.

Klaudija Visockyte

Klaudija is a previous team member of the Arms Trade Corruption Tracker where she was involved in research and social media management. Currently she works at the Conflict Armament Research.

Throughout her experiences Klaudija found herself deeply invested in research in security-related matters. Her main areas of interest are conflicts in the Middle East, law of armed conflict, arms trade.

Xiaodon Liang

Xiaodon Liang is a PhD candidate at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, researching arms trade and procurement policy in smaller arms producers such as Argentina, Taiwan, and India. He previously worked at the World Peace Foundation’s program on the global arms trade and at the National Bureau of Asian Research on its maritime and strategic stability projects. Xiaodon was involved in researching the original set of cases under the World Peace Foundation’s Compendium on the Arms Trade and Corruption, which the CT is based on.