Marcus Lenzen joined the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in 2009. He is currently the Senior Conflict Adviser in the Conflict, Humanitarian and Security Department (CHASE) and leads a team driving DFID’s policy on building peace and stability. Previous DFID roles included Acting Humanitarian Counselor at the UK Mission in Geneva, lead Conflict Adviser in Nigeria and policy lead on multilateral peacebuilding institutions. Marcus held prior positions on development, peacebuilding and transitional justice with UNDP and GIZ. He has worked in and on a range of countries including the Balkans, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Timor Leste, Guatemala and Peru. In 2013/14, he was a Visiting Fellow at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and has served in a number of advisory roles, including as a member of Wilton Park’s Advisory Council and on research programmes at Oxford University and the International Center for Transitional Justice. He holds an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an MA in Politics, Modern History, and Applied Cultural Studies from the University of Muenster (Germany).