Marion Shaer is the Chairperson and a director of Conflict Dynamics and a Trustee of the Conflict Dynamics Empowerment Trust. She has spent her career in the areas of dispute resolution, training and organisational development. She has applied these skills and experience in the corporate sector, the political arena and the not-for-profit sector.

Marion was involved in political and community advocacy in the 1980s at IDASA where she facilitated processes leading to democratic change. She was also involved in the Local and Regional Peace initiatives during the CODESA process. Marion completed an MA degree in Dispute Resolution at Notre Dame University in the US and applied those learnings in the labour arena where she was a mediator and facilitator for IMSSA where she was the Education Director responsible for the training, research and development. She was a commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and administered the training of the initial intake of commissioners for the CCMA.

Marion has worked as a consultant and project manager for Connemara Consulting which specializes in human capital development and organizational development consulting. Here she advised, conceptualized and designed interventions to align people and process with clients’ business strategies.

Marion is drawn towards team dynamics, conflict management, managing change and conceptualizing processes to address these. The skills she applied in this position were management, investigations, solution conceptualization, training and evaluation processes. Marion worked part-time for the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) programme where she works towards disadvantaged children getting access to technology to ensure equitable quality education opportunities for all primary school children. She has served on the boards of schools and mentors students and young professionals.