Brussels Staff Profiles

Currently Deputy Assistant Secretary General, Emerging Security Challenges at Nato, Shea received a First Class Honours degree from Sussex University in Modern History and French before reading for a Doctorate at Oxford University which he completed in 1981. His thesis was titled “European Intellectuals and the Great War 1914-1918”.

He started his career in Nato as Administrator in the Council Operations Section of the Executive Secretariat, then became Head of Youth programmes before moving on to head up External Relations Conferences and Seminars. In 1988 he became Assistant to the Secretary General for Special Projects where he was responsible for speech writing and ghost writing articles, press releases, book chapters and official communiquès as well as advising the Secretary General on political and military issues and on his public communications strategy.

In 1993 he became Nato spokesman and Deputy Director of Information and Press and then in 2003 he was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary General for External Relations, Public Diplomacy Division. In September 2005 he was appointed Director of Policy Planning in the Private Office of the Secretary General responsible for advising and assisting the Secretary General, senior NATO management, and the Council in addressing strategic issues facing the Alliance.

Nato created its new Emerging Security Challenges Division in August 2010 to deal with a growing range of what the alliance calls “non-traditional risks and challenges,” including terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), cyber defense and energy security. Dr Shea leads the division, which will also provide Nato with a strategic analysis capability to monitor and anticipate international developments that could affect allied security.

Marat Terterov is a British national, originally from Ukraine and raised in Australia. He has more than 10 years of experience working with Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia and the Caucasus in management capacities with international organisations, think tanks, technical assistance consulting projects, NGOs, and the private sector. Terterov has managed numerous investment promotion projects in the former-Soviet Union (FSU) and the Middle East, ranging from government-endorsed business publications to high-level investment forums drawing attention to prospective FSU economic sectors including energy, telecoms and insurance. This has brought him into close contact with many key decision makers in government and private sector in the FSU, where he has spent years building lasting relationships and negotiating the interests of the organisations he has represented.

Terterov holds a Doctorate in Middle Eastern politics from Oxford University (UK) and a Masters degree in international relations from an Australian university. This has given him the basis for exceptional communication skills, reflected by his many analytical publications on business and politics in the FSU and the Middle East, as well as his frequent public speaking engagements. He is currently engaged in the area of EU-FSU energy policy and seeks to become more active in the formulation of EU-FSU relations. Terterov speaks English, Russian and is conversant in Egyptian Arabic. He has lived and worked in Europe, North America, Australia and the Middle East and is deeply familiarity with the cultures of both East and West.

Mr Patten has been responsible for many Brussels-based and pan-European lobbying and corporate communications campaigns, and over his 20-year career in Brussels has worked for a wide range of corporations, the European Commission, trade associations and the European Express Association where he was Secretary-General from 1994 to 2003. He has specialist PA expertise in the fields of EU consumer, food, transport, environment, financial services and trade policies. Regarding PR, he has specialised experience in dealing with the EU press corps, particularly on competition cases, as well as running pan-European corporate campaigns. He has a particular interest in EU-Japan relations, providing strategic expertise to Japanese corporations and ministries and regularly visits Japan.

Mr. Patten began his career when he joined the European Commission to work for the Strategy Unit of the Director General for Telecommunications, to assess South East Asian countries’ IT capabilities and their impact on the EU. He then joined an international law firm, Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly, to specialise in EU telecom, competition and trade law. Thereafter, Mr. Patten moved to a British public affairs consultancy, IGA Europe, managing their international clients and providing strategic counsel to third country governments. In 1995, he joined Hill and Knowlton where for six years he ran the PA department of the Brussels office where he made a significant contribution to expanding the business to be Brussels’ leading PA agency. In 2002, he was promoted to Vice-President and ran H&K’s PA network in the Europe, Middle East and Africa Region.

In July 2003, Russell joined Grayling Political Strategy (www.grayling.com and part of the Huntsworth Group) as Chief Executive, and continues to be very hands-on with regard to client work.

Mr. Patten has a Degree in Political Sciences and languages from the University of Kent, a Diploma in French politics from the “Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris” and a post-graduate Degree in EU Affairs from the College of Europe in Bruges.