Biography

Dr Karl Mackie CBE is one of the first and most influential commercial mediators in the UK and Europe. In the course of his career he has mediated and facilitated over a thousand high value disputes and some of the most complex civil and commercial cases to go through the English legal system. He is also responsible for training many other leading mediators. Karl began his working life as a business psychologist, before working for many years in university continuing education as a negotiation and business strategy consultant. During this time, he qualified as a barrister specialising in dispute resolution and employment law. He became the first and only CEO of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) in 1990, helping to create its international standing. Karl is probably the best known commercial mediator in the UK and is frequently interviewed on television and radio about disputes in the public domain. He has edited or authored several texts on mediation; most notably International Mediation - the Art of Business Diplomacy, a guide to the effective resolution of international business disputes, which he co-authored with Eileen Carroll. It has been described as ‘… a landmark guide to practitioners in international mediation and is likely to form a reference guide to mediation procedures.’ In 2010 Karl became the only mediator ever to be given an honour by the state, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), for services to mediation, both developing and delivering it.