John, Lord Alderdice FRCPsych is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords and was the Chairman of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords during the Liberal/Conservative Coalition Government. As Leader of Alliance of Northern Ireland, he played a significant role in the negotiation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. When the Northern Ireland Assembly was elected, he became its first Speaker. In 2004 he retired as Speaker on being appointed by the British and Irish Governments to be one of the four members of the international Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), put in place to close down the operations of the paramilitary organizations and monitor security normalization. He was then appointed by the First and Deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland to advise on remaining problems of crime gangs.
Lord Alderdice has long been active in international liberal politics and was a Vice President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and later President of Liberal International (the global federation of more than 100 liberal political parties). He is now a Presidente d’Honneur of LI.
Lord Alderdice’s professional background was in psychoanalytic psychiatry in Belfast where he taught at Queen’s University and established the Centre for Psychotherapy. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, and Executive Chairman of The Changing Character of War Centre at Pembroke College Oxford.  He is also a Professor of Practice at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the Founder and Chairman of The Concord Foundation.