Dr. Mark Owen has been General Secretary of the European Council of Religious Leaders, Religions for Peace’s regional Interreligious Council in Europe, since May 2017.

He holds a BA in Theology and Religious Studies, MA in World Religions, and PhD in Tibetan Buddhism. He has extensive experience of working with interfaith and multi-faith organisations, and an academic and practical background in religious peacebuilding.

Dr. Owen is Director of the University of Winchester’s Centre of Religion, Reconciliation and Peacebuilding; which was awarded the much-coveted 4* for research impact in the UK government’s latest Research Excellent Framework assessment in 2014. He has carried out religious peacebuilding research and practice across Europe and South Asia, and is Programme Leader for the MA in Reconciliation & Peacebuilding at the University of Winchester.

Dr. Owen is currently engaged in research projects looking at the role of religious actors and organisations in peacebuilding processes in Nepal and Myanmar, and multi-faith approaches to migration and integration in Europe. His interests also include Religion and Conflict Analysis, Freedom of Religion or Belief, and Buddhist approaches to Conflict Transformation. He is a founder and trustee of the UK registered charity Freedom to Learn, which works to provide the opportunity of education to children from some of the remotest regions of the Himalayas and South Asia.