Negotiator Fisher To Be Honored

Roger Fisher, Williston Professor of Law Emeritus and author of Getting to Yes, will be honored by a panel of international experts at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge.

The panel has been assembled to honor the contributions to world peace by Fisher. The panel will include Ambassador Ricardo G. Castaneda, El Salvadoran representative to the United Nations; Rusudan Gorgiladze, chief state adviser to President Shevardnadze of Georgia; Cameron Hume, U.S. ambassador-designate to Algeria; Ivonne A-Baki, consul general of Ecuador; Professor Jerome Kagan, Harvard; Professor Howard Raiffa, Harvard; and the moderator will be William Ury, co-author of Getting to Yes and an international negotiation expert. The panel will discuss "Getting to Yes in a Global World: An Evening Discussion of the Impact of Roger Fisher's Work in Global Conflicts, Business, and Everyday Life."

Fisher's achievements span 35 years of practice, teaching, and writing. He has been called the "guru of conflict resolution." Fisher has been involved as a negotiation consultant and mediator in several major political and ethnic conflicts (including El Salvador, South Africa, and within the former Soviet Union) and large corporate disputes, as well as teaching negotiation skills to thousands of students, diplomats, and business people at Harvard and around the world.

In addition to co-founding the Harvard Negotiation Project at the Law School, he founded the Conflict Management Group (CMG), a nonprofit organization established in 1984. CMG is dedicated to helping people divided by conflict develop opportunities for peace and understanding. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 1958, Fisher argued cases for the U.S. government in the Supreme Court and worked on the Marshall Plan as assistant to the Deputy U.S. Special Representative in Paris.

Fisher's landmark book, Getting to Yes, has been published in 18 languages and has more than 2 million copies in print.

The event is sponsored by the Friends of Conflict Management Group.