The Paris Arbitration Week association (PAW) has reshuffled its leadership by adding a trio of new members to its board for three-year terms. 

Diamana Diawara, Elsa Paparemborde and Vanessa Thieffry join the existing members of the board, replacing Yasmin Mohammad, Alexander Fessas and Clément Fouchard, whose terms ended this year. Mohammad, Fessas and Fouchard are founding members of PAW, having served on the board since the organisation was established in 2020. 

Diawara currently serves as the ICC’s director for arbitration and alternative dispute resolution for Africa, while Paparemborde is an associate in Bredin Prat’s international arbitration team. Thieffry, meanwhile, works as a senior associate in Reed Smith’s Paris office. 

The latest appointments will see Diawara and Paparemborde become vice-presidents of the board, while the current co-presidents – Sabrina Aïnouz, Claire Pauly and Benjamin Siino – have been re-elected to serve a new term. 

Thieffry, meanwhile, will serve as treasurer of the PAW ‘bureau’, which together with the board forms PAW’s organising committee. Marily Paralika and Raphaël Kaminsky will serve as co-presidents of the bureau’s administrative arm and Ioana Knoll-Tudor will serve as secretary general. 

This reshuffle follows three months after the sixth edition of PAW's event, which had 8,300 attendees, including 99 partners. The next event will be held between 27 and 31 March in 2023. 

It is the most-attended international arbitration event globally, with 114 events on the calendar for the sixth edition.  

On her departure, Mohammad remarked: “Stepping down from the PAW Board may feel today like leaving a party at its height but I know that the remaining and newly elected team is going to take PAW to new heights and impressive unchartered territories. I could not be more proud of what we created together nor can I wait to see what comes next for PAW next.” 

The organisation said the latest appointments reflect the ‘breadth and diversity’ that PAW aims to promote by 'reaching out to all arbitration practitioners around the world, with the view to connecting the international arbitration community’.