Philip Winter grew up in the UK and read Classics at Cambridge University. He has lived and worked in Africa since 1975, starting his career as Manager of Juba Boatyard in South Sudan (1976–81). Later he became Chief of Staff for the late Sir Ketumile Masire, the former President of Botswana and Facilitator of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, 2000-2003. He has in addition worked as Managing Director of Mpala Ranch and Research Centre, in Kenya, and as Field Director for Save the Children UK in the DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Southern Sudan.  In 2005, he was awarded the OBE for services to conflict resolution in Africa. He is a Founding Fellow of the Rift Valley Institute and the author of A Sacred Cause: The Inter-Congolese Dialogue 2000-2003 and  “A Border Too  Far - the Ilemi Triangle Yesterday and Today”, written when he was Sir William Luce Fellow at Durham University in 2019.