Background
He was born in Liverpool and in 1963 moved with his family to Birkenhead.
He was born in Liverpool and in 1963 moved with his family to Birkenhead.
In 1968 he joined the British Army, where he served for 18 years as a military engineer During the late 1980s he worked in Darfur and Afghanistan, advising non-governmental organisations and establishing landmine clearance operations. He founded the Mines Advisory Group in 1989, after seeing the impact of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) on civilians in Afghanistan, and became an internationally acknowledged expert on the impact of landmines and cluster munitions on relief and humanitarian efforts in the Balkans, Africa, and Asia.
He is currently the Mercy Corps" Senior Director Migration Response since February 2016, after nearly three years as Country Director for North Syria and Turkey, also for Mercy Corps.
In 1992 he co-founded the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, an international coalition of organisations opposed to the deployment of landmines, and persuaded Princess Diana to give her active support to the campaign in 1997. He has also organised programmes responding to natural emergencies, such as the 2004 tsunami in Aceh as well as emergencies in Ethiopia and Somaila.
He worked as Senior Programme Manager for emergency response with Save the Children United Kingdom from 2007 until 2012 and is now the Senior Director Migration Response Mercy Corps based in Turkey, Greece and the Balkans. In 2014 McGrath was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of New York