Jamal Haidar

Jamal Ibrahim Haidar is currently an assistant professor of economics at The American University in Cairo (AUC). Currently, Jamal is also a Research Associate at the Middle East Initiative, Harvard University. He joined AUC after completing a three-year postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard University. He holds a PhD in economics from the Paris School of Economics, University of Paris-1 Pantheon Sorbonne (FR), a MA degree in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University (US) and a MSc degree in international finance from Cass Business School, City University London (UK). Previously, he worked at the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, International Monetary Fund, and the Institute of International Finance in Washington DC. His fields of specialization are international economics and development economics.  All his current research projects are in the Middle East, a region in which he travels extensively. His research work has been featured in The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, La Tribune, Le Monde, and other media outlets.

Jessica Obeid

Jessica Obeid is an energy policy consultant working with governments and international organizations in the Middle East on electricity and energy transition. She is also an Academy Associate at Chatham House’s energy, environment and resources department - London, where she previously served as resident fellow, with a focus on energy diversification and electricity utilities. Jessica also serves as Senior Advisor for London-based consultancy Castlereagh Associates. Formerly the chief energy engineer at the United Nations Development Programme in Beirut, Jessica has a decade experience in the deployment of renewable energy in developing countries, before moving into policy. She has published widely and regularly provides expert commentary to leading media outlets. In addition to her consultancy work, her recent research covers the political economy of energy diversification, the governance of alternative energy, and the prospects of electricity exchange in the Middle East. Jessica has been awarded the US State Department’s TechWomen and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s International Leaders fellowships. She holds a master’s degree in Political Sciences and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering.

Joulan Abdul Khalek

Joulan Abdul Khalek joined the World Bank in 2012 as an economist specializing in Information and Communication Technologies.
He is currently working as an independent senior specialist, consulting with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Telecom Media and Technology. Over the past ten years, Joulan has helped startups, private sector organizations, and government agencies implement new technology initiatives. He has advocated for digital inclusion and skills in a total of 21 countries around the world, including ten in the Middle East and North Africa.
Joulan is also an Artificial Intelligence (AI) entrepreneur and holds a patent for his work on developing low-cost and decentralized machine-learning systems in urban environments. Prior to the World Bank, he worked at the Carnegie Middle East Center and Daimler AG.
Joulan holds a post-graduate degree in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and degrees in Economics and Engineering Management from the American University of Beirut. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Computational Media and Arts at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Fadi Nicholas Nassar

Fadi Nicholas Nassar is a Research Fellow at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS). His research focuses on international humanitarian and relief interventions in fragile and conflict settings, popular uprisings and social movements, and Lebanese and Middle Eastern politics. He is currently overseeing projects aimed at finding sustainable pathways out of Lebanon’s multiple crises. Fadi is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and Director of the Institute for Social Justice and Conflict Resolution at the Lebanese American University (LAU). He holds a PhD from the War Studies Department at King’s College London. A graduate of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, he also received a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University.

Mounir Mahmalat

Dr. Mounir Mahmalat is a consultant at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies. His research focuses on the political economy of reform, exploring the conditions that facilitate or hinder political collaboration. He holds a PhD in political economy from Dublin City University.

Samar Khalil

B.Sc. in Environmental Health, American University of Beirut (1999)
M.Sc. in Environmental Impact Assessment, Auditing, and Management Systems, University of East Anglia (2000)
M.Phil. in Economics, University of Bath (2012)
Samar Khalil is an environmental management specialist with 19+ years of experience in integrated environmental management, including waste management, environmental economics, cleaner production, pollution abatement, environmental impact assessment and auditing, occupational health and safety, risk assessment, industrial hygiene, and control of hazardous substances. She has 12 years of experience in managing international development projects and leading multidisciplinary teams. She worked in the academic sector (American University of Beirut and University of Balamand), the public sector (as a project manager for two international projects funded by the EU and GEF on waste management), the private sector (Geoflint, Kabbara & Associates), and consulted with international organizations (UNEP MAP, SCPRAC, and the World Bank). She is an excellent networker with stakeholders, including public, private, non-governmental, and academic organizations. She also has many years of experience in monitoring and evaluation, research, report writing, and oral presentation. She has a deep knowledge of national environmental policies and regulations and sectoral knowledge of regional regulations, after having worked in Lebanon and the region—including Jordan, Syria, and Tunisia—over the past two decades. She is actively working with civil society organizations pushing for sound environmental policies.

Carole Nakhle

Dr. Carole Nakhle is an energy economist specializing in international petroleum contractual arrangements and fiscal regimes for the oil and gas industry; upstream oil and gas regulations; petroleum revenue management and governance; energy policy; security and investment; and world oil and gas market developments. Nakhle is the founder and CEO of Crystol Energy, an advisory, research, and training firm based in London and has worked with oil and gas companies (NOCs and IOCs), governments and policy makers, international organizations, academic institutions, and specialized think tanks across the globe. Nakhle acts as a Visiting Lecturer at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University, the Graduate School of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Saint Joseph University in Beirut, and the University of Surrey in the UK, in addition to being a fellow at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies. She has authored two books: 'Petroleum Taxation: Sharing the Wealth' and 'Out of the Energy Labyrinth.'

Reinoud Leenders

Dr. Reinoud Leenders is Reader in International Relations and Middle East Studies in the War Studies Department at King’s College London. His research interests and teaching are focused on Middle East politics generally and Syria, Lebanon and Iraq in particular. His work deals with the political economy of corruption, authoritarian governance, refugee issues, and conflict. He authored several articles in academic journals and edited volumes, and the book Spoils of Truce: Corruption and State Building in Post-War Lebanon (Cornell University Press 2012). He formerly worked for the International Crisis Group based in Beirut, and for the University of Amsterdam. Dr. Leenders obtained his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University.

Bassam Fattouh

Dr. Bassam Fattouh is the Director of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; Research Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford University; and Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He has published a variety of articles on the international oil markets, the oil pricing system, natural gas markets in the MENA, and the dynamics of oil prices and oil price differentials in refereed journals such as Energy Economics, The Energy Journal, and Energy Policy. He has also published in non-energy related areas where his papers have appeared in the Journal of Development Economics, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Economic Inquiry, Empirical Economics, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Economics Letters, Macroeconomic Dynamics and in other journals and books. He is also a Consultant for a number of international oil companies, and a Visiting Professor at the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po, and WU Executive Academy (Vienna University of Economics and Business). Bassam holds a PhD in Economics from SOAS, University of London.

Leila Dagher

Leila Dagher is an Associate Professor of Economics at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and is currently an Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy in Lebanon. She previously served as the Director of the Institute of Financial Economics (AUB), chaired the Department of Economics (AUB), and has been an adjunct lecturer at George Washington University (GWU) since 2016. Dr. Dagher’s research is at the nexus of energy, environment, and economics. Using econometrics tools, she studies various aspects of the environmental and energy sectors. Her research is frequently presented at international conferences such as the ASSA and the WEAI annual conferences, and has appeared in Energy Journal, Energy Policy, Energy Economics, and other leading peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Dagher has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, the National Renewable Energy Lab, as well as other higher education and research institutions. Since 2019, she has been serving as an Associate Editor for Finance Research Letters and as a
Member of the International Advisory Board for Energy Policy. Dr. Dagher holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the American University of Beirut and a PhD in Mineral Economics from the Colorado School of Mines.

Bassel F. Salloukh

Dr. Bassel F. Salloukh is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Lebanese American University, Beirut. His current research looks at post-conflict power-sharing arrangements, the challenge of re-assembling the political orders and societies of post-uprisings Arab states, and the geopolitics of the Middle East after the popular uprisings. He is author, co-author, and co-editor of a number of books, chapters, and journal articles, including The Politics of Sectarianism in Postwar Lebanon (Pluto Press, 2015), Beyond the Arab Spring: Authoritarianism and Democratization in the Arab World (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012), Mapping the Political Landscape: An Introduction to Political Science, 2nd edition (Nelson Publishers, 2007), and Persistent Permeability: Regionalism, Localism, and Globalization in the Middle East (Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004). Salloukh is inaugural officer of the American Political Science Association (APSA) MENA Politics Section, a member of the Arab Political Science Network’s (APSN) Advisory Committee for 2019-2021, a member of Middle East Law and Governance Advisory Board (2019-), a member of the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) Steering Committee, and a member of APSA MENA Workshops Planning Committee. He is also Senior Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Interuniversity Consortium for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (ICAMES), McGill University. He is a contributor to policy journals and on-line academic forums and newspapers, including Foreign Affairs, Washington Post’s the Monkey Cage, openDemocracy, and the Middle East Institute. He tweets at @bassel67.

Zafiris Tzannatos

Dr. Zafiris Tzannatos is currently a senior consultant for Development Strategy and Social Policy living in Lebanon, where he was previously the chair of the Economics Department at AUB. He has served as an advisor to the managing director of the World Bank, where he was also the manager in the MENA region and leader of the Global Child Labor Program that he initiated. More recently, Dr. Tzannatos was a senior advisor to 22 Arab States at the International Labour Organization, and prior to that, for governments in the Middle East and the GCC—including Lebanon (Ministry of Social Affairs), Qatar (Planning Council), and the UAE (Abu Dhabi Executive Council). He has held senior academic and research appointments in Europe, visited more than 65 countries, and worked with regional and international organizations as well as governments of industrialized, transition, and emerging economies across all continents. Dr. Tzannatos’s publications include fifteen books and monographs, and more than 200 reports and papers in the areas of development strategy, labor economics, education, gender, child labor, and broader social policy.

Mary Kawar

Mary Kawar has 30 years developmental and public policy experience. Her most recent appointment was Minister of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC) in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Dr. Omar Razzaz. Prior to that, she was Country Director for the International Labour Organization (ILO) for five countries in East Africa and had also served as Adviser to the Jordanian Minister of Labor on leave from the ILO.
As Minister, Kawar led and negotiated over 3.5 billion USD in donor support that aimed to reduce the gap in public finances, enhance competitiveness, attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), improve governance and support the social sectors in areas such as job creation, health services, poverty. She managed Jordan’s Response Plan for the Syrian Refugee Crisis, and was the UN focal point guiding coordination and the SDG agenda. She co-led (with the Royal Hashemite Court) The Jordan Growth and Opportunity Conference at the London Initiative (2019) that marked a new partnership approach between Jordan and the international community in pursuit of Jordan’s sustainable growth and self-reliance. She also led the development of the Poverty Reduction and Social Protection Strategy, chaired the Inter-Ministerial committee on gender equality, and was Governor of several international organizations including the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. She also promoted institutional development and restructured MoPIC to increase its effectiveness and efficiency.
At the ILO between 1997 and 2017 Kawar held several senior positions at ILO Headquarters in Geneva, the Regional Office for Arab States and Regional Office for Africa. During her tenure at the ILO she engaged in analytical and operational activities at global, regional and country level including in Asia (India, Iran, Nepal and Sri Lanka), Africa (Burundi, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) and across the whole Arab Region. She developed and led strategies, policies and programs across a wide range of economic and social issues such as formal and informal employment, working conditions, skills development, vocational education, gender, youth, child labor, migration, refugees, domestic workers and more broadly social protection. She coordinated large teams in many countries undertaking complex multi-sectoral evidence based policy-relevant reports and activities (including on the MDGs and SDGs) involving substantial resource mobilization and effective implementation of programs with UN agencies, international financial institutions as well as with multilateral and bilateral donors.
Born in Amman, Kawar studied social policy and development planning at the London School of Economics from where she was awarded her PhD having previously obtained a first degree from Tufts University, USA, in anthropology with a minor in economics. She is Senior Policy Associate at the Economic Research Forum of the Middle East, North Africa, Iran and Turkey (Cairo) and member of the Advisory Committee of Arab Council for the Social Sciences (Beirut). She has published several books, policy guidelines, articles, research papers and op-eds on a wide range of economic and social policies, and has made numerous media appearances, interviews and presentations at global, regional and national conferences.

Ishac Diwan

Ishac Diwan is the Chaire d'Excellence Monde Arabe at Paris Sciences et Lettres. He received his PhD in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. He taught international finance at NYU's Business School from 1984-87. In 1987, he joined the World Bank's Research Complex, where he focused on international finance, trade, and macroeconomics. In 1992, with the coming of the Oslo Agreements, he joined the World Bank’s Middle East Department, first as the country economist for the West Bank and Gaza and later as a regional economist. He contributed to the creation of the prime network of economists in the Middle East, the Economic Research Forum, and of a regional policy forum, the Mediterranean Development Forum. In 1996, he joined the World Bank Institute and led the Economic Policy group (1996-2002), creating the Attacking Poverty Program and contributing to the initiation of the Global Development Network. Diwan lived in Addis Abeba (2002-07) and Accra (2007-11), as the Bank's Country Director for Ethiopia and Sudan first, and then for Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, and Guinea. He led several ambitious initiatives, such as Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net, Ethiopia's Protection of Basic Services Program, and in West Africa, initiatives to support commercial agriculture, natural resources development, and jobs for the youth. He taught Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government and was Director for Africa and the Middle East at the Growth Lab of the Center for International Development from 2011-2014. Ishac was the MEI Spring 2017 Kuwait Foundation Visiting Scholar.

Mona Khechen

Mona Khechen is independent urban development planner and researcher, and a part-time faculty member at the American University of Beirut (AUB). She has provided consultancy services to various international organizations (AFD, AKTC, ESCWA, UNDP, UN-Habitat, World Bank) and worked with the private and the non-profit sectors in Lebanon and abroad. Her work portfolio includes a wide range of projects and policy-oriented studies that address the socio-economic and spatial aspects of urban development particularly in contexts of rapid urbanization, post-conflict recovery, poverty, and massive migration and population displacements. She has also guided territorial investments and local development strategies and participated in social impacts assessments and project evaluations. Mona’s work integrates the spatial, social, economic, cultural, environmental, and institutional dimensions of urban development and planning, and advocates strategic, sustainable, inclusive and participatory interventions and policy responses. Her research interests include socio-spatial inequalities, urban transformations, urban heritage and cultural landscapes, memory and identity, gentrification, displacement, spatial politics, and social justice. She has BArch from AUB (1991), MSc in Development and Planning from University College London (2000), and Doctor of Design (PhD equivalent) with a focus on urban heritage and development from Harvard University (2004).

Laura Paler

Laura Paler is an Assistant Professor in the political science department at the University of Pittsburgh, specializing in comparative politics, the political economy of development, and political behavior. Her research focuses on: (i) how taxes, natural resources and aid affect political behavior and development; (ii) the determinants of conflict and post-conflict reintegration; and (iii) the role of cross-cutting social identities in shaping political preferences and behavior. She undertake large-scale field research projects that employ experimental and quasi-experimental methods for causal inference and that involve the collection of extensive original survey and behavioral data. Her research is based on work in a diverse group of countries, including Indonesia, Colombia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Lebanon. It has been published or is forthcoming in leading journals in the discipline, including The American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, The Quarterly Journal of Political Science, and Comparative Political Studies. She is currently a member of the Evidence in Governance and Politics network (EGAP), on the advisory board of the Project on Resources and Governance (PRG), a co-convener of the Northeast Workshop in Empirical Political Science, and a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development. She received her Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.

Eric Verdeil

After graduating in Geography and in Urban Planning (Ecole normale supérieure, Paris, Institut français d’urbanisme, Université Paris 8), Eric Verdeil earned a PhD in Geography (2002, Université Paris I-Sorbonne). He specializes in urban geography. Since September 2016, he is University Professor at Sciences Po Paris. Previously, a was a CNRS Researcher, and a member of the reasearch team LATTS at University Paris Est since 2015. Before that, he worked in Lyon (2003-2015) and at the French Institute of the Near East (IFPO), Beirut. His interests include the sociology and history of urbanism and the current transformations of urban management policies, specifically urban infrastructure (energy, water, solid waste). He conducted most of his research in the Middle East and particularly in Lebanon, after a dissertation dealing with planning cultures and urban politics through the case of Beirut’s reconstruction. His fieldworks recently expanded towards the South and the East of the Mediterranean, most notably Jordan and Tunisia. His publications include Beyrouth et ses urbanistes : une ville en plans (2010, IFPO), Atlas du Liban. Territoires et société (codirection avec Ghaleb Faour et Sébastien Velut, 2007, IFPO; new revised edition in 2016 under the title of Atlas du Liban. Les nouveaux défis, English translation Atlas of Lebanon. The New Challenges, 2019) ainsi que Concevoir et gérer les villes. Milieux d’urbanistes du Sud de la Méditerranée (en codirection avec Taoufik Souami, 2006, Economica) and several thematic issues in academic journals. He is a member of the editorial board of Fluxand Jadaliyya Cities. He blogs on Rumor (Urban Research in the Middle East and elsewhere) where he writes about his current activities. He teaches at the Urban School, Sciences Po Paris.

Basem Shabb

Dr. Basem Shabb served in the Lebanese Parliament from 2005 to 2018. During his tenure, he served on several committees addressing important challenges such as defense, economic policy, and human rights. He was also a member of the Parliamentary Network of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as well as the Congressional US-Lebanon Friendship Caucus. He was a parliamentary representative at the EU-Lebanese security committee on illicit firearms, small arms and light weapons, and served as Lebanon’s representative at the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law. Additionally, Dr. Shabb was part of the Lebanese parliamentary delegation that visited Norway to gather more information about oil and gas exploration and legislation. He is a surgeon and a clinical associate professor of surgery at the Lebanese American University. He is a founding member of the Euro-Asian Bridge Society of Cardiac Surgeons and as well as that of the Lebanese Association for Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Bioethics.