SESSION SPEAKERS
HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies
Member of the Board of Directors, Beirut Institute (Saudi Arabia)
His Royal Highness Prince Turki Al Faisal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud was born on February 15, 1945, in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. HRH began his schooling at the Model School in Taif and went on to gain his high school diploma at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. HRH then completed his studies at Georgetown University.
His Royal Highness was appointed as an Advisor at the Royal Court in 1973. In 1977 HRH was appointed Director General (with a rank of Minister) of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), Saudi Arabia's main foreign intelligence service and served as the head of the GID until August 2001.
In October 2002 His Royal Highness was appointed as the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. HRH served in that position until July 2005, when he was appointed as Ambassador to the United States. He retired in February 2007.
A Founder and Trustee of the King Faisal Foundation, His Royal Highness is also the Chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies.
Additionally, His Royal Highness is a Trustee of the Oxford Islamic Center at Oxford University and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University. HRH received an honorary PhD in Law in 2010 from the University of Ulster in Ireland, an honorary PhD in International Politics in 2011 from the University of Hankuk in Korea and an honorary PhD in 2015 from the University of Shanghai. HRH is a visiting Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University.
His Royal Highness is an active participant in the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, the Global Economic Symposium, and the Clinton Global Initiative’s Annual Meeting. HRH is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Library of Alexandria, a member of the Board of the Beirut Institute, member of the Board of Trustees of the Council for Arab & International Relations, member of the Board of Directors of Al-Quds Fund & Endowment and a member of the Advisory Council of the Munich Security Conference. In September 2015, the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’ appointed HRH as an honorary professor and the Fondazione Mediterraneo in Naples, Italy granted Mediterranean Award for Diplomacy 2015 to HRH.
HE Noura bint Mohammed Al KaabiHer Excellency Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi is the Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development whose primary mission is to promote the acquisition of knowledge and the overall cultural environment.
Prior to this, Her Excellency was appointed as the UAE Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs to act as the key link between the Cabinet and the Federal National Council.
Noura is also Chairwoman of the Media Zone Authority - Abu Dhabi (MZA) and twofour54. She is also a board member of the UAE’s National Media Council, Abu Dhabi Media, Image Nation, the Abu Dhabi Sports Council and the United Arab Emirates University.
HE Noura Al Kaabi holds B.A. in MIS from UAE University in 2001 She has also completed the Executive Leadership Programme from London Business School in 2011.
HE Ahmed Aboul GheitAhmed Aboul-Gheit (Born 12 June 1942) is an Egyptian diplomat who has been Secretary-General of the Arab League since March 2016.
Aboul-Gheit served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt from 11 July 2004 to 6 March 2011; previously he was Egypt's Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
In December 2005, he began mediating the Chad-Sudan conflict. He was succeeded as Minister of Foreign Affairs by ICJ judge Nabil Elaraby in March 2011. He was elected as Secretary-General of the Arab League in March 2016.
Born in Heliopolis in Cairo on 12 June 1942. He started his career as Third Secretary at the Embassy of Cyprus; subsequently he was First Secretary for Egypt's mission to the United Nations, Political Consultant at the Egyptian Embassy in the Soviet Union in 1984, and Ambassador of Egypt to Italy, Macedonia and San Marino. In 1999 he was the head of Egypt's permanent delegation to the United Nations.
On 26 December 2010, Aboul Gheit opened the first Egyptian consulate outside Baghdad in the northern city of Erbil in a one-day visit to Iraq, where he also held talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.Aboul Gheit was elected as Secretary-General of the Arab League in March 2016.
HE Abdullatif bin Rashid Al ZayaniHis Excellency Dr. Abul Latif Bin Rashid Al Zayani graduated from Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK in 1973. He received a degree in aircraft engineering with distinction from Perth College, Scotland in 1978. In 1980 he earned Masters with honors in Logistics Management from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Ohio, USA. He was awarded PhD for his research in operations from the Naval War College in 1986. He graduated from Command and General Staff College(CGSC), Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1988.
He has occupied many high-ranking positions in Bahrain Defense Forces, the last of which was Assistant Chief of Staff of Operations until 2004. He was appointed Head of Public Security with the rank of General. Thereafter he became adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2010. In April 2011, he was appointed Secretary-general of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf in 2011.
He worked as a lecturer in Arabian Gulf University. He also worked as Professor of Mathematics and Statistics in Maryland University, Bahrain, and as Professor of Quantitative Methods in Bahrain University.
HE Nohad El MachnoukNohad Machnouk was appointed as the minister of interior and municipalities in Prime Minister Tamam Salam’s government on 15-2-2014. He is a member of the "Future Bloc" coalition and the "Lebanon first" parliamentary alliance. He serves of the committees for Human Rights and Foreign Affairs.
Machnouk started his career as a journalist and writer and has thrived at the crossroads of politics and journalism ever since. In the 1970s, Machnouk began to work for the local newspaper Beirut Al Masa and then later for the pan-Arab magazine Al Hawadeth. He specialized in the Arab-Israeli conflict and became one of its most prominent analysts.
He then went on to write for Al Ousbou’ Al Arabi, Assayad, Al Anwar, Al Dustur, and then finally settled at Annahar Al Arabi wal Douwali where he would cover an array of topics pertaining to regional politics. In 1983, Machnouk contributed to the founding of Al Liqaa Al Islami, a political gathering of prominent politicians and civil society leaders led by the late Mufti Hassan Khaled that called for an end to Syrian dominance of Lebanon and a halt to civil conflict.
After several figures of the gathering were assassinated, including the Mufti Khaled, Machnouk moved from Lebanon and settled in Cyprus then Paris up till the early 1990s. In 1988, he began working with the late Prime Minister Rafik El Hariri on the Solidaire Project and, when Hariri was chosen to form the postwar government in 1992, Machnouk was appointed Senior Political and Media advisor for the prime minister. He served in this position up till 1998, when Syrian Intelligence forced him into exile given his anti-Syrian tendencies and amidst an orchestrated effort to weaken Hariri as a prelude to his exclusion from public life.
Machnouk took residence in Paris and then Cairo for five years, and then returned to Beirut in 2003 but remained banned from participating in public life until the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon in 2005. In 2005, Machnouk returned to journalism, and began writing a weekly column for Lebanese Daily Assafir, an article which was simultaneously published by the Emirati newspaper Al Bayan up till 2009. In 2010, he became a member of the Council of Trustees of the Yasser Arafat Institution.
Gen. David H. Petraeus
General David H. Petraeus is one of the most prominent U.S. military figures of the post-9/11 era and has been described as "one of the great battle captains" in American military history. Following his military service, he served as Director of the CIA. He is now a Partner with the global investment firm KKR and Chairman of the KKR Global Institute.
During his 37-year career in the United States Army, General Petraeus was widely recognized for his oversight of the organization that produced the U.S. Army’s counterinsurgency manual and overhauled all aspects of preparing leaders and units for deployment to combat; for his leadership of the Surge in Iraq; and for his command of coalition forces in Afghanistan. He culminated his military career with six consecutive commands as a general officer, five of which were in combat, a record believed unmatched in the post-World War II era.
A graduate with distinction from the United States Military Academy and the top graduate of his Command and General Staff College Class, General Petraeus also earned a Ph.D. in an interdisciplinary program of international relations and economics from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. He taught economics and international relations at the United States Military Academy and, after leaving government, he was a visiting professor of public policy for 3-1/2 years at the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College.
After General Petraeus’ retirement from the military, following confirmation by the Senate by a vote of 94-0, he served as Director of the CIA as the Agency played the central role in a number of achievements in the global war on terror, established a strategic campaign plan for the Agency, and pursued initiatives to invest additional resources in the Agency’s most important element, its human capital.
General Petraeus has been Chairman of the KKR Global Institute for five years and a partner with the firm for three-and-a-half years. He is also a member of the board of Optiv (a global provider of cyber security services), a Judge Widney Professor at the University of Southern California, and a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center.Over the past dozen years, General Petraeus has been named a runner-up for Time magazine’s Person of the Year, the Daily Telegraph man of the year, a Time 100 selectee, and one of Foreign Policy magazine’s top 100 public intellectuals.
General Petraeus has been awarded numerous U.S. military, State Department, NATO, and United Nations medals, including four awards of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, the Combat Action Badge, the Ranger Tab, and Master Parachutist Wings. He has also been decorated by 13 foreign countries.
Raghida DerghamRaghida Dergham is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Beirut Institute and Columnist for The National. She served as Columnist, Senior Diplomatic Correspondent, and NY Bureau Chief for the London based Al-Hayat for 28 years.
She has contributed to Al Joumhouria, Huffington Post, Arab News, Al Arabiya English, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsweek. She was a political analyst for NBC, MSNBC, and LBC for eight years as well as a contributing editor for Global Viewpoint produced for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
Since founding Beirut Institute, she has partnered with remarkable board members, global think tanks, exceptional staff, and with host governments of the Beirut Institute Summit such as the United Arab Emirates. Such partnering has allowed her to lead an organization since its inception till it became a highly respected global brand recognized by other think tanks all over the world.
A specialist on global strategy, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an Honorary Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association. Dergham served on the International Media Council of the World Economic Forum and is on the Development Advisory Committee of the InterAcademy Partnership, a global network of science academies.
Dergham is a frequent lecturer at universities, think tanks, and business councils throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. She has spoken at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and Georgetown among other distinguished universities. Dergham is a frequent participant in Policy conferences worldwide.
As an international correspondent and television commentator on global affairs in the US, Europe, Russia, China and the Arab world, Dergham has been seen as a woman who broke the glass ceiling multiple times and inspired young women to become political commentators and analysts. Her first television appearance was as a guest of the prestigious McNeil Lehrer News Hour in 1979 at age 26. Since then, she has made over a thousand appearances as a global affairs specialist and expert on the UN.
Since the late 1980s, Dergham has interviewed over 40 global heads of state and leaders including US president George W Bush, Russia's president Boris Yeltsin, Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak, HM King Hussain of Jordan and HM King Abdullah II of Jordan, Iran's president Abolhassan Bani Sadr, Palestinian presidents Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, France's president Giscard d'Estaing, Philippine’s president Ferdinand Marcos, India's prime minister Rajiv Ghandi, Sweden's prime minister Olof Palme- and over 80 ministers from all over the globe. She covered the historic American-Soviet summits and 27th Soviet Communist Party Congress. Dergham has interviewed and worked with succeeding UN Secretary Generals, including, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Boutros Boutros Ghali, Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon, among others. She moderated a roundtable of eight presidents and prime ministers for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Bangkok.
While President of the United Nations Correspondents Association in 1997, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Dergham as a member of the Task Force on the Reorientation of Public Information. She served as Chairman of the Dag Hammarskjold Fund Board in 2005.
Dergham was featured in PBS Documentary "Caught in The Crossfire” and is quoted in several books in many languages. A recipient of numerous lifetime achievement awards, she is in the State University of New York’s (SUNY) Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Alumna and has received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in 2003 from SUNY which comprises the largest comprehensive system of universities and colleges in the world.
She was named one of the 100 Most Powerful Arab Women in 2011 and in 2016, and in 2017 she was named "Arab Woman of the Year" for her achievements in Journalism.
For more information: www.beirutinstitute.org and @RaghidaDergham | @BeirutInstitute
MP Alistair Burt
Alistair Burt was appointed Minister of State for the Middle East at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Minister of State at the Department for International Development on 13 June 2017. He entered Parliament for the first time in 1983 and was elected Conservative MP for north east Bedfordshire in 2001. Alistair served as Minister of State for Community and Social Care at the Department of Health from May 2015 until July 2016. Previously he served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office from May 2010 until October 2013.
Alistair was educated at Bury Grammar School, and studied at St John’s College Oxford, where he was president of the university law society.
Political career
• Member of Parliament for Bury North 1983 to 1997
• Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for the Environment, for Education and Science and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1985 to 1990
• Parliamentary Under Secretary of State then Minister of State, Department of Social Security 1992 to 1997
• Member of Parliament for north east Bedfordshire 2001 to present
• Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition 2002 to 2005
• Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government 2005 to 2008
• Opposition Assistant Chief Whip 2008 to 2010
• Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Foreign & Commonwealth Office May 2010 to October 2013
• Minister of State for Community and Social Care at the Department of Health from May 2015 to July 2016
Ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy
Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy’s diplomatic career spans over 41 years with a primary focus on international security, non-proliferation and disarmament. Prior to assuming his present position as UN Deputy Special Envoy for Syria in September 2014, Ambassador Ramzy served in the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 38 years which culminated in the position of Senior Under-Secretary. He also served as Assistant Minister for International Economic Affairs; Deputy Assistant Minister for Disarmament and International Security; and Director for United Nations Affairs. Ambassador Ramzy served as ambassador to Germany, Austria and Brazil and as non-resident ambassador to Slovakia, Surinam and Guyana. He was the Egyptian Permanent Representative to UN and other international organizations in Vienna where he also served as Governor of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board. He was also DCM at the Egyptian embassy in Washington D.C., Political Counselor in Moscow and at the Permanent Mission to the UN in New York. Ambassador Ramzy served for one year as the League of Arab States permanent observer to the UN and other international organisations in Vienna. Ambassador Ramzy was educated at the American University in Cairo and Surrey University in the U.K.
HE Amre Moussa
Amre Moussa was the Egyptian Ambassador to India (1983-1986). Then he became the Permanent Representative of Egypt to the U.N (1990-1991), the Foreign Minister of Egypt (1991-2001) and the Secretary General of the League of Arab States (2001-2011).
He ran for President of Egypt in the first democratic elections following the 25th of January Revolution as an independent candidate with a vision for democracy and a firm call for reforming Egypt's bureaucratic and economic infrastructure. He lost the elections but continued his political career and was elected member of the Constitutional Assembly to write the constitution of 2012. He led the Liberal members' efforts to produce a more liberal constitution, and then led a collective withdrawal protesting attempts to monopolize the drafting of the constitution.
Moussa then founded the Congress party of Egypt and was the convener of the meeting of the Egyptian opposition that launched the National Salvation Front on the same day the dictatorial Constitutional decree of November 2012 was issued by ex-President Morsi. Moussa called all political forces to meet few hours after the decree was issued, to organize the opposition to the decree. He played a principal role in the popular move that caused it to be retracted.
Amre Moussa was one of the leaders who called for and marched during the June 30th revolution brought in reforms in accordance with a Road Map that started with amending the 2012 constitution and holding parliamentary and presidential elections. Moussa was elected chairman of the 50-member Constituent Committee to amend the constitution. The assembly succeeded in producing the new constitution which was approved on 18th January 2014.
Amre Moussa continues to work with several Arab and International political think tanks. In Egypt, he was selected as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Nile University and member of the Board of Trustees of the Egyptian British University and the Library of Alexandria. Moussa also founded the association to protect the Constitution, a civil society organization.
He was awarded the Order of the Nile from Egypt, the Order of the Two Niles from the Sudanese Republic, the Supreme Order of the Renaissance from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a high order from the State of Qatar, in addition to orders and decorations from Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Ambassador Abdullah Bishara
• Date of Birth: 7/11/1936.
• Nationality: Kuwaiti
• 1959 B.A Cairo university
• 1961-1960 Balliol college, oxford
• 1960 Joined Kuwait foreign Diplomacy
• 1964-1971 Director, office of the Foreign Minister
• 1971-1981 Ambassador of Kuwait to the United Nations
• Feb-1979 president of the security council
• 1981-1993 Secretary general of Gulf Cooperation Council
• Member of G.C.C Advisory Council since 1998.
• advisor to research Centers, and a regular columnist and lecturer on Diplomacy and Strategy.
• President of Diplomatic Center for Strategic Studies
• Coordinator; British-Kuwait friendship society
HE Mohamed Dayri
Mohamed Dayri, is a Libyan politician. He has been the foreign minister of Libya from the Tobruk-based Council of Deputies since 28 September 2014. He graduated in Law faculty at the University of Grenoble, and got a master's degree in law from the same university. He is a diplomat since.
Mahmoud Gebril
Mahmoud Gebril was born on 1952 in Benghazi, Libya; He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science with honours from Egypt’s Cairo University in 1975. He then earned both his master’s and PhD degrees in political science and strategic planning and foreign policy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1980 and 1985, respectively. Gebril, served as a teaching assistant for undergraduate courses on foreign policy. Following completion of his doctorate, He served as a professor at the University of Pittsburgh for two years.
Mahmoud Gebril’s career after that focused on the field of Development, where he led and developed many national strategic programs and executive leadership capacity building programs across the globe.
In 2007 he was appointed Secretary General of the National Planning Council in Libya. He led the work on Libya Vision 2025 and during that period he also presided over the National Economic Development Board which instigated a number of key socio-economic structural reform initiatives.
In 2011 Mahmoud Gebril joined the Libyan revolution since its early days and was the lead architect of the Interim National Transitional Council of Libya (INTC acting as the Interim Premier and Foreign Minister from 5th of March, 2011, until he announced his resignation from that post following the national liberation proclamation of the country on the 23rd of October 2011.).
On March, 2012 Gebril was elected president of the National Forces Alliance (NFA), a grouping which he cofounded with a wide range of national forces working to build the foundations of a democratic civil state winning over 60% of the votes contested by political parties on July 7th 2012 elections for the General National Congress.
Mahmoud Gebril wrote and continues to lecture extensively on the future, development, the need for reshaping the Arab mind. Mahmoud Gebril is the chairman of Foundation for Education and Development (FEED) – Brussels, and Chairman of the Board of GETRAC International (consulting & training firm).
He is also a board member of: - The Sir Bani Yas Forum (Think Tank Centre) – Abu Dhabi - The Independent Commission on Multilateralism ICM - (The International Peace Institute – New York) - UniCredit Group International Advisory Board - World Future Society member since 1988 - Secretary General of "Horizon 21" a futuristic NGO - President of the Foundation of Education and Effective Development (FEED)
Mr. Gebril received the award of the Crans Montana Forum’s Gold Medal in 2014 in recognition of his successful achievements in favourmg of a more Humane World.
HE Nabil Fahmy
Nabil Fahmy is the founding dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP) at The American University in Cairo (AUC), where he is also a professor of practice. Fahmy served as foreign minister of Egypt from July 2013 to June 2014. He steered the course of Egypt’s diplomacy during times of immense challenges. During his tenure as minister, Fahmy formulated a strategy to reorient Egypt’s foreign policy, ensuring that Egypt had numerous foreign policy options, both regionally and globally. He also restructured the Egyptian Foreign Ministry in order to address the future challenges confronting Egypt’s foreign policy. During his distinguished diplomatic career Fahmy served as Egypt’s ambassador to Japan from 1997-1999 and the United States from 1999 to 2008, as well as in numerous government and international positions, focusing in his work on many areas including: international and regional security; disarmament and non-proliferation; and Arab Israeli diplomacy. He was a member of the Egyptian delegation to many international conferences and boards including: the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference; the Review Conferences of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; Rapporteur of Committee on Principles in the United Nations Conference on Promoting International Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy; United Nations Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters; International Atomic Energy Agency Board; and general conferences as well as numerous sessions of the United Nations General Assembly since 1977. He was elected vice chairman of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security Affairs) of the 44th Session of the General Assembly in 1989. Following his retirement from active government service in 2009, Fahmy founded the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP) and became engaged in several initiatives in the field of research and academia and has served as a non-resident chair of the Middle East Non-Proliferation Project at the James Martin Center for Non-Proliferation Strategies in Monterey, California from 2009 - 2013. After his tenure as the minister of foreign affairs (2013 – 2014), Fahmy resumed his position as dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at AUC. A prolific writer on regional and global affairs, Nabil Fahmy is the author of numerous publications in both Arabic and English. He is married with three children and currently lives in Cairo. Publications Ambassador Fahmy has written extensively in English and Arabic on Middle East politics, peacemaking, regional security, disarmament, and good governance.
Ambassador Hossam Zaki
Hossam Zaki is Senior Political Advisor for the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt Ahmed Aboul Gheit since 2007. He is also Deputy Chief of Cabinet as well as Official Spokesperson of the Ministry. He was Egypt's Deputy Chief of Mission to the United Kingdom from 2005 to 2007. From 2003 to 2005, on detail at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zaki was appointed Spokesperson for the Secretary General of the League of Arab States Amre Moussa.
He worked at the Egypt's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York from 1996 to 2002, where he assumed responsibility for Middle East and Arab Affairs. He was a member of his country's Delegation to the United Nations Security Council in 1996-97. He was also Rapporteur of the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations for six years.
Hossam Zaki has also assumed other posts at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Head of the Department of East Arab States from 2002 to 2003. He was a member of the Cabinet of the Minister from 1994 to 1996, during which time he was the Political Officer for African Affairs, the Organization of African Unity, horn of Africa and the Nile Basin. He was posted to the Embassy of Egypt in Addis Ababa from 1990 to 1993. Prior to it, he worked for one year at the Department of Israeli Affairs.
After graduating with the degree of BS in Business Administration at the Helwan University in Cairo, he obtained an International Diploma in Public Administration from the "Ecole National d'Administration" (ENA), Paris in 1989. He received his basic education at the French Jesuites School in Cairo.
HE Marwan Kheireddine
Marwan Salim Kheireddine holds the post of Chairman & CEO of AM Bank, a leading commercial bank operating out of Lebanon. He served as Minister of State in the Lebanese Government from July 2011 to February 2014.
During his tenure, he played a central role in a broad array of economic, financial and fiscal matters. His banking background placed him in a unique position to rally endorsement for instituting policies that protected Lebanon’s banking sector and strengthened its abidance by international laws and norms. He was key in drafting and securing government approval of the the Cross-Border Cash Limitation Law, the Capital Markets Law, and updating the Anti-Money Laundering Law.
An avid believer in supporting economic growth through empowerment of the private sector, Kheireddine played a driving role in supporting the creation of Banque du Liban Circular 331, a regulation aimed at promoting sustainable economic growth by financing entrepreneurs. The circular breaks new grounds by allowing and incentivizing banks to invest in technology startups, incubators and venture capital funds. Kheireddine was elected multiple times to serve on the board of the Association of Banks of Lebanon. He was a Lecturer in finance at the American University of Beirut from 1993 until 2013.
In 2005, Kheireddine was elected to the American University of Beirut, Olayan School of Business, Middle East Advisory Board, where he still serves. In 2012, he joined the Board of Trustees of the American Community School at Beirut. He also serves as a board member of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, a think tank credited with initiating many advocacy initiatives for judicial reform, transparent budget process, and local governance.
Marwan Kheireddine earned a BA in Business Administration and Economics from Richmond University in the UK, and an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York.
Yasser Abed Rabbo
Abed Rabbo engaged in the Palestinian resistance movement from an early age. He co-founded the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) in 1969 and was elected deputy secretary. Abed Rabbo became a member of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) since 1969 and has been a member of the Executive Committee since 1971. He participated in drafting the political agenda of the PLO since 1974, including the Declaration of Independence and the Palestinian peace initiative in 1988 and played an important role during the reunification of the PLO in 1987.
After the US agreed to open dialogue with the PLO in 1988, he headed the first delegation to this dialogue, which was launched in Tunis on December 15, 1988. As a member of the negotiations committee, he overlooked preparations for the Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid in 1991. He also participated in the team that negotiated the Oslo Accords in 1993. Since 1994, he participated in all negotiations to implement the Oslo Accords and led the Palestinian delegation to the Permanent Status negotiations in 1999-2000. Moreover, he participated in the negotiations at Wye River in 1998, Camp David in 2000, Taba in 2001, Sharm El-Shiekh Summit and Aqaba Summit respectively.
Abed Rabbo became Minister of Culture and Information in the first Palestine National Authority (PNA) government in 1994, where he prepared the first law that guarantees the freedom of press. He led informal negotiations with an Israeli group headed by Yossi Beilin in 2001, which yielded the "Geneva Initiative" in October 2003. The initiative is the first Palestinian-Israeli document that lays out a detailed, comprehensive solution to all permanent status issues, based on an end of the occupation and establishment of an independent state of Palestine on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. Abed Rabbo is the founder of Mahmoud Darwish Foundation and Museum. The Museum was inaugurated in March 2012 in Ramallah.
Elliott Abrams
Elliott Abrams is Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. He served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor in the Administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House. Mr. Abrams was educated at Harvard College, the London School of Economics, and Harvard Law School. After serving on the staffs of Sen. Henry M. Jackson and Daniel P. Moynihan, he was an Assistant Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration and received the Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award from Secretary George P. Shultz.
Mr. Abrams was president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., from 1996 until joining the White House staff. He was a member of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom from 1999 to 2001 and Chairman of the Commission in the latter year and served an additional term as a member in 2012-2014. Mr. Abrams served as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which directs the activities of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, from 2009 to 2016, and is member of the Board of the National Endowment for Democracy. He teaches U.S. foreign policy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Abrams joined the Bush Administration in June, 2001 as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the NSC for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Organizations. From December 2002 to February 2005, he served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the National Security Council for Near East and North African Affairs. He served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy from February 2005 to January 2009, and in that capacity supervised both the Near East and North African Affairs, and the Democracy, Human Rights, and International Organizations directorates of the NSC.
Mr. Abrams’ latest book, Realism and Democracy: American Foreign Policy After the Arab Spring, was published in 2017.
Fawaz Al-Alamy
Past Experience:
• Chairman, Physics Department, King Abdulaziz University (1977-1980).
• Dean, Environmental College, King Abdulaziz University (1980-1983).
• Chairman, Research Center, King Abdulaziz University (1983-1984).
• CEO and of various Saudi Corporations, KSA (1984-1997).
• Deputy Minister of Commerce & Industry, KSA (1997-2004).
• MOB, Saudi Arabian Airlines, KSA (1998-2001).
• Chairman, Antidumping National Ctee, KSA (1999-2004).
• Chairman, E-Commerce National Ctee, KSA (2000-2003).
• Chief Trade Negotiator, WTO, Switzerland (1997-2008).
• Chairman, Trade and Environment National Ctee, KSA (2001-2008).
• Chairman, Sustainable Development Ctee, United Nations (2001-2008).
• MOB, Saudi Engineering Council, KSA (2002-2006).
• MOB, Privatization Ctee, Supreme Economic Council, KSA (2001-2006).
• MOB, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, KSA (2000-2003).
• MOB, Saudi Industrial Development Fund, KSA (1998-2001).
• MOB, Saudi Offset Ctee, KSA (1996-2008).
Current Activities:
• Chairman, Global Trade Consulting House, KSA (2008-to date).
• Chairman, HRH Prince Mugrin CSR Ctee, KSA (2015-to date).
• Chairman, Northern Trust Company of Saudi Arabia, KSA (2016-to date).
• Consultant to Government & Multinational Companies (2008- to date).
• Consultant, Leonardo Group, KSA/UK/ITALY/USA (2013-to date).
• Visiting professor, Trade Law, London City University, UK (2012-to date).
• MOB, BATIC Public Company, KSA (2012-to date).
• MOB & Secretary General, Al-Bayan Foundation, KSA (2013-to date).
• MOB, Al-Bakri Holding Group, KSA (2013-to date).
• MOB, The Industrial Group, UAE (2014-to date).
• Consultant, SAGIA, KSA (2014-to date).
Published Books:
• Globalization and the accession negotiation of KSA to the WTO (2008).
• Official translation of the WTO agreements (2010).
Mohamed Alem
Founder and senior partner of Alem & Associates, a leading 60+ lawyers Beirut based regional law firm with offices in Riyadh and Dubai. Mohamed is one of the highly reputable lawyers in the Middle East on account of his practice where he focuses on complex commercial, financial and investment cross-border advisory work. He is also a recognized international arbitrator and counsel in transnational disputes.
Mohamed is one of the forerunning legal practitioners in the regulatory fields having advised Governments in Lebanon and the region on a large number of legal reforms be it in public procurement, e-government, capital markets, corporate governance and transparency, etc. Combining in-depth understanding of Government and institutional work with the advances of modern societies in terms of internal organizations has further allowed Mohamed to spearhead regulatory reform related work.
Mohamed has also been in the forefront of civil society in Lebanon where he has acted respectively as:
• Secretary General of the Lebanese Transparency Association (local chapter of Transparency International);
• Founder and Chair of the Beirut Committee of Human Rights Watch (HRW, the most influential human rights organizations in the world);
• Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Lebanon Branch) (the largest professional training institutes for professional arbitrators in the world); and
• Chair of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS) (the leading Lebanese thin tank).
• Additionally, Mohamed has served on the following committees with the Lebanese Government:
• Senior Legal Advisor to the Office of the President of the Council of Ministers;
• Senior Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Finance Committee in charge of the accession of Lebanon to the Global Forum on Tax Transparency;
• Chair of the Beirut Bar Committee on the accession to the WTO and the EuroMed partnership;
• Senior Legal Advisor to the Central Bank on electronic banking and e-transactions.
HE Bakhtiar Amin
Bakhtiar Amin was born 1959 in Kirkuk. He has served as Minister of Human Rights of Iraq (2004-2005), Alternate Member of Governing Council in Iraq in 2003 (Member of Foreign Relations Committee, Civil Society Committee & Transitional Administrative Law which was the basis of Current Iraqi Constitution), Refugee Councilor in Sweden (1982-1988) and Secretary General of Paris Kurdish Institute (1988-1996), Adviser to Danielle Mitterrand Foundation France-Libertés (1990-1996), Director of Human Rights Alliance in Washington D.C. (1997-2000), Executive Director of the International Alliance for Justice (IAJ), which coordinated a network of 275 international non-governmental organizations from more than 120 countries. The IAJ called for the establishment of an International Ad Hoc Tribunal to investigate the former Iraqi leadership's crimes against humanity, crimes of war and genocide.
He was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and has a master’s degree in international relations. He pursued doctoral studies in geopolitics and studied journalism in Sweden. He has over three decades' experience in the field of democracy, international human rights and humanitarian work. He has worked extensively on issues involving minorities, indigenous peoples, good governance, empowerment of youth and women, rule of law, water cooperation, Weapons of Mass Destruction, land mines, justice, transitional justice, reconciliation, international and regional peace and security issues, non-violence, radicalization & violent extremism, the International Criminal Court, genocide, crimes against humanity, mass graves, freedom of expression, diversity management, intercultural dialogue, cultural issues, federalism, refugees and IDPs, liberating prisoners and conflict resolution. He has participated in fact-finding missions in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, among others. He has testified before US Congress, European Parliament, Council of Europe, OSCE, NATO, various UN bodies in Geneva & New York, and spoken at many prestigious institutions, think-tank organizations and universities worldwide. He has been actively involved in G8's Forum for Future process in BMENA region, speaking at various international conferences and meeting regularly with heads of states and dignitaries from various parts of the world. He was the Chairman of the board of directors for the Foundation for the Future, which carried out over 200 projects in the field of democracy, civic participation and human rights in the broader Middle East & North Africa. He participated actively in Democracy Assistance Dialogue in the Middle East (DAD).
Louis Blin
Louis Blin works as a diplomat at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1995. He has been posted in Algeria, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Since October, 2015, he is in charge of the Arab and Muslim World at the Center for Analysis, Planning and Strategy of the MFA in Paris. He has previously held various positions at the Middle East and North Africa Dept., as well as the divisions of the MFA in charge of security matters.
Before joining the Diplomatic Corp, he has served as a researcher in Political Economics at the Centre d’études et de documentation économique, juridique et sociale (CEDEJ, Cairo), a unit of the French National Research Center, and previously as the editor of Arab Oil & Gas Magazine in Paris. He is the author of many books on the MENA region, including The Arab World in the albums of Tintin; Alexandria and the Mediterranean, between History and Memory; The Economics of Peace in the Middle East; The Economics of Liberalization in Egypt; The Gulf Oil, Peace and War in the Middle East; Algerian contemporary Political elites; and Algeria, the Sahara and the Sahel.
Andrey Bystritsky
He has been in the media industry since 1991. From 2000 to 2008, he was Deputy Director General of RTR and the Director of the Department of Information Programs of the Russia TV. In 2000-2013 Mr. Bystritsky was a member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of international broadcasting company Euro news. From 2008 to 2014, he was the Chairman of the Voice of Russia State Radio Company.
Since 2008, he has been the head of the Council of the Heads of Government and Public Television and Radio Organizations of CIS Countries. Since 2014, Mr. Bystritsky has been the Chairman of the Public Supervisory Council of the Russian Ministry of Communications.
He is a Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Communications, Media and Design at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics and a member of the Union of Writers. In June 2007, he received the Order of Honour. Mr. Bystritsky is the author of books and numerous publications in newspapers and magazines.
Prof. Dr.Malik R. DahlanProf. Dr. Malik R. Dahlan is the Principal of Quraysh. He is based in London and has led an internationally celebrated career in law and policy.
He is a multi-jurisdictional legal practitioner and a transnational regulatory lawyer. He originally trained as an international lawyer focusing on international trade law, transnational legal problems and investment law. He developed a career in international alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in parallel. He is a certified mediator and focuses on political mediation and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). Prof Dahlan serves on the Board of Directors of the International Mediation Institute (IMI) in The Hague. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb).
As for policy and academic activism, he is an expert in transitional political economy, development and trade regionalism, negotiation theory, transnational political entrepreneurship and track-two diplomacy. He has written and advised on matters regarding international law, dispute resolution, global and regional governance, legislative affairs, defence, energy, and foreign relations.
He is a UN Constitutional Expert (and one of ten Regional Experts in Constitutional Affairs, Oil and Gas selected by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq). After having practiced at White & Case LLP in New York and Washington DC for several years, he spearheaded the establishment of the Brookings Center in Doha and was the Centre's founding Director. He was also the founding Director of the Qatar Law Forum of Global Leaders in Law. He was Special Adviser to The Rt. Hon. the Lord Woolf of Barnes, Former Chief Justice of England and Wales. Inspired by the transformative time and promise of the Obama Administration, he established and affiliated the Middle East Practice of the late US Secretary of State Dean Acheson's Washington DC-based firm, Covington & Burling LLP, and headed it for more than six years. At the wake of the generational revolutions of the "Arab Spring" in 2011, he mobilized the establishment of Innovation Platform for Global Change "iPlatform" to help younger generations address the most pressing Rule of Law and political transitions challenges such as refugee, displacement and reconstruction plans-- iPlatform was launched in collaboration with University College London (UCL) in November 2013.
He acts as an outside counsel for many businesses, institutions, organizations, and government entities. He represented Twitter Inc., Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, The Smithsonian, Lloyd's and others. He has worked extensively on numerous ground breaking initiatives in the Arabian Peninsula, including Doha's $8.67 billion Specialty Teaching Hospital and the $47 billion Saudi Economic Cities Project. He was the Senior Executive at the Qatar Financial Center, establishing it’s Judiciary; the Qatar Financial Centre's Civil and Commercial Court, and Regulatory Tribunal, where he also served as the first Director for the International Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre. He advised the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) on post 9/11 Islamic relations. He also advised the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on the accession of Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Prof Dahlan is a dedicated philanthropist and advocate for ethical investment. He is the Chairman of the renewable energy technology company, GreenGulf Inc. He is also serving as a member of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) President’s Council, International Advisory Council and Partners HealthCare Corporation Member. He previously served as a Board Member for the Hamad General Hospital in Qatar and as a trustee of the Arab British Centre. Prof Dahlan was also named to the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Future of the Middle East. He is a member of the Timbuktu Renaissance Presidential Action Group (TB2R) and is a trustee of CoExist Foundation in the UK. He is also an Advisory Board Member of the Beirut Institute.
He is a fellow of the Aspen Institute. He is a member of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), Chatham House, British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Union of Arab Lawyers, the International Union for Muslim Scholars and the International Bar Association (IBA) Endowment Committee.
He is the Chair of the International Section of the Harvard Law School Association (HLSA) and member of the Executive Committee. He was the founding President of the Harvard Law School Association of Arabia (HLSA-A).
Prof Dahlan is a member of the Academic Board of the West-Asia North Africa Institute (WANA) in Jordan; the Editorial Board of the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA) Journal of Middle East Development; the Advisory Board of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law's (CIMEL) Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law; and the University of Toronto-Yale Middle East Law and Governance Interdisciplinary Journal (MELG).
Prof Dahlan attended Belmont Hill School (BHS) Belmont, Massachusetts. He completed his Civil Law and Jurisprudential Studies in Jordan, first at Aal Al-Bayt University in Al-Mafraq, where he studied Law and Jurisprudence and then at the Faculty of Law at the University of Jordan in Amman where he obtained his (LL.B.). He studied for a Masters at Harvard University, in special studies in Government at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) in addition to receiving his American legal training at Harvard Law School (LL.M.). He further completed a Masters Degree (AM in Regional Studies) at the Harvard Center for Middle East Studies (CMES). He attended Selwyn College, Cambridge University to receive his English Legal Methods (ELM) training. He obtained his professorial qualification the (Ālemiyyah) Habilitation Professorial Doctorate (Prof. Dr. jur) in Law and Public Policy at the renowned Al-Azhar University, completing the Habilitation Higher Doctorate with Distinction and Honor Merit in the First Rank.
Prof Dahlan was a Visiting Academic and lecturer at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Middle East Institute, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He developed his theory on “Regionalism and Integration” in Singapore.
Prof Dahlan was a Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at Cambridge University and Peterhouse College. He is a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London. His specialisms are energy law, geopolitics and ethics as well as ISDS.
Prof Dahlan has his UN training and certification for peacekeeping, security and safety conflict zones. He has received various awards, accolades and designation recognizing his leadership and contributions from several academic institutions, judicial bodies and publications. He is bi-lingual English and Arabic and proficient in French and Hebrew.
Robert Danin
Robert M. Danin is senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a senior fellow at the Belfer Center’s Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. Prior to joining CFR, he headed the Jerusalem mission of the Quartet representative, Tony Blair, from April 2008 until August 2010. A former career State Department official with over twenty years of Middle East experience, Dr. Danin previously served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs with responsibilities for Israeli-Palestinian issues and Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. He also served at the National Security Council for over three years, first as director for Israeli-Palestinian affairs and the Levant and then as acting senior director for Near East and North African affairs. A recipient of the State Department's Superior Honor Award, Dr. Danin served as a Middle East and Gulf specialist on the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff, and as a State Department senior Middle East political and military analyst. Prior to joining the State Department, he worked as a Jerusalem-based journalist covering Israeli and Palestinian politics.
Dr. Danin has published widely, including in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Financial Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The Atlantic. His commentary has also been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and TIME; and he has been a frequent guest on a wide range of television and broadcast media, including the PBS NewsHour, Charlie Rose, CNN, BBC, MSNBC, NPR, as well as Turkish, Arabic, and Israeli television and radio. He is a contributing author of Pathways to Peace: America and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Palgrave Macmillan 2012), and Iran: The Nuclear Challenge (CFR 2012).
Dr. Danin holds a BA in history from the University of California, Berkeley, an MSFS degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and a doctorate in the international relations of the Middle East from St. Antony's College, Oxford University.
Andrei Fedorov
Born in 1955. Graduated from Moscow State University and Diplomatic Academy, PhD in Political Science. Member of the Russian Academy for Economic, Finance and Law. Worked in international youth and student movement, then as Senior adviser in the International Department of Central Committee of Communist Party. In 1990 joined Russian government as adviser to the Prime minister, Deputy Foreign minister, adviser to Vice-President of Russia.
Since 1994 to 2010 - member of the Board, Political projects director of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy. From 2010 to 2015 - General Director, National Information Center. Founded in 1994 Fund for Political Research and Consulting and currently is its Director. Member of the Advisory group for Presidential Administration. Guest expert to major Russian and foreign TV channels, including Al-Jazeera. Decorated with number of State orders.
Thomas Fletcher
Visiting Professor of International Relations at NYUAD, Visiting Professor and Special Advisor at the Emirates Diplomatic Academy. Tom has served extensively as a diplomat in the British Government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Tom was the Foreign Policy Adviser to three British Prime Ministers (2007–11) and was British Ambassador to Lebanon (2011–15). He is an Honorary Fellow of Oxford University, and the Global Strategy Director for the Global Business Coalition for Education, which seeks to harness private sector efforts to get 75 million children into school. He chairs the International Advisory Council of the Creative Industries Federation, promoting Britain's most dynamic and magnetic sector overseas. He has recently led a government review of British diplomacy and chaired a report on the future of the UN. His book ’The Naked Diplomat - Power & Politics in the Digital Age' was published in 2016. Tom is a co–founder of the Foundation for Opportunity, which supports good people doing good things in public life.
David Ignatius
Since 2003 author of twice-weekly, globally distributed column on global politics, economics and international affairs. 2000-2003 executive editor of the International Herald Tribune. 1993-1999 assistant managing editor for business news at the Washington Post. 1990-1992 foreign editor, 1986-1990 editor of Outlook section. 1976-1985 reporter for Wall Street Journal, 1980-1983 Middle East correspondent, 1984-1985 chief diplomatic correspondent.
Numerous publications in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly and others. The author of ten novels, including "Body of Lies" which was made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Ridley Scott. His last novel, "The Director," was about hacking and espionage. A tenth novel, "The Quantum Spy," about the race between America and China to build a quantum computer, will be published in November 2017. He is a fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and has taught as an adjunct lecturer at HKS. He’s married and the father of three daughters.
Srgjan Kerim
Between 1976 and 1978 Dr Kerim was a member of the Presidency of the Youth Federation of Yugoslavia and President of the Foreign Policy Committee. In 1986 he was appointed as Minister of Foreign Economic Relations in the Government of the Republic of Macedonia and served in this position until 1989. Dr Kerim also represented the Republic of Macedonia as Ambassador to Germany (1994-2000), to Switzerland and Liechtenstein (1995-2000). Dr Kerim’s first duty related to multilateral diplomacy was Advisor to the President of the Sixth Session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD VI), held in 1983 in Belgrade.
From 1988 to 1991 he served as Deputy Minister and Spokesman of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in charge of multilateral affairs (including participation in the UN, G-77 and Non-Aligned Movement activities). In 1990 he was part of the team responsible for preparation and participation at the first OSCE conference on economic cooperation, held in Bonn.
He also took part in the negotiations with EU (then EC) on the Association Agreement between Yugoslavia and EU (1989-91). During his tenure as Ambassador in Germany he also served as Special Envoy of Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe (1999-2000). From 2000 to 2001 Dr Kerim was Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia, in which capacity he also served as Chairman of Southeastern European Cooperation Initiative (2000-2001). During this period the Republic of Macedonia signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU. He then became Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Macedonia to the United Nations (2001-2003) during which time he served as Vice-chairman both of the International Conference on Financing for Development (Monterrey, 2002) and of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002). In addition, he was a member of the group of facilitators to the President of the Fifty-sixth UN General Assembly, focusing on UN reform, and was a co-organizer of the Regional Forum on Dialogue of the Civilizations (Ohrid, 2003).
From 2007 to 2008 Dr Kerim was President of the 62nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. During his term the Assembly focused on the following issues: Responding to Climate Change, Financing for Development, Implementing the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, Advancing United Nations Reform and Following up on measures to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Between 2008 and 2009 he was Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General on Climate Change. Since 2008 Dr Kerim is a member of the Council of Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly.
Parag Khanna
Parag Khanna is a leading global strategist, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, and Managing Partner of Hybrid Reality, a boutique geostrategic advisory firm. Parag's latest book is Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State (2017). He is author of a trilogy of books on the future of world order beginning with The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008), followed by How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011), and concluding with Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (2016). He is also co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012). In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s "75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century," and featured in WIRED magazine’s "Smart List." He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Master’s degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has traveled to more than 100 countries and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.
Qiang Liu
Dr. Qiang Liu is the Co-chair and Secretary-General of Global Forum on Energy Security based at Beijing, China. Qiang works for Chinese Academy of Social Sciences since 2004, he has been the Director of Energy Economics Division, Institute of Quantitative & Technical Economics at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) since 2014 and was the deputy director of the division since 2010. Qiang is consulting expert for United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) on energy and Belt & Road Initiative.
Qiang is also Professor, Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences since 2008. Qiang was a visiting scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies of John Hopkins University at Washington D.C., focusing on Sino-American economic interaction. Qiang holds PhD of economics from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Dr.Khaled Mahamid
Khaled Mahamid is the Founder of Member, Syrian Emirates Business Council, UAE-Poland.
The Syrian Business Council (SBC) is an association and forum for businesspersons and professionals, of Syrian origin, residing and/or operating in Dubai and the northern Emirates of the UAE. SBC endeavours to enhance the links between its members, to encourage cooperation with other entities in the UAE, and to maintain a close working relationship with the patrimony.
Afshin Molavi
Afshin Molavi is a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute and Co-Director of the emerge85 Lab, a joint initiative between FPI and the UAE-based Delma Institute on geo-economic multiplicity that explores the impact of the emergence or re-emergence of ‘non-Western’ global economic players by taking a holistic approach to geo-economic trends and their impact.
At the Foreign Policy Institute, Molavi writes broadly on emerging markets, particularly on themes related to 'The New Silk Road,' South-South trade, global hub cities, new emerging market multinationals, global aviation, the geopolitics of energy, and the intersection of Middle East states and the global economy.Molavi was also a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank, and a former director of the World Economic Roundtable, an ambitious effort to re-map the global economy in the wake of the Great Recession.
A former journalist, his dispatches from the Middle East and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Businessweek, The Journal of Commerce, National Geographic, and dozens of academic and specialty publications. He is a regular speaker at investment conferences, universities, think tanks, and the media, and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute and Co-Director of the emerge85 Lab (Iran). He has also served as an analyst at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector development arm of the World Bank.
Sabah Mushatat
I moved to academia graduating firstly with a Diploma in Architecture before completing his PhD. I has taught architecture for 30 years, overseas and now in the UK as Professor of Architecture at The University of Wolverhampton and Heriot – Watt University, through them I conducted the post of the Head and Director of Schools of Architecture and Design Concentrating mainly on the fields of architecture, environmental and sustainable design, construction and architectural education, I have 8 books published, as well 2 textbooks, and about 80 research papers in refereed journals and conferences. I have managed several researches contracts and have generated income through the award of research grants and contracts with value £3.3M. I initiated and managed a range of innovative courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. These awards are fully accredited by national, regional and international bodies and authorities. I have several national and international scientific bodies, such as the United Nations Environment Program UNEP, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO. He has worked as a consultant for the governments of Holland, Germany, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq I served as a member of seven Editorial Boards of International Journals. Professor Mushatat is the organiser of the prestigious Ajman International Urban Planning Conference (AIUPC), which is held every year in UAE, also the prestigious Qatar Urbanism Forum in MIPIM (The World’s Leading Real Estate Exhibition and conference), that been held in Palais de Fastivals –Cannes, France. My published outputs are books (10), Textbooks (2), about more than 100 refereed journal articles and conference papers, Research Reports (12), and National and International presentations (8). Most of my research and publications are on Architecture, Environmental and Sustainable Design, and Construction, management aspects. I have supervised numerous postgraduate dissertations and Doctoral thesis in my field of expertise. I have strong track record of PhD supervision with 18 PhD completions. In addition, I have been invited to examine 6 Masters and 22 PhD dissertations in the UK, Middle East, Asia, Europe and Australia.
Vance Serchuk
Vance Serchuk (New York) joined KKR in 2013 and is executive director of the KKR Global Institute. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Serchuk served for six years as the senior national security advisor to Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut). In this capacity, he worked on a broad range of international issues, including comprehensive sanctions legislation, the U.S. rebalance to the Asia-Pacific, and the U.S. response to the Arab Spring, traveling to over 60 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. From January to July 2013, he was a Council on Foreign Relations-Hitachi International Affairs Fellow, based in Japan, and a monthly columnist for the Washington Post. His writings have also appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times. Mr. Serchuk is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University, holds a JD from Yale Law School, and was a Fulbright scholar in the Russian Federation.
Andrew J. Tabler
Andrew J. Tabler is the Martin J. Gross Fellow in the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute, where he focuses on Syria and U.S. Middle East policy. Mr. Tabler achieved unparalleled long-term access to Bashar al-Assad's Syria. During seven years residence in Damascus and Beirut, Mr. Tabler served as a consultant on U.S.-Syria relations for the International Crisis Group (2008); as a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs (2005-2007); and was co-founder and editor-in-chief of Syria Today, Syria's first English-language magazine. Mr. Tabler is the author of multiple books and articles on Syria and the Middle East, including Eyeing Raqqa: A Tale of Four Tribes (Washington Institute, 2017), The Lines that Bind: 100 Years of Sykes-Picot (Washington Institute, 2016), "Syria's Collapse and How Washington Can Stop It" (Foreign Affairs, July-August 2013) and the 2011 book In the Lion's Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle with Syria .
Konstantin Truevtsev
• 1967 - Graduated from the Institute of Oriental Languages, Moscow University
• 1973 – 1985 - Lecturer, assistant professor at the Institute of Social sciences.
• 1977 - PhD thesis in philosophy.
• 1985 – 1993 - Chief of the Section of Arab Countries at the Institute of Africa, Russian Academy of Sciences
• 1999 – 2001 - Deputy Dean of the Department of Political Science at the Higher School of Economics.
• 2001 – 2015 - Assistant professor at the same Department.
• 2015 – present time - Senior researcher at the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Robert Willen
Bob Willen is a partner with A.T. Kearney where he leads the Public Sector practice for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. He also serves as a global leader in both the Aerospace & Defense and Automotive practices. Bob has extensive experience leading strategy, organization, general cost reduction, and supply chain initiatives for large commercial and government clients. Bob is based out of A.T. Kearney’s Dubai office.
Notable client engagements include:
- Evaluation of sustainment requirements in future aircraft programs, and negotiation strategy and tactics leading to a contractual agreement with significant cost savings relative to projections for a major government/DoD client
- Strategic insight and analysis of large, multi-year acquisition programs, plus reduction in program acquisition costs for a major government/DoD client
- Process streamlining surrounding the deployment of government-furnished equipment for a major government/DoD client
- Supply chain strategy to better meet evolving customer requirements and enhance growth for a global manufacturer
- Global program management, providing both strategic and tactical direction for a major worldwide operational initiative (focusing on distribution, logistics and procurement) leading to benefits of more 2 billion dollars for a global manufacturer
- Multiple supply chain and strategic sourcing projects, leveraging scale and transitioning from a local structure for a global manufacturer
Bob is a recognized thought leader on public sector, aerospace and defense, and automotive topics and has frequently been quoted in publications such as the Financial Times, The Economist, Fortune, Supply Chain Technology News, and various other journals and periodicals. He is co-author of Rebuilding the Corporate Genome (John Wiley & Sons, 2002) which explores how companies can gain advantage from the breakdown and reconfiguration of value chains.
Prior to joining A.T. Kearney, Bob worked at General Dynamics Space Systems providing both technical support for the Atlas family of space launch vehicles and leadership on various commercial business development activities. Bob received his MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia; his MS from the University of Texas, Austin; and his BA from the University of Virginia.