Sub-Saharan Africa
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Angola” title=”Angola” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]This Angola consultant is a Lecturer in International Political Economy at Newcastle University.
His expertise is on the political economy of oil and development in Angola, Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea of Africa, he writes about local content policies and their role in linking oil extraction to industrial development and economic growth in the non-oil economy.
He has also acted as a consultant for the DFID project Facility for Oil Sector Transparency and Reform in Nigeria (FOSTER) and for private companies in Angola promoting local content.
He has published two books on the Oil Sector in Angola and Nigeria with two academic publishers.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Cote d’Ivoire, Madagascar” title=”Cote d’Ivoire, Madagascar” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our primary Cote d’Ivoire expert is a Fellow in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics, where he focuses on African politics, elections, and political violence.
He has experience in both NGO and commercial consultancy work, including for the International Crisis Group and the Carter Center. He was formerly Malachite Consulting’s lead consultant on Madagascar analysing the 2013 elections, as well advising on risks to investment.
His work on Cote d’Ivoire has been published in Africa Today, Good Governance Africa, and African Arguments. During the course of his DPhil at the University of Oxford, he conducted extensive fieldwork in Abidjan, meeting with several dozen of the top players in Côte d’Ivoire’s government, business, and diplomatic circles.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Cameroon” title=”Cameroon” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our primary Cameroon consultant is a journalist who, along with his freelance work, is Central African Sub-regional Correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, and the Cameroon correspondent for Associated Press. He has also acted as production contributor for CNN and Al Jazeera Television.
He is Vice President of the Cameroon Economic Journalists Association and a member of The United Nations Information Center.
He was a an advisor on Victoria Oil and Gas’s evaluation field trip prior to the construction of Gaz du Cameroun (GDC), which is Cameroon’s first privately-owned gas-processing refinery.
He was also editor of Menas Associates’ Cameroon Politics & Security for over three years .
Request a copy of Cameroon Politics and Security [/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”DRC” title=”DRC” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]This DRC consultant is a freelance journalist based in Kinshasa. He is regularly published in, among others, The Independent; Foreign Policy; Quartz Africa; African Arguments; and the Economist Intelligence Unit.
As a consultant, he has undertaken projects for corporates involving investigation of: individual companies; political institutions, tendering procedures; the award of licences; bribery allegations; and concealed beneficial shareholders, using a combination of publicly available material (media databases, corporate filings, NGO publications etc.) and human intelligence (a network of sources often from the world of politics, the public sector, diplomacy and commerce).
He was previously a research fellow at Policy Exchange, where he researched and edited reports on the region.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”DRC” title=”DRC” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]A senior researcher at the Belgian Royal Museum for Central Africa, this consultant has devoted his career to Congo/Zaire as a researcher, professor, project manager and consultant. State-society relations, international investment, aid efficiency and environmental governance are his areas of expertise.
He has coordinated European Union-funded nature conservation projects and has been advisor to USAID’s Central Africa Program for the Environment. He has advised CIFOR, UNESCO, CARE, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the World Bank, the European Court of Auditors, the Dutch government and private consultancy firms.
He lectures in Belgian and Congolese universities and is contributing editor to the Review of African Political Economy. He is widely published, his most recent books released.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”DRC, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya” title=”DRC, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our consultant’s previous research projects include analyses of the television and radio sectors in Uganda, and of the mobile phone sector in Rwanda for a Swedish investment company.
He has recently completed a PhD at SOAS analysing the unintended consequences of foreign military resources on African militaries and politics.
He previously held a position as Senior Research Analyst for the Africa Research Group at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as Conflict Management and Regional Security Analyst at the International Peace Support Training Centre in Nairobi.
He is a peer reviewer for Transparency International’s Defence and Security Programme on DRC, Rwanda and Uganda. He has been published in academic journals and others including the Institute of Security Studies.
He has lived in Kenya and travelled throughout the region, which has allowed him to build a network of contacts across in country and in the diaspora for each country.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Ethiopia (Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Great Lakes region)” title=”Ethiopia (Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Great Lakes region)” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our Horn of Africa consultant received a PhD in African History from the University of Paris. After serving in the army he went to Uganda as an aid worker. He worked and travelled extensively throughout eastern Africa before joining the CNRS scientific institution in Paris as a researcher, looking specifically at conflict in the region. He later became Director of the French Centre for Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa.
He has published over 170 articles and eight books on the countries in eastern and central Africa he covers. He is fluent in French, English and Spanish. He also has good knowledge of Italian and German, and a basic knowledge of Juba Arabic (Sudanese colloquial Arabic) and Swahili.
[/et_pb_toggle][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Ghana” title=”Ghana” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our consultant’s main field of expertise is Ghana’s developing oil industry in Ghana and how it interacts with politics and society in the country.
Her previous consultancy work mostly focused on analysis of the situation in Ghana for companies looking to be involved in the petroleum industry and thus she has extensive knowledge of petroleum laws.
She has provided analysis for a gas company on developments within the nascent oil industry and the squabbles between the elites involved and how this impacts on the workings of the industries’ state entities.
She has also produced an independent analysis of a company’s business model and strategy which was presented to the World Bank as part of the company’s funding application.
In January 2015 she returned to the UK from extensive fieldwork in Ghana. She is currently completing a PhD, having previously completed an MSc on Africa and International Development studying petrol and corruption in Ghana.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Guinea-Bissau” title=”Guinea-Bissau” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our primary Guinea-Bissau consultant is currently completing a PhD at SOAS that looks at the exclusive nature of the Bissau-Guinean political and military elite and how the country’s political stability evolves within this small group.
Her research is principally interested and asking ‘where’ Guinea-Bissau society and the people’s voice are and how government can function effectively without society keeping it in check.
She has undertaken several research projects in West Africa, specifically on conflict, including on Cote d’Ivoire ahead of the elections and research on security sector reforms in Guinea-Bissau and political settlements.
She has briefed the FCO, among others, on Guinea-Bissau.
Our consultant is of Bissau-Guinean origin. She is fluent in French and Portuguese as well as speaking Spanish and Guinea-Bissau Creole.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Kenya” title=”Kenya” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our Kenya consultant has an extensive background in political risk analysis and investment consulting in Africa.
She is the publisher of an online magazine on the east African business and economic environment, and edits www.africa-assets.com, a website focused on private equity and venture capital in sub Saharan Africa.
She has also written on business, economic and political issues for, amongst others, Dun and Bradstreet, African Business, Africa Investor, Afrika-Wirtschaft, Control Risks, and Oxford Analytica.
She previously worked as an Africa analyst for Global Insight, one of the largest international country intelligence providers.
Our consultant completed a degree in business studies followed an MSc in development studies at the London School of Economics (LSE).
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Kenya” title=”Kenya” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our consultant is currently undertaking a PhD at Stanford University looking at the parliamentary differences among sub-Saharan African countries since the 1990s. In particular, in looks at whether the formalisation of politics will lead to a bigger role for African parliaments, focusing on Zambia and Kenya.
He previously worked for a brokerage firm in Uganda. He speaks Swahili and Luo fluently and has a weekly column in Kenya’s The Standard newspaper.
He has previous consultancy experience doing research for the World Bank on natural resources, for which he focused on the political risks involved in the oil and gas sector in Kenya and Uganda (as well as mining in Guinea and Liberia) identifying the key decision-makers in the oil industry.
He is a prolific commentator on events across Africa.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Nigeria, Ghana” title=”Nigeria, Ghana” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our lead Nigeria consultant is editor and publisher of Africa Confidential, a fortnightly newsletter reporting and analysing political and economic developments in Africa (established in 1960) subscribers of which include UN agencies, the IMF, the World Bank, formerly South African president Nelson Mandela, African and Western governments, academic and research institutions, and major corporations.
He was also an expert witness to the UN Security Council on the role of natural resource exploitation in the conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Between May 2002 and October 2003 he was technical Advisor to the UN investigations into illegal exploitation of mineral resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He lived in Accra and Lagos during the 1980s when he was West Africa Correspondent for Associated Press. He wrote extensively for the Guardian, the Observer, and Economist Intelligence Unit, and filed news and feature reports for BBC television and radio.
He is the author of several books on states within West and southern Africa.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Mozambique” title=”Mozambique” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our Mozambique consultant, who specialises in economic, business environment and oil-related political questions, is an experienced Maputo-based economic journalist who has built up a network of contacts in the relevant business sectors and ministries. He is the author of Menas’ fortnightly Mozambique Politics & Security report, which covers political developments, security issues, and the non-oil and oil economy, with a focus on the developments within the Eni and Anadarko LNG projects.
Request a copy of Mozambique Politics & SecurityPast work has included reports for Bloomberg, and other outlets with a focus on the Mozambican infrastructure sector and the macro economy.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Mozambique” title=”Mozambique” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our consultant specialising in political issues is a highly experienced Mozambican former BBC journalist and producer who now works for a human rights organisation.
She has high level contacts on the Mozambican political scene and regularly returns to the country. These contacts are based both within Frelimo as well as Renamo and other opposition parties.
Before moving to the UK our consultant spent 11 years as a journalist for Radio Mozambique, covering all the main events including all the elections and political developments since 1999, during the country’s transition from war to peace. Our consultant’s parents were involved in the struggle against Portuguese rule and were members of the ruling Frelimo party, which explains the high level contacts, but there is also an objective analytical view of Mozambican politics and the ongoing difficulties between Frelimo and Renamo, as well as Frelimo’s management of the country.
[/et_pb_toggle][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Rwanda, Burundi (South Africa, DRC, Nigeria)” title=”Rwanda, Burundi (South Africa, DRC, Nigeria)” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our consultant on Rwanda and Burundi (as well as other countries) focuses on Central African political economy. Among other issues, he has specialised in conflict minerals, and Chinese investment and involvement in Nigeria and the DRC.
Since 1992 he has worked for, among others, the South African Institute of International Affairs; The Africa Report; the Mail & Guardian as a freelance researcher and journalist; Global Witness; and the Economist Intelligence Unit, providing country reports for Africa’s Great Lakes region.
From 2010 to 2011 he worked for the UN as a consultant to the panel of experts on DRC. He assisted the panel of experts in drawing up recommendations for guidelines regarding the due diligence obligations of companies purchasing, processing and using minerals from the DRC.
He worked for the UN’s DRC Panel prior to this, investigating the financing of armed groups and criminal networks in the armed forces.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Sierra Leone” title=”Sierra Leone” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our primary Sierra Leone consultant is a researcher at the Africa Research Institute. He has been heavily involved with Sierra Leone since the outbreak of Ebola, representing the ARI at discussions, doing media interviews and writing blogs for the ARI website on the subject. Due to his research he has an excellent understanding of the impact of Ebola on Sierra Leone.
He has an MSc in African Politics from SOAS and has worked in various research and consultancy positions. He worked for Transparency International as their Sierra Leone Country Assessor, conducting interviews and research on governance and corruption.
He was the VSO’s Programme Development and Funding Manager for Sierra Leone, for which he had to develop a proposal for their operations there. He has lived in and travelled extensively throughout the country.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”South Africa” title=”South Africa” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our primary South Africa consultant is currently living in Johannesburg completing a PhD with Harvard University. She has expertise on a wide range of subjects pertinent to Southern Africa but her research specialises in protest and political violence in South Africa, as well as identity formation and identity change in sub-Saharan Africa more broadly.
She has undertaken consultancy working analysing policy developments in South Africa and their impact on the mining and energy industry in the country, as well as providing detailed information on the possibility of further strikes within the mining sector.
She has presented papers on South African issues including the place of Mine Workers’ Union and the nature and cause of different protests.
She also has extensive experience as a journalist, and has written articles for newspapers and magazines in South Africa, China, Romania, Israel, the UK and the US.
She is fluent in French and Swahili.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Tanzania” title=”Tanzania” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our main East Africa expert is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He has been living and working in East Africa for most of the last 20 years. As a political consultant, he is focused on the oil and gas sector and established Oxfam’s extractives industry programme for Kenya and Tanzania for which he had to develop relations with key stakeholders in government, media, civil society, politics and the private sector, positioning Oxfam as a credible organisation in the sector in the region.
It is this network which allows him to gain insight into, and analyse, political, security and oil industry developments across the region.
He has been active in NGOs in Ethiopia and Tanzania, working on areas of governance, land issues or HIV/AIDS, among others.
He also works as a Senior Advisor on Tanzania for the International Law and Policy Institute, and has contributed to the Economist Intelligence Unit, Africa Confidential and The Africa Report. He speaks Swahili.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Uganda” title=”Uganda” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Based in Kampala, our Uganda specialist has conducted sector-wide research and analysis on Uganda – mainly on political, security and integrity risk – for organisations including Global Witness and International Crisis Group, as well as private sector organisations. Most of her work for the latter has involved due diligence or market entry projects into Uganda.
She is also very familiar with security, elite politics and conflict in South Sudan; security, political and armed opposition in Sudan; and security, terrorism and political violence in Kenya.
She is a lecturer in International Relations, Security Studies and African Politics at Cavendish University of Uganda and Africa Graduate University.
She is currently completing a PhD on political stability in Uganda with the University of Ghent and University of Antwerp. She received an MA, first class, in Political Science from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, South Africa” title=”Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, South Africa” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]This consultant has extensive experience as an investment banker focusing on sourcing, structuring and directing finance towards African businesses, both in the publicly listed and private equity space. He has acted on transactions in diverse sectors such as mining, power, petroleum products, factoring finance, real estate and heavy equipment.
He worked a mining industry investment analyst for a number of investment banks and for one of the world’s largest hedge funds.
He has strong contacts at the CEO/top management level at the top mining companies such as Anglo American, African Rainbow Minerals, Lonmin, and First Quantam Minerals.
He has degrees from the University of Cape Town and the Stockholm School of Economics.
His personal experience and knowledge as well as his extensive Pan African networks give him a more than sufficient capacity to assist companies active in the extractive industry and beyond.
[/et_pb_toggle][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Middle East and North Africa
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Algeria, the Sahel (Mali, Niger, Mauritania)” title=”Algeria and the Sahel (Mali, Niger, Mauritania)” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our Sahel expert has >50 years’ experience of most of the Sahara and surrounding regions. He has intimate knowledge of many of the Sahara’s remote and security-sensitive regions plus valuable local source/research contacts; specifically he has unique and unrivalled knowledge of terrorist/security situation across whole of the Sahara-Sahel region.
He advises NATO, USAFRICOM and a number of the foreign ministries and security /intelligence agencies. He has also been used as expert witness by courts in UK and US on terrorism-related cases in the Sahara region.
He has a lot of experience of extractive industries — as a geographer, development economist and social scientist — and therefore understands the global and local oil and mining environments; he has followed the region’s extractive sector for many years. He has undertaken over 25 bespoke consultancy reports on aspects of the political-economy and security of the Saharan countries for companies , governments , security agencies, and multi-lateral organisations.
He is the author of our Algeria Focus publication, which has successfully predicted key trends for over 20 years, including the September 2015 dismissal of the DRS head Mohamed ‘Toufik’ Mediène and the erosion of the DRS’ power within the political system.
Request a copy of Algeria Focus [/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Algeria” title=”Algeria” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]This consultant has over twenty years of experience conducting extensive fieldwork in Algeria, following developments in the country and working as a consultant focusing mainly on political and security risk.
After graduating from Oxford University, he undertook doctoral research on Algeria and taught English in Bouïra, before spending a year as a French government scholar working on Algeria.
He worked for the International Crisis Group as Director of its North Africa Project from 2002 to 2007 and then again in 2011.
He has held academic positions at LSE; the University of Sussex; the University of California, Berkeley; SOAS; and Tufts University, and he is widely published on Algeria.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Egypt” title=”Egypt” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our primary Egypt consultant is the author of Menas Associates’ ‘Egypt Politics & Security’ publication.
He began his career with a distinguished period in the City of London before working in the financial services sector of both Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
He lives in Cairo, where he founded and manages a leading financial consultancy company, and is the COO of a local investment bank. He has covered the MENA region for more than twenty years, advising private clients as well as international organisations.
In the past he was head of corporate development and head of research at Beltone Financial in Egypt and was previously head of product development/asset management at Al Rajhi Bank in Saudi Arabia. Before that, he was managing director of Safron Advisors, one of the first private equity firms specialising in investments in the MENA region and Turkey.
Previously, he has been head of equities, and later also of sales and trading, for a number of emerging markets at ING Barings and then ABN AMRO, based in London. He headed the team which started the first coverage of the Arab stock markets by a global investment bank. In these positions he handled a number of key equity capital market transactions in the Arab market.
He has won a number of awards for his coverage of the MENA region, including the first position in the Institutional Investor survey (for the MENA region) and Global Finance magazine’s ‘Emerging Markets Superstar.’
Request a copy of Egypt Politics & Security [/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Egypt” title=”Egypt” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our Egypt oil and gas consultant has over 40 years’ experience working in the sector.
Since 2012 he has worked as a freelance consultant and has worked on a number of energy studies for European firms, as well as establishing a joint venture in renewable energy with a group of solar energy experts.
Prior to this our consultant worked at BG Egypt, first as managing director, MENA region, and then as vice president of commercial operations and business development. He has previously held senior positions at Union Fenosa/Gas Natural; BP Amoco; Qatar Petroleum; Adnoc; Kuwait Oil Company; and Gupco, where his positons have included vice president, LNG; head of gas business; and head of new ventures.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Egypt” title=”Egypt” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]This consultant is a Cairo-based researcher for an organisation that advises foreign private sector investors. His strengths are in the country’s economy. He received his MSc in Middle East Economics from John Hopkins University, and has learned Modern Standard and Egyptian Arabic to an advanced level.
He is well-connected within the business community and underlying economic current in Egypt. He is also connected to both official and personal sources, and knows the many obstacles which confront investors including corruption, and bureaucracy. He can also speak about the opportunities in industries such as energy, property, and manufacturing in particular.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”GCC/Saudi Arabia” title=”GCC/Saudi Arabia” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Noel Brehony, chairman of Menas Associates, has been following events in the Gulf since the 1970s.
After completing a PhD on Libya he spent two years on post-doctoral research on the West Bank before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he worked mainly on the Middle East with postings to Kuwait, Yemen, Jordan and Egypt.
He was then Director of Middle East Affairs at Rolls-Royce plc. He has been chairman of the Middle East Association, the Council for British Research in the Levant, the British-Yemeni Society and the Anglo-Jordanian Society, and president of the British Society for Middle East Studies from 2000 to 2006. He is on the advisory board of the London Middle East Institute at SOAS, where he was also a Research Associate 2008-2011.
He is widely published, including two books with Gerlach Press and IB Tauris.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”GCC” title=”GCC” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Based in Qatar, this consultant is dean and professor of Gulf studies at one of the one of the world’s leading academic and research institutions.
He has held professorial positions in international relations and Middle East studies at universities including Exeter, Lancaster, and the University of Qatar, and Georgetown University.
Aside from his academic work, he has worked in the private sector in the Gulf region, and acted as a consultant to a range of companies, NGOs, governments and international institutions, including the FCO, the European Commission, Amnesty International and the Bertelsmann Foundation.
He is editor of one of the most prestigious journals on Arabian studies editor and was associate fellow at Chatham House on their Middle East program for 5 years.
He was also director of BRISMES for 4 years, and along with French, German and Dutch, he speaks Arabic fluently.
In particular he looks at political reform in the Gulf oil monarchies, foreign policies of the GCC states, and relations between Europe and the Gulf.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Iran” title=”Iran” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Menas Associates’ principal Iran expert, Bijan Khajehpour, is a Senior Associate of Menas and is also the editor of its Iran Strategic Focus reports, which have been published every month since October 1988.
He is also Managing Partner at Atieh International, the Vienna based international arm of the Atieh Group of Companies, a group of Tehran-based strategic consulting firms that was co-founded by Bijan in 1994.
Bijan has been instrumental in advising numerous international companies on their Iran strategy.
He is also a frequent speaker at international conferences on Iran and the Middle East and also a contributor to international publications.
He completed his graduate studies in management and economy in Germany and the UK and his Doctorate of Business Administration at the International School of Management in Paris.
Request a copy of Iran Strategic FocusSee more on our Iran capabilities [/et_pb_toggle][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Iraq” title=”Iraq” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our main Iraq and Kurdistan expert has been with Menas for over 10 years, and has followed the country and the wider MENA region for much longer. She is widely published and specialises in political Islam and radicalisation
She has held positions at universities including the University of Cambridge and King’s College London. She is also a senior research fellow at a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), as well as being a Senior Associate at Menas.
International organisations she has worked for include the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence, Department for International Development (DFID) , IAEA, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Freedom House, and other European governments.
She edits Menas Associates’ publication Iraq Focus.
Request a copy of Iraq Focus [/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Libya” title=”Libya” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our first Libya expert is the author of our Libya Focus publication. She is a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI); a Senior Associate at Menas Associates; and has written our Libya Focus publication for over eight years.
She is a specialist on North Africa with a particular focus on political Islamist movements and radicalisation, and has published widely on her areas of expertise. Her books include ‘Libya: The Rise and Fall of Gaddafi’, ‘The Muslim Brotherhood: The Burden of Tradition’ and ‘The New Frontiers of Jihad: Radical Islam in Europe’
Request a copy of Libya Focus [/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Libya” title=”Libya” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our second is the author of our Libya Politics & Security publication.
Request a copy of Libya Politics and SecurityShe was previously a senior associate at the Delma Institute, concentrating on the MENA region, where she oversaw a team of analysts providing strategic and long-term policy recommendations to clients on a range of political, security and economic trends. In doing so, she built many contacts with government and non-government organisations, traveling within the UAE and throughout the region.
She is also an experienced diplomat, having previously worked as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the US Department of State. This allows her to take into account the international discussions surrounding peace talks and intervention. Whilst at the State Department she was awarded a Meritorious Honor Award and Superior Honor Award.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Morocco” title=”Morocco” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our consultant is deputy director at the Global Policy Institute as well as a Professorial Research Fellow, a Research Fellow at the Centre of International Studies at Cambridge University, a Visiting Professor at King’s College and Director of RUSI Qatar. He was Deputy Director and Director of Studies at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) for 3 years.
He is widely considered one of the foremost experts on North Africa and the Middle East more broadly, and is widely published. He has edited 6 books on the region.
His current research interests include trans-national risk in the Mediterranean, legal systems and migrant communities and Euro-American relations.
The institutions he advises include, among others, the FCO, the MoD, the US State Department, the Pentagon, Africom, the European Commission and the External Action Service.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Morocco” title=”Morocco” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our Morocco consultant is a lecturer in journalism and media program in Rabat. Her primary interests are the political economy of media and press freedom in the Maghreb, migration, refugee communities, civil-society state relations, human rights discourses, and politics of the Middle East. She speaks French and Arabic (both Modern Standard and darija, which she speaks to an extent that allows her accessing an array of local sources and networks).
She is extensively published in well-respected journals and publications. Her primary interest is the relationship between Algeria and Morocco, and how this affects regional dynamics.
She has lived and travelled widely throughout the region.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Morocco” title=”Morocco” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]After graduating in Arabic and Islamic studies from the University of Cambridge at Cambridge, this consultant spent several years in North Africa working as an interpreter and translator before undertaking a PhD focusing on power, poverty and cities. In 2001 he took up a post as Associate Professor at the American University of Paris.
His current research is varied, but in particular, building on a theoretical theme explored in his PhD (the characterisation of Arab regimes as ‘neo-patriarchal’), Justin is working on the interlinked issues of democratisation and change in the mediascape in contemporary Morocco. He is also interested in the self-representation of Arab states on the web and also how rigourist Muslim groups are using the new medium to reach more global audiences
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Morocco” title=”Morocco” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]This consultant is an award-winning political and financial journalist focusing on Morocco. He regularly writes for various French and French-language publications, including Les Echos Quotidien, Tel Quel, Le Temps, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, Luxe Radio and Atlantic Radio. He is also a the cofounder and editor of the Moroccan website publishing economic, social and political news and analysis, Lakome.
He trained at Reuters and Deutsche Welle, among others and in 2012 was commissioned by Afkar to write a piece on who controlled economic power in Morocco.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Saudi Arabia” title=”Saudi Arabia” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our second Saudi consultant has a decade of experience analysing and advising on political, economic, and social developments throughout the Middle East. His specific area of expertise is the Saudi private sector.
He is a PhD candidate and graduate fellow at Princeton University, where he specialises in Saudi political and economic affairs. He has been conducting research in the Kingdom since 2008. Proficient in Arabic and a former Fulbright Fellow, he holds an MA in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton and an MPA from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School.
He has spent three years living in the Middle East—in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Morocco, and Egypt.
He has advised political officers and the Permanent Representative on Middle East issues in the US Security Council. At the Security Council, he authored seven reporting cables on UNSC meetings.
He has also previously worked as a research assistant at the Washington Institute, where he conducted research and policy analysis on public diplomacy issues and Arab politics for Executive Director.
[/et_pb_toggle][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”South Sudan” title=”South Sudan” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]This consultant first travelled to Sudan in 1981 as an aid worker before working there as a journalist for The Guardian, The British Medical Journal, The Independent, and the Mail & Guardian.
His writing has covered topics including healthcare, education, conflict and politics, and the split in 2011. He now produces documentaries on the country and advises on various documentaries for the BBC and Al Jazeera.
In 2011 he submitted a report on the conflict between what were then the southern and northern parts of the country to the UK’s International Development Committee.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Sudan” title=”Sudan” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]A British National, our Sudan expert spent over 12 years in Sudan following the completion of his undergraduate degree, and continued to visit the country periodically thereafter.
He has advised numerous aid and human rights NGOs and on Sudan, and briefed the UK parliamentary International Development Committee on Darfur and Sudan in 2005.
He has produced dozens of reports annually since the mid-1990s for Sudanese asylum cases and has given oral evidence on several occasions on the aspects of Sudanese political life and behaviour of current regime.
He is published on topics including minority rights, slavery (with Anti-Slavery International), oil and conflict and censorship.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Tunisia” title=”Tunisia” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our specialist on Tunisia’s oil sector has significant experience in upstream oil & gas advisory business operating; project development; project management and delivery; company management; strategy; and negotiation, with particular expertise in environment.
He has previously worked for several large IOCs, providing analysis on issues including Tunisia’ gas and electricity market; LPG market; gas supply and demand; stakeholder analysis; best practices for drilling, completion and testing wells in Tunisia.
He has been involved in the negotiations for several large power projects, and has also served as CEO of engineering firm DHV Tunisia.
Prior to this he worked as director of the Cabinet of Tunisia’s Ministry of Energy and Mining and as an advisor to the country’s Minister of Economy.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Tunisia” title=”Tunisia” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]This consultant specialises in the roots and risks of jihadism in North Africa, specifically Tunisia. He has recently returned from a year living in Tunisia, travelling to the interior of the country to conduct field research for his PhD at Brown University, speaking to young men in the economically marginalised neighbourhoods from which extremists recruit.
He graduated with honors in Government and Middle Eastern Studies from Dartmouth College and was awarded the Rockefeller Prize for the best senior honors thesis in the field of Comparative Politics.
He has an in-depth understanding of the social and cultural dynamics and that allows him to make assessments of whether the threat is likely to increase. He has a good sense of which areas are hot spots, down to particular mountains.
He has also lived in Egypt and Morocco, and in addition to his interest in politics, he has a deep passion for the Arabic language, Islamic jurisprudence, and Middle Eastern and North African music.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Tunisia” title=”Tunisia” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]This consultant’s expertise in Tunisia is primarily in security. He has 14 years if experience in security roles in North Africa, both as an independent consultant and for companies including Shell, ConocoPhilips and Burlington Resources in senior positions.
He is very experienced in delivering corporate security policies, procedures and mitigation measures at strategic and tactical levels. He managed the security response and provided accurate and relevant information, recommendations and advice to decision makers to ensure that Shell sustained no loss or harm to people assets or reputation during Arab spring revolutions and the subsequent civil unrest across the region.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Turkey” title=”Turkey” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our main Turkey expert is a Resident Fellow at the UK Army’s Centre for Historical Research and Conflict Analysis, and founder and director of the Centre on Religion and Global Affairs.
He is a widely-published expert on Turkish and Middle Eastern foreign policies and thematic issues of religion and violent conflict. He has undertaken field research and studies in a wide range of countries including Iran, Egypt, China, Israel, Nigeria, USA, Jordan, Turkey and Canada.
Previous positions include Joseph Crapa Fellow at the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and as a human rights advocate focusing on religious freedom and religious minorities in the Middle East.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Yemen ” title=”Yemen” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Noel Brehony, chairman of Menas Associates, has been following events in the Gulf since the 1970s and now edits our monthly Yemen Strategic Brief report.
After completing a PhD on Libya he spent two years on post-doctoral research on the West Bank before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he worked mainly on the Middle East with postings to Kuwait, Yemen, Jordan and Egypt.
He was then Director of Middle East Affairs at Rolls-Royce plc. He has been chairman of the Middle East Association, the Council for British Research in the Levant, the British-Yemeni Society and the Anglo-Jordanian Society, and president of the British Society for Middle East Studies from 2000 to 2006. He is on the advisory board of the London Middle East Institute at SOAS, where he was also a Research Associate 2008-2011.
His book Yemen Divided was published in 2011, and he is co-editing Rebuilding Yemen which is to be published by Gerlach Books.
Request a copy of Yemen Strategic Brief [/et_pb_toggle][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Central Asia
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Caspian (Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia) ” title=”Caspian (Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia) ” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]The editor of Menas Associates’ monthly Caspian Focus publication, a native of Kazakhstan, is Menas’ principal consultant on Central Asia and the FSU.
He is a visiting fellow at the Italian Institute of Strategic Studies and was previously a lecturer at École Nationale d’Administration and Academy of Public Administration under the President of Kazakhstan.
Between 2009 and 2014 he has worked for, among others: the EU Delegation to the Republic of Kazakhstan; The Jamestown Foundation; France’s Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs; Oxford Analytica; and the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center, Washington.
He is the author of two books on Central Asia, with the second having been published in 2014 by Palgrave Macmillan, and of more than 100 articles in English, French, Russian and Italian.
He is a frequent commentator on the FSU for France24 and other news networks.
Request a copy of Caspian Focus [/et_pb_toggle][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Latin America
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Argentina” title=”Argentina” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our primary Argentina contact is a highly experienced Argentinian lawyer who has worked as in-house legal adviser and directors for many corporations engaged in banking, oil and gas, petrochemicals, transportation, construction and electronics.
He is also the director of the Buenos Aires office of the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), an independent, non-partisan, think-tank, as well as being President of the Club del Progreso, Argentina’s oldest existing social and cultural club.
He has been in public office as presidential adviser and as adviser in chief to the Secretary of Commerce.
He is a former professor of constitutional law at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and of integration law at the Universidad de Belgrano and at the Lutheran University of Brazil, in Porto Alegre.
Menas Associates is considering launching Argentina Strategic Brief, edited by this consultant.
Request a copy of Argentina Strategic Brief [/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Brazil” title=”Brazil” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]This consultant has been following political and social developments in Brazil, and Latin America more widely, for over 25 years.
He currently holds an academic post at one of the world’s most prestigious political science departments.
In particular, his specialisms include:
Democracy and Human Rights in Latin American Politics;
Politics and the Economy of the MERCOSUR countries;
Populism;
Left of centre governments in Latin America;
The politics of financial crises in comparative perspective;
The politics of patronage.
He has written, contributed to or edited over 25 books and articles on the politics of Latin America.
His work with Menas has mainly involved political risk reports for large oil companies and due diligence.
[/et_pb_toggle][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Ecuador (Columbia, Nicaragua, Peru)” title=”Ecuador (Columbia, Nicaragua, Peru)” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]A graduate of the Latin American Centre at St Antony’s College, Oxford this consultant has decades of covering Latin America and the Caribbean for newspapers, radio, television and numerous specialist publications.
He closely follows news and current developments throughout the region, and makes regular visits to follow up particular issues and maintain his contacts.
He has prepared reports and conducted briefings for executives of leading international companies, including Unilever, Shell and BP, and for diplomats at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
He specialises in political analysis and advice on the political context in which international companies operate in Latin America and the Caribbean. His consultancy work includes reports for a gold mining company in Nicaragua, a coal-mining company in Colombia, oil companies in Ecuador and Peru and the European Union in Central America.
He speaks fluent Spanish and French and has a good working knowledge of Portuguese.
[/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Mexico” title=”Mexico” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our expert is a renowned journalist and commentator on Mexico, having been observing and reporting on the country for over 25 years. He is particularly strong on the energy and metals markets and has worked for, among others, Platts, the Guardian, the Sunday Times and the Financial Times.
He has worked with Menas Associates on projects including due diligence and market assessments.
[/et_pb_toggle][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_toggle admin_label=”Venezuela” title=”Venezuela” open=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]Our Venezuela expert is a Professor at the Central European University’s School of Public Policy and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
Though her expertise in Venezuela she is also well-versed in the wider region’s evolving political, economic and security architecture. She received her PhD from the London School of Economics, where she also studied for her MA (Distinction) in Comparative Politics.
She has policy and consultancy experience with, among others, USAID, Sida (Sweden), Foreign Ministry of Finland and the UK Department for International Development.
She is also a research consultant at the OSF funded Global Drugs Observatory, Swansea University; contributor to the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and Latin American Development Bank (CAF) sponsored project on drug policy reform in Latin America with Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, Buenos Aires; a Commissioner for the Lancet special edition on Drugs and Health, convener of the OSF sponsored civil society mechanism for progressive drug policy in European Union countries; and a contributor to the UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development) project on social welfare in emerging economies.
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