Spring Meetings

Jihad Azour
Director of the International Monetary Fund's Middle East and Central Asia Department (MCD)

Jihad Azour has been the Director of the International Monetary Fund's Middle East and Central Asia Department (MCD) since March 2017. Prior to his current role, he served as Lebanon's Finance Minister from 2005 to 2008, where he coordinated the implementation of important reform initiatives at the national level and within the Finance Ministry.

Mr. Azour’s extensive private sector background includes positions at McKinsey and Booz and Co., where he held the roles of Vice President and Senior Executive Advisor from 2009 to 2013. Before joining the IMF, he was a Managing Partner at Inventis Partners, an advisory and investment firm.

Mr. Azour holds a Ph.D. in International Finance and a post-graduate degree in International Economics and Finance from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. As a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard, he conducted research on emerging economies and their global integration. He also holds a master’s degree in applied economics and finance from Dauphine University, Paris. Mr. Azour is a published author, with five books and numerous articles. He has also taught extensively.

Hassan El Khatib
Egyptian Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade

Hassan El Khatib is the Egyptian Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade. He brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his role. With a career spanning over 35 years, he has made significant contributions to private equity, investment management, and corporate governance.

 He serves as a non-executive Board Member of the Central Bank of Egypt and has served as an Independent Board Member of the Sovereign Fund of Egypt from 2019 to 2023. His commitment to economic development is exemplified by his involvement with the Egyptian Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Committee.

Mr. El Khatib holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from California State University, Sacramento, where he graduated with highest distinction, and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Structural Engineering from Cairo University. He is also a visiting lecturer of the Private Equity Venture Course for Master of Finance Student at Imperial College London.

Paola Subacchi
Professor of Political Economy, University of Bologna

Paola Subacchi is Professor of Political Economy, University of Bologna, and the Incoming Chair in Sovereign Debt, Sciences Po, Paris. Previously, she was at Queen Mary University of London where she contributed to set up the Queen Mary Global Policy Institute. From 2004 to 2019 she was director of economic research and senior fellow at Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs) in London. She is also a non-executive director of public and private companies and a member of the board of the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome.

An internationally reputed economist, she advises governments, international organizations, and private companies. She is the author of several publications and writes regularly for Project Syndicate. Her latest book, The Cost of Free Money. How Unfettered Capital Threatens our Economic Future, was published by Yale University Press.

Yassir Zouaoui
A partner with McKinsey

Yassir Zouaoui is a partner with McKinsey, initially joining the Morocco office in 2005 and relocating to the Middle East office in Dubai in 2017. During his tenure with McKinsey, Mr. Zouaoui has led economic support work in more than 15 countries across three continents. He has developed expertise across the topics of competitiveness and sectoral development, global trade and export, investment attraction, special economic zones, and regional development.

Mr. Zouaoui also leads McKinsey’s economic analytics offering for Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, which aims to support the region’s public-sector institutions in adopting evidence-based approaches to policy making, leveraging advanced decision models and visualization tools.

Mr. Zouaoui holds an MBA in economics and finance from Columbia University – Graduate School of Business and an MSc in business administration from ESSEC.

Mina Al-Oraibi
Editor-in-Chief of The National

Mina Al-Oraibi is Editor-in-Chief of The National, an English language regional news outlet based in Abu Dhabi. An Iraqi-British journalist, she has over 20 years of experience covering Middle Eastern, European, and American affairs.

Prior to assuming her role at The National, she was a Senior Fellow at the Institute for State Effectiveness (ISE) and a Yale World Fellow. At ISE, she worked on developing policy recommendations for improved governance in the Arab world, with a focus on Iraq and Syria. During 2011-15, Ms. Al-Oraibi was Assistant Editor-in-Chief of Asharq Alawsat, an international Arab-language daily newspaper.

She has written extensively on US and European policies in the Middle East, in addition to conducting several high-profile interviews, including with former Iraqi President Barham Salih, US Climate Envoy John Kerry, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, and UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi. Other roles include Adviser to the Global Dignity Day Movement, Trustee of the American University in Iraq – Sulaimani, Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum (2009), and Member of the World Economic Forum’s International Media Council.