Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute.

Prior to his current role at the Foreign Policy Institute, Hafed Al-Ghwell has had a long, notable career serving in multiple distinct roles as a consultant, advisor, fellow and scholar in world-renowned think tanks, policy institutes and advisory bodies. At the Atlantic Council, Oxford Analytica, Maxwell Stamp Inc. and Foreign Reports, to list a few, Hafed Al-Ghwell specialized in the political economies of the Middle East and North Africa countries, government affairs, international relations, geopolitics and geostrategic risks. This wealth and breadth of experience dates back to his early days at the International Monetary Fund in the 1980s, followed by a career spanning nearly two decades at the World Bank where he took on multiple roles in senior leadership and ultimately as an Advisor to the Dean of the Board of Executive Directors until the end of 2015. He was also a Director of External Affairs and Communication, and part of the senior management team at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government—in partnership with Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government until 2009. 

Aside from being a featured Arab voice in the Washington, D.C., policy and consultancy circuit, Hafed Al-Ghwell is also a veteran commentator and widely published columnist. His perspectives and analyses are published and televised in several languages across a wide spectrum of international media, notably the Wall Street Journal, BBC, Financial Times and Arab News, the oldest English language daily in the Arab world.

Hafed Al-Ghwell is an alumnus of George Washington University, Harvard University and Stanford University. He is also a recipient of numerous accreditations from the World Bank Group's management executive programs, focusing on public policy and global economic development.