David Soud was a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center and head of research and analysis at I.R. Consilium, which specializes in matters of maritime security, resource-related crime, transnational organized crime, and strategies for addressing emerging security challenges. In this role, he focuses primarily on tracking and countering resource-related crimes, with special attention to minerals and hydrocarbons.

In 2021, Soud authored a groundbreaking report for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) titled Gold Flows from Venezuela. In addition to continuing research with the OECD, he is a primary investigator on a five-year project, funded by the National Science Foundation and including the Colorado School of Mines and the Canadian nongovernmental organization IMPACT, on comparatively mapping and modelling networks linked with illicit gold flows in Peru and Kenya. Soud also served as lead author of a 2020 Atlantic Council report, Countermeasures and Good Practices against Downstream Oil Theft. Soud also co-authored Oil on the Water, an Atlantic Council report on illicit hydrocarbons activity in the maritime domain. Previously, he served as a contributing author, conducting extensive research, writing, and editing, for the Atlantic Council report, Downstream oil theft: Global modalities, trends, and remedies, including taking main responsibility for several case studies.

In addition to being considered a leading authority on illicit gold and hydrocarbons activity, he has investigated and published in other resource-related matters, including illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and the nexus between resource-related crime and transnational organized crime. Soud holds an AB in English from Davidson College, an MA in English from the University of Delaware, and a DPhil in English from the University of Oxford.