Perrihan Al-Riffai is a nonresident senior fellow with the empowerME Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. Al-Riffai is a senior economist with a background in development and macroeconomics and is an adviser to senior officials in the Middle East and North Africa region. Al-Riffai has experience working on low-income countries, emerging economies, and oil-exporting nations where she developed the skills necessary to design and assess the effectiveness of policies aimed at improving economic growth and development, while considering the unique socioeconomic and political economy context of each country.

Currently founder and director of Summits Economic Consulting, as well as advisor to the assistant governor for financial stability at the Qatar Central Bank, Al-Riffai was also a member of the International Monetary Fund’s Executive Board as advisor to the executive director for Arab countries and the Maldives. Prior to that, Al-Riffai worked with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI, a member of the CGIAR) and helped establish IFPRI’s Egypt Country Office. Al-Riffai led and participated in several peer-reviewed and other publications and collaborated with other international organizations including the World Bank Group, the United Nations Development Program, and the Ford Foundation.

Al-Riffai holds a Master of Philosophy from George Washington University and a Master of Arts from the American University in Cairo.