Wael Alzayat is a nonresident senior fellow with the Syria Project in the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programs. Alzayat is also the executive director of the U.S.-Syria Business Council, an American nonprofit dedicated to strengthening economic ties between the two countries and promoting US businesses in Syria. He is also the co-founder of Zenobia Advisory Group, a strategic consulting firm focused on post-conflict impact investing.
Alzayat was previously the chief executive officer of Emgage, a national civic education organization for Muslim voters. He is a seasoned diplomat and a native Arabic speaker who previously served at the US Department of State for a decade. Among his various roles, he served as senior policy advisor to US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, where he advised her on issues related to Iraq, the Levant, and the counter-ISIS campaign. In that role, he was instrumental in helping develop the first-ever accountability mechanism for the use of chemical weapons. Previous to that, Alzayat served as chief of staff for then US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey, where he oversaw all policy and operational matters at the US embassy in Baghdad. Alzayat also served as the chief liaison to the Syrian opposition and at the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
Alzayat received his bachelor of arts in Middle East history and political science from the University of California at Berkeley and master of science in foreign service with distinction from Georgetown University.
