Dr Nasser H. Saidi heads Nasser Saidi & Associates an economic, financial and governance consultant and 
advisory firm to the banking & financial sector, governments, central banks, regulators, multi-national and 
regional companies. He is the former Chief Economist & Strategist, and Head of External Relations of the 
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) from 2005 to 2012, and as a senior executive he built & 
promoted the centre and its strategic development and links with foreign governments, central banks, IFIs, 
banks & financial institutions and international financial centres. Dr Saidi is the Founder and former 
Executive Director of the DIFC’s Hawkamah-Institute for Corporate Governance and the Mudara Institute 
of Directors, 2006-2012.
He founded and chairs the MENA Clean Energy Business Council (www.cebcmena.com) promoting 
clean energy and climate tech solutions & policies in the MENA countries. He is on the Board of Berytech 
(https://berytech.org/about/ an incubator & accelerator in Beirut) and on the Board of Trustees of St Joseph 
University ( https://www.usj.edu.lb/anglais/) and the Board of Trustees of the University of Dubai 
(https://ud.ac.ae/ ) . He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Official Monetary and Financial 
Institutions Forum (OMFIF), was a member of the IMF’s Regional Advisory Group for MENA and cochaired the OECD MENA Corporate Governance Working Group.
Dr Saidi was the Minister of Economy and Trade and Minister of Industry of Lebanon between 1998
and 2000. He was the F irst Vice-Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon for two successive
mandates, 1993-1998 and 1998-2003, a period spanning reconstruction of Lebanon’s economy & 
its banking and financial sector. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed him, in his personal
capacity, as a Member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (UNCDP) for two mandates over
the period 2000-2006. 
Prior to his public career, Dr Saidi was a private banker and served as an economic adviser and director
to central banks and financial institutions in Arab countries, Europe and Central and Latin America.
Dr Saidi was an academic, serving as a Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at the 
University of Chicago, the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales (Geneva, CH), and the
Université de Genève. He also served as a professor at the American University of Beirut and the
Université St. Joseph in Beirut. 
Dr Saidi holds a Ph.D. and a M.A. in Economics from the University of Rochester in the USA, a M.Sc. 
from University College, London University and a B.A. from the American University of Beirut.
He is a public speaker and commentator in international and regional media, author of numerous 
articles and has authored several books and publications addressing macroeconomic, capital market 
development and international economic issues in the MENA region, the GCC countries and Lebanon. 
Hisinterests include macroeconomics, financial market development, FinTech, payment systems,
international economic policy, corporate governance, climate change and digitalisation.
In 2014, he was named among the fifty most Influential Arabs in the World by The Middle East
magazine, for the fourth consecutive year and named among the 500 Most Powerful Arabs in the 
world by Arabian Business for the second consecutive year