Lebanese businessman. Founder and President of “Nasser Al-Saidi and Partners Company.” Vice Chairman of Eureka Capital, a crowdfunding platform.

Al-Saidi served as chief economist at the Dubai International Financial Center between 2006 and September 2012, where he helped build the center and develop links with governments, central banks, international organizations and international financial centres. He is also the founder and former CEO of the Institute of Corporate Governance “Hawkamah” and the Institute of Directors “Modarres”.

He also previously served as Minister of Economy and Trade and Minister of Industry in Lebanon between 1998 and 2000. He was the first Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon for two consecutive terms, 1993-1998 and 1998-2003. He was also a member of the United Nations Committee for Policy Development for two terms between 2000 and 2006. This is a position to which the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, appointed him in his personal capacity.

He also worked as an economic advisor and director in a number of central banks and financial institutions in Arab countries, Europe, and Central and South America. Before working in the public sector, he continued his academic work as a professor of economics at the School of Economics at the University of Chicago, the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, and the University of Geneva. He also worked as a lecturer at the American University of Beirut and Saint Joseph University in Beirut.

Al-Saidi is a member of the International Monetary Fund’s Regional Advisory Group for the Middle East and North Africa, and co-chair of the OECD’s Institutional Governance Working Group for the Middle East and North Africa. He is also a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the International Forum on Corporate Governance, a World Bank organization that advances corporate governance reforms. He is the Chairman of the Regional Clean Energy Council, which promotes clean energy solutions and policies in countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

In 2012, he was nominated among the 50 most influential Arab people in the world by “Middle East Magazine” for the fourth year in a row.

Al-Saidi has written many articles and authored a number of books and publications that address macroeconomic topics, capital market development, and international economic affairs in the Middle East, North Africa, Lebanon, and Gulf Cooperation Council countries. He is the author of “Institutional Governance in the Middle East and North Africa Countries: Developing Transparency and Disclosure.” His research interests include macroeconomics, financial market development, payment systems, international economic policies, corporate governance, clean energy, and information and communications technologies.

He holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Rochester in the United States, a master’s degree from University College at the University of London, and a bachelor’s degree from the American University of Beirut.