Wadah Khanfar is the President of Al Sharq Forum and was the Director General of the Al Jazeera Network 2003-2011. During his tenure Al Jazeera went from a single channel to a media network with multiple properties including the Al Jazeera Arabic channel, Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera Documentary, Al Jazeera Sport, Al Jazeera’s news websites.

He has addressed leading political and media think tanks including the Middle East Institute, Wilton Park, Chatham House, New America Foundation, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Nicola Enchmarch is the Managing Director of Al Sharq Forum in the United Kingdom. She has a wealth of commercial and Not for Profit experience acquired over 20+ years in business and management consultancy roles across multiple industry sectors within the UK, New Zealand, Europe and the MENA region. Nicola has experience working in multi-national and cross-functional environments from enterprise-wide to micro-level projects. Nicola holds a BRS in Environmental Studies and continues to maintain an active interest within this field.

Throughout her professional life, Mercedes has performed several roles, such as manager`s assistant, executive secretary, as well as project manager and worked with international companies, consulting firms and foundations in Spain, Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom. With an excellent ability to assess any situation, Mercedes provides a personalized approach and a smooth and easy communication style, and has the ability to adapt to a wide variety of environments and cultures

Her current roles in Al Sharq Forum Geneva: Executive Secretary and Project Manager

Mohammad Affan is the acting director of Al Sharq Strategic Research, the coordinator of Al Sharq Program on Political Islam, and the managing director of Al Sharq Academia. A medical doctor by training, he holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. Also, he obtained his MA degree in Comparative Politics at the American University of Cairo. His thesis was published in Arabic as a book titled: ‘Wahhabism and the Brotherhood: The Conflict on the Concept of the State and the Legitimacy of Power.’ In addition, he holds a post-graduate diploma in Civil Society and Human Rights from Cairo University, a diploma in Political Research and Studies from the Institute of Arab Research and Studies, and a diploma in Islamic Studies from The Higher Institute for Islamic Studies, Cairo. His research interests include Islamism and democratization in MENA region.

Basheer Nafi is a Senior Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Strategic Research and Senior Research Fellow at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies. He writes weekly columns for Middle East eye.

Research Interests: Egypt, Iraq, Political Islam, and Middle Eastern Politics in General.

Galip Dalay is a Senior associate fellow at Al Sharq Strategic Research and Al Jazeera Center for Studies. He previously worked as a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin and as a political researcher at SETA Foundation in Ankara. He is a regular contributor to German Marshall Fund of the United States’ on Turkey policy brief series, and a columnist for Middle East Eye.

Research Interests: Turkish Politics, Turkish Foreign Policy, Regional Kurdish politics, Political Islam, and Radical Movements.

Yahya Zakaria is the General Coordinator for Al Sharq Youth Network. He has engineering bachelor’s degree from Alexandria university and master’s degree from Istanbul University in Turkey & Koblenz university in Germany on entrepreneurial organizations design. He participated in the establishment of projects that serve entrepreneurship ecosystems in several countries including Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. As an organization designer Yahya supports organizations to be more purpose-driven, networked, adaptable, and humane in complex and fast changing environments.

Jawad Abazeed is the Head of Information Management at Al Sharq Forum. He was the Community Coordinator for Al Sharq Youth Network from 2015 to 2016. He studied accounting at the University of Science and Technology in Yemen. Previously, he worked in accounting and operation management, and was an IT instructor.

Mehmet Emin Cengiz is a Research Assistant at Al Sharq Strategic Research. He received his B.A. in the Sociology Department from Ege University in 2016. During his B.A. he attended the Erasmus+ Program and studied at Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf as an international exchange student in Germany. Cengiz received his master’s degree from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the Middle East at Marmara University in 2020. His pieces regarding the Syrian war and non-state armed actors have appeared in national and international media outlets and think tanks.
His research interests are: Syrian Conflict, Non-State Armed Actors, Turkish Foreign Policy, Volunteer Foreign Fighters, Regional Kurdish Politics, and Political Islam.

Beshr Abdulhadi is a Communications Officer of Al Sharq Academia. Beshr is a blogger and social media specialist,focusing on marketing and the media industry. Beshr is studying media and mass communication

Sabah Ali is a Communications Officer at Al Sharq Academia. She holds a BA in Political Sciences and International Relations from Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University. Sabah worked also as a Former Communication Officer at Hero2b organization, she is a fluent Arabic and English speaker

The Responsible for User Affairs and Archiving at Al Sharq Academia. Tasneem Yassin holds her BA in international relations from Istanbul Civic University. Tasneem has been actively working in many NGO’s. Her interests broadly lie in private sector projects and entrepreneurship.