Skip navigation

"After Sanctions: Challenges Facing the Iranian Economy" with experts from the IMF, Brookings Institution on Feb. 17, 2016

MEDIA ADVISORY

"After Sanctions: Challenges Facing the Iranian Economy"

The lifting of economic sanctions is expected to have a positive impact on the Iranian economy in the years ahead. While the political implications have been widely discussed, there has been less attention on the economic implications and prospects for Iran and the region. The panelists will take a look at some of the potential challenges and opportunities of opening Iran to workd markets. 

Speakers

Masood Ahmed, Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, International Monetary Fund
Martin Cerisola, Assistant Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, International Monetary Fund
Naderah Chamlou, International Development Advisor
Suzanne Maloney, Deputy Director, Foreign Policy and Senior Fellow, Center for Middle East Policy and Energy Security and Climate Initiative, The Brookings Institution

Moderated by Vali Nasr, Dean, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)

Date

12:30 - 1:45 p.m., Wednesday, February 17, 2016. The panel discussion will begin at 12:30 p.m. Camera setup will be between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. 

Location

Kenney Herter Auditorium, Nitze Building
1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036

Register

The event is open to the public and to media, with registration. Members of the working press may complete our registration form for access to cover the event.

Media Contacts

Stacy A. Anderson
Communications Manager
Johns Hopkins SAIS
202.663.5620 office
202.853.7983 mobile
[email protected]

Wafa Amr
Senior Communications Officer 
International Monetary Fund
202.623.8696 office
202.677.8079 mobile
[email protected] 

About the speakers 

Masood Ahmed has been Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the International Monetary Fund since November 2008. He obtained his graduate and post-graduate degrees in Economics from the London School of Economics, where he also served on the economics faculty. He was born and brought up in Pakistan. He has previously held senior positions in the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID) where he served as Director General for Policy and International Development, and in the World Bank where he was Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management. He was Director of the International Monetary Fund’s External Relations Department before taking up his current role.

Martin Cerisola is an Assistant Director in the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the IMF and mission chief to Iran since 2012. Prior to his current job, he was an advisor to two Deputy Managing Directors at the IMF and has also worked on many regions and countries in the IMF, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Peru, the Philippines, and the United States. He is a national of Argentina and holds a PhD in Economics from Duke University.

Nadereh Chamlou is an international development advisor. Before that, she was Senior Advisor at the World Bank. In her more than three decades with the World Bank, she held technical, coordination, managerial, and advisory positions in such areas as economic management, private sector development, financial markets, knowledge economy, sustainable development and infrastructure, corporate governance, and gender and development. She has worked on Latin America, East Asia and Pacific, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). She authored seminal reports on issues related to economic competitiveness, talent pool, and diversity. Among them: "Corporate Governance: A Framework for Implementation," which led to the establishment of the OECD/World Bank’s Global Corporate Governance Forum; "Gender and Development in MENA– Women in the Public Sphere;" "The Environment for Women's Entrepreneurship in MENA;" and "Women, Work, and Welfare in the MENA." She serves on several non-profit boards related to MENA and Iran. She was a 2015 recipient of The International Alliance for Women's "Making a Difference" global award.

Suzanne Maloney is deputy director of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution and a senior fellow in the Brookings Center for Middle East Policy and Energy Security and Climate Initiative, where her research focuses on Iran and Persian Gulf energy. She is the editor of Markaz, a blog on politics in and policy toward the Middle East published by the Brookings Institution. Her books include the 2008 monograph "Iran's Long Reach" (United States Institute of Peace, 2008) and "Iran's Political Economy since the Revolution," published in August 2015 by Cambridge University Press. Her Brookings Essay, "Iran Surprises Itself And The World," was released in September 2013, and she has also published articles in a variety of academic and policy journals. She previously served as an external advisor to senior State Department officials on long-term issues related to Iran. Before joining Brookings, she served on the secretary of state's policy planning staff, as Middle East advisor for ExxonMobil Corporation, and director of the 2004 Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S. policy toward Iran, chaired by former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. She holds a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

###

Date: 
Friday, February 12, 2016