The Atlantic Council has launched the MENA Futures Lab, a new flagship initiative under the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East aimed at advancing innovation, entrepreneurship, and human capital development across the Middle East and North Africa. Khalid Azim, a seasoned financier, academic, and public servant, has been appointed as the inaugural director of the Lab.
The MENA Futures Lab is envisioned as a collaborative hub that will bridge traditional knowledge with forward-looking solutions. By leveraging research, thought leadership, convenings, and an AI-powered innovation platform, the Lab seeks to connect people, markets, and opportunities to help shape the region’s future at a time of rapid transformation.
Khalid Azim highlighted the Lab’s role in harnessing the region’s dynamic economic, cultural, and social shifts, noting that it will serve as a space to unite ideas, capital, and talent to build sustainable futures. His diverse career spans global finance at Morgan Stanley, service as a US Navy officer during the Gulf War, leadership in nonprofit organizations across MENA, and teaching at Columbia University. He also served as a White House fellow and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
William F. Wechsler, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs, emphasized that the Lab builds on the Atlantic Council’s legacy of combining policy, innovation, and partnerships. He expressed confidence that under Azim’s leadership, the initiative will advance meaningful change across the region.
At launch, the MENA Futures Lab will roll out a portfolio of programs including advanced training, innovation incubation, leadership development, and cross-regional investment networks. It also plans to establish a high-level advisory council, host convenings in Washington and New York, and create local chapters across MENA to expand its reach and impact.
