Florence Eid-Oakden

Dr. Florence Eid-Oakden is the CEO and Chief Economist of Arabia Monitor Research & Strategy, a London-based independent think tank focused on the economies, markets, and geopolitics of the Middle East & North Africa (MENA). Arabia Monitor specializes in the new silk routes as they impact MENA and publishes in Chinese on a daily basis, occupying a unique niche in this field.

Formerly head of MENA research at JP Morgan, Dr. Eid-Oakden has extensive experience with the World Bank on Latin America and North Africa, and subsequently on the buy side as a hedge fund investment professional. She has held academic positions as a professor of economics and finance at the American University of Beirut, and as a visiting professor at INSEAD and HEC Paris.

Dr. Eid-Oakden is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Natixis Saudi Arabia where she chairs the Audit & Risk and Compensation Committees. She has also served as a Director of the Arab Banking Corporation International Bank in London for nine years and of Bank ABC Jordan for two terms. Additionally, she has been a Director of Shuaa Capital in Dubai. Currently, she is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Arab Bankers Association of North America in New York and serves on the Advisory Council of the Al Faisal University College of Business, Saudi Arabia, where she also advises the Saudi Government.

Dr. Eid-Oakden received her Ph.D. in Organization Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), supervised by Nobel Laureate Professor Bengt Holmström. She is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic, and possesses a working knowledge of Italian and Portuguese.

Hobbies: Our twins, L’Auberge du Presbytère in Provence, opera, walking.