Safiya Ghori-Ahmad

Safiya Ghori-Ahmad serves as the South Asia Director at McLarty Associates, a global strategic consulting firm, where she advises multinational companies on market entry and growth strategies across Asia. Ghori-Ahmad also serves as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center and on the board of Women in International Trade (WIIT) and the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST).

Ghori-Ahmad previously served on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as an advisor to the Chairman on South and Central Asia. She also served in the State Department, as an advisor on Pakistan and Afghanistan in the Office of the Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) under Secretaries Clinton and Kerry. She began her State Department career in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, where she managed portfolios in South Asia and traveled extensively throughout the region promoting good governance, transparency, and the rule of law.

Prior to joining McLarty Associates, Ghori-Ahmad led global business development at an international law firm in her hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas, where her work took her to Southeast Asia and beyond.

Ghori-Ahmad was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the board of the ACLU of Arkansas. She frequently speaks on panels related to US politics, foreign policy, national security, diversity and inclusion, and trade and has been featured at the Aspen Ideas Festival, thinktanks, and news outlets. She holds a JD and MA from the University of Arkansas and speaks fluent Hindi and Urdu and intermediate Arabic.