Mr. Shaikh has served on numerous oversight and policy boards throughout his career, including for USAID, the World Bank, the National Academy of Sciences, OECD/Club du Sahel, CILSS, ECOWAS, the Office of Technology Assessment, FAO, WMO, World Resources Institute and national governments. He interacts extensively with the United States Congress and Administration Officials, and has addressed a meeting of African Heads of State and multiple gatherings of African Ministers. He has participated on panels with each of the last four USAID Administrators. Among his many publications are the highly-acclaimed Nature, Wealth and Power, Opportunities for Sustained Development, and Dynamic Linkages in Population, Environment and Development (Michigan State University Press).

In the course of his career, before and since IRG, he participated in several OPIC investment missions to Sudan, led a major manufacturing feasibility study in Algeria and served as Fund Leader and CEO for the Vaud Africa Investment Fund.

He is a consistent and constructive critic of traditional development practices who is dedicated to promoting a new paradigm in the pursuit of global prosperity. Throughout his career, he has been an active member of the policy and technical communities in the United States, Europe and in developing countries. Mr. Shaikh holds a Bachelor’s degree from Yale University and an MPhil in Economics from Columbia University. He is and has been affiliated with a number of non-profits organizations:

• President, The Robbins Center for Cross Cultural Communication (a non-profit)
• Advisory Council, United Nations Association of the National Capital Area (UNA-NCA)
• Chairman Emeritus/Board Member, Society for International Development, Washington D.C. Chapter
• Member, The Bretton-Woods Committee

• Executive Committee Member, Professional Services Council
• Board Member, The Blacksmith Institute (non-profit focused on toxic waste related health issues in developing countries)

• B.A. – Political Science & Economics
  • Yale University
  • New Haven, CT
  • 1971
• Independent Study
  • Institut des Sciences Politiques , (now SciencesPo)
  • Paris, France
  • 1968-69

• United Nations Volunteer Programme: Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA), Niamey, Niger, 1972-74
  Developed and taught first university-level courses in Niger in Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Development and Demography. Wrote textbooks in French on Microeconomics and Macroeconomics that were subsequently used in the newly-established Université du Niger

• • IRG implemented over $1 billion of contracts in 140 countries, with consistently very high Dun & Bradstreet ratings
  • Served on the World Resources Institute’s Africa Natural Resources Consultative Committee for 7 years
  • Was a regular speaker at the USAID Senior Staff Retreats
  • Keynote speaker on Security and Development at the Conference of the Association of the United States Army, 2009
  • Wrote and lectured extensively at international and domestic conferences, including the African Heads of State Conference in Paris in 1994, The World Bank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Brookings Institution, the Wilson Center, the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, and at Universities, including Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, American University, Wageningen University (the Netherlands), the University of Dakar (Senegal) and others.
  • See bio-summary above for more details
• Gordian Associates, Washington, DC: Senior Economist, 1979-1980. Co-led major energy futures studies for Department of Energy, and feasibility studies for private manufacturing company based in Detroit, Michigan.
• Gordian Associates, New York, NY: Consultant, 1976-77; Economist 1977-78; Senior Economist, 1978-79. Conducted/led major feasibility studies in Algeria, Sudan and Ivory Coast. Co-led major study for Brookhaven Labs on Energy Futures in Developing Countries to 2020. Managed a team of Columbia University economists.

• Urdu: Conversational
• Sindhi: Conversational